Mining Contract: Best Practice Review of Atmospheric Monitoring Practices for Fire and Explosion Prevention Using Tube Bundle Systems

Contract Status & Impact

This contract is complete. To receive a copy of the final report, send a request to mining@cdc.gov.

The mining industry in Australia has one of the best safety records in the world. A key contributor to that safety record for underground coal mining is a comprehensive regime of monitoring and continuous evaluation of the mine-wide underground environment. This regime ensures early sensing of unanticipated hazardous conditions such as the liberation of explosive methane gas concentrations or indicators of fire, and provides for the timely implementation of interventions to avert potentially serious accidents or major disaster. This ability to sense hazardous conditions early is a critical factor in ensuring a safe working environment in an underground coal mine. Additionally, the potential to use an atmospheric monitoring system to inform rescue efforts following a catastrophic event is of significant interest to the US mining industry.

A cornerstone of the mine monitoring regime used in Australia is the tube bundle gas monitoring system. Tube bundle systems draw gas samples continuously from multiple designated sampling locations in the underground coal mine to gas analyzers located on the surface through purpose-built plastic tubing using vacuum pumps. Designated sampling locations cover every area of the mine including gas drainage and gobs. These systems are the result of more than 20 years of ongoing development following recommendations from boards of inquiry into disasters at underground coal mines in Australia and subsequent changes to mining legislation. However, as of 2014, only a small number of tube bundle systems are in use in the United States. Notwithstanding, tube bundles represent a readily available commercial technology that has significant potential to improve safety in US mines and rescue efforts following a catastrophic event.

Research performed under this contract included a review of the operational aspects of this technology and those issues that need to be considered in deploying tube bundle monitoring systems for use. The analysis was based on real-world practical experiences with the technology in other mining jurisdictions. Site visits were conducted to a range of Australian mines currently operating tube bundle systems to examine the risk assessments, fault tree analyses, and resultant principal hazard management plans developed and implemented by Australian mines and the effectiveness thereof.

The final report for this contract documents legislative language used in various mining jurisdictions, discusses practical challenges and solutions for everyday use of tube bundle systems, briefly compares tube bundle systems to other types of atmospheric monitoring technologies, provides information about using these systems to prevent catastrophic events, and provides examples of how tube bundle systems have been used during rescue and recovery operations with discussions regarding system integrity.