ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE DETECTION AND IMAGING TECHNOLOGIES (EDIT) FOR REDUCING ASH, SULFUR, AND HEAVY METALS IN RUN-OF-MINE COAL

The historical development of longwall and continuous miner automation began with the principal goals of improving safety and productivity in the mining of coal. From the mid 1970s to the present time, computer-assisted mining machine technology development and enhanced machine designs have resulted in high productivity machines with very low downtime. This paper suggests that the technology roadmap leading from today`s computer-assisted to tomorrow`s semi-autonomous machine designs will cause further increases in productivity while achieving significant gains in reducing ash, sulfur, and heavy metals in run-of-mine (ROM) coal. Often times the thin layer of seam boundary coal contains higher percentages of ash, sulfur, and heavy metals. A drum-mounted sensor that measures uncut coal thickness in real time will prevent mining through the contaminated coal layer and into the roof/floor boundary rock. Remote seam mapping of anomalous geology would also reduce ROM coal contamination, improve mine planning, and decrease the risk of unexpected increases in mining cost. The reduction in emissions from the Nation`s electric power utilities will be gained by applying newly developed remote sensing technology.