Working principle and application of HEMS with lack of a cold source

Abstract With the increase of mining depth, the temperature of the original rock in deep mines increases. High temperature heat hazards at working surfaces and driving faces are becoming increasingly more serious. Given the problem of mine cooling technologies at China and abroad and the actual conditions of a coal mine, we developed HEMS (High Temperature Exchange Machinery System) with inrushing mine water as the source of cold energy. Combined with the characteristics of a shortage of inrushing water in the coal mine, we proposed the Sanhejian model of HEMS with its lack of a cold source. The cooling engineering construction, given the present conditions in the Sanhejian Coal Mine, consisted of two phases. In phase I horizontal water circulation was used as cold energy, while phase II was the geothermal utilization project. For the key equipment of HEMS-PT or HEMS-T, we provided the operational principle from theory and an actual application. Finally, we analyzed the operational effect of HEMS. After cooling, the temperature at the working face was below 30 °C, which meets the national regulations. This system opens up new technology to solve the problem of deep mine heat hazards, which makes good sense in energy conservation and pollution reduction, improves the environment and realizes sustainable economic development.