IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v11y2018i9p2267-d166366.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Evaluation of the Functioning of Cooling Systems in the Polish Coal Mine Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Nikodem Szlązak

    (Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Kraków, Poland)

  • Dariusz Obracaj

    (Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Kraków, Poland)

  • Justyna Swolkień

    (Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Kraków, Poland)

Abstract

Underground excavations in which an airflow is present are affected by both natural and technological sources of heat. As a result, the air flowing through the mine excavations is characterised by high temperatures, which—combined with high humidity—causes microclimatic conditions to deteriorate. Bad microclimatic conditions affect miners underground, causing a reduction of perception, concentration, attention, and perceptiveness. This negative influence of temperature and humidity on the human body is referred to as the climatic hazard. For this reason, the design of ventilation and air conditioning systems to be implemented in underground mining plants is an issue of increasing significance. This article investigates the performance of cooling systems in the Polish hard-coal mining industry. Based on the conducted research on air-cooling installations in six hard-coal mines, the actual efficiency of air-cooling is presented. The calculated values of cooling power were compared with the design intent. The obtained results have allowed identifying with greater precision the factors that diminish the efficiency of cooling systems in the mining plants under analysis. These factors may be treated on equal terms with key performance indicators (KPIs), which can be used to monitor the performance of cooling system components and to provide managers with high-level indicators on which decisions can be based.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikodem Szlązak & Dariusz Obracaj & Justyna Swolkień, 2018. "An Evaluation of the Functioning of Cooling Systems in the Polish Coal Mine Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-15, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:9:p:2267-:d:166366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/9/2267/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/9/2267/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vosloo, Jan & Liebenberg, Leon & Velleman, Douglas, 2012. "Case study: Energy savings for a deep-mine water reticulation system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 328-335.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dariusz Obracaj & Nikodem Szlązak & Marek Korzec, 2022. "Using a Mine Dewatering System to Increase Cooling Capacity and Energy Recovery of Underground Refrigeration Plant: A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-15, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Du Plessis, Gideon Edgar & Liebenberg, Leon & Mathews, Edward Henry, 2013. "The use of variable speed drives for cost-effective energy savings in South African mine cooling systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 16-27.
    2. Dariusz Obracaj & Nikodem Szlązak & Marek Korzec, 2022. "Using a Mine Dewatering System to Increase Cooling Capacity and Energy Recovery of Underground Refrigeration Plant: A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Wang, Yan & Hu, Hejuan & Sun, Xiaoyan & Zhang, Yong & Gong, Dunwei, 2022. "Unified operation optimization model of integrated coal mine energy systems and its solutions based on autonomous intelligence," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    4. du Plessis, Gideon Edgar & Liebenberg, Leon & Mathews, Edward Henry, 2013. "Case study: The effects of a variable flow energy saving strategy on a deep-mine cooling system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 700-709.
    5. Qiaoyun Han & Debo Lin & Xiaojie Yang & Kongqing Li & Wei Yin, 2023. "Thermal Environment Control at Deep Intelligent Coal Mines in China Based on Human Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-15, February.
    6. Zhiyong Zhou & Yimeng Cui & Long Tian & Jianhong Chen & Wei Pan & Shan Yang & Pei Hu, 2019. "Study of the Influence of Ventilation Pipeline Setting on Cooling Effects in High-Temperature Mines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-16, October.
    7. Zhuan, Xiangtao & Xia, Xiaohua, 2013. "Optimal operation scheduling of a pumping station with multiple pumps," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 250-257.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:9:p:2267-:d:166366. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.