Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research

Vol. 63, September 2004, pp. 763-768

Emission factors for the quantification of dust in Indian coal mines

Mrinal K Ghose
Center of Mining Environment, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad 826 004
Received 24 August 2003; rev recd 01 June 2004; accepted 05 July 2004

The increasing trend of opencast coal mining tends to release huge amount of dust. But there is no well defined method
of estimating dust emission due to coal mining activities This paper examines the sources of dust emission due to coal
mining activities and focuses on the quantification of dust emission with the use of emission factors or prediction type
equations. Because of site-specific nature, emission factors developed for one site may not give the correct results for
another site. In the present investigation prediction equations are utilized for the development of emission factors and they
are used for the quantification of dust generation due to opencast coal mining. For the applications of this concept one large
opencast coal project of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) was investigated and the amount of dust emitted due to different
mining activities was quantified. This paper also focuses on the significance of this study in the field of environmental
protection and likely impacts of such study. The paper concludes that once the amount of dust generation is estimated, the
impact on air quality can be assessed appropriately and a proper air pollution control strategy can be developed.

Keywords: Opencast, Dragline, Box cut, Hauls road, Prediction equations, Batch load
IPC Code: Int. Cl.7 : C 09 C 1/44

Introduction Emission Factors

The main air pollution problem in a mining area is
due to the presence of particulates, which may be
coal, soil or rock dust1. Strip mine air pollution source
can be divided into two categories, point sources and
fugitive sources. Points sources typically include
stationary exhaust stacks2. In contrast fugitive sources
are open sources like the exposed soil of OB and
coal3. Vehicular traffic on haul road has been
identified as the most prolific source of fugitive dust
and can contribute as much as 80 per cent of total
dust. Cowherd et al.4 estimated that about 50 per cent
of the total dust released during journey time of
dumper on unpaved haul road while 25 per cent for
both during loading and unloading of dumper.
Chadwick et al.5 estimated that 0.02 per cent of the
coal is lost during loading and unloading. Nair and
Singh6 estimated that road dust contains more than 4
per cent of respirable dust. Another major source of
fugitive dust is wind erosion from stockpiles. Jacko7
has given estimates of fugitive dust from mining
operations. The workers are exposed in opencast
mining varies between 35 mg/m3 in coalfaces and
12 mg/m3 in overburden faces. After haul road,
drilling: b perhaps the next important source of
fugitive dust. During drilling in overburden benches
the dust concentration varies between 2025 mg/m3
and in coal benches it varies between 15 30 mg/m3.
In coal mine planning, an estimate of dust
generation is to be made to check the likely level of
air pollution in the mining area due to proposed
project activities. Typically this can be obtained by
using emission factor or prediction type equations.
Jacko7 gave estimates of fugitive dust from some
mining activities. Emission factors from surface coal
mining operations in the Power River Basin of
Wyoming Surface Mine8 includes emission factor
data as a function of distance from the source. The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
published a compilation of air pollution emission
factors (commonly referred as AP-42), a handbook,
which use the A to E quality rankings. Mayer9
originally developed the compilation of emission
factors from the technical literature and a report. More
editions appeared including Duprey10 and USEPA11,12.
Sinha13 illustrated the technique of exposure profiling
method, specially designed and fabricated for the
study to develop methods to quantity fugitive dust
emission for vehicular traffic on unpaved haul road.
Prediction Equations
The above-mentioned norms are thumb rules only.
Because of site-specific nature of dust, emission
factors derived for one site may not give the correct
results for another site. Many factors such as
764 J SCI IND RES VOL 63 SEPTEMBER 2004
brittleness and hardness of the materials being
handled, clay or silt and moisture content of the rock
material, wind speed of the region, the size of the
earth moving machinery in operation control the
amount of dust being formed and dispersed in the
area. The prediction equations14 give better estimation
of dust formation in opencast mines. A few prediction
equations are given below.
(a) Continuous Load in Operations
Bucket wheel excavators with stacker conveyors
are being used in many of the surface mines. The
following equation allows in estimation of the fugitive
particulate emissions from such an operation15,16.
e 0.0018 ( S / 5)(U / S )(h /10)
cont. in = ,
( M / 2) 2
where,
e
cont.in = Particulate emission expressed as lb/ton
of materials loaded in,
S = Silt content of aggregate or road surface
materials per cent,
U = Mean wind speed 4m above the ground, mi/h,
h = Drop height (ft),
M = Unbound moisture content of material per
cent.
(b) Batch Load in Operations
Included in batch load in operations are the
dragline, front-end loaders and rail car dumping. The
equation was originally developed for front-end
loaders, rail car dumping operations for shovel, but
has been extrapolated for dragline15,16,
e 0.0018 ( S/5) (U/5) (h/5)
batch - in = ,
( M/2) 2 (Y/6) 0.33
where,
e
batch-in = Emission expressed as lb/ton of
materials loaded in,
U = Mean wind speed 4m above ground, mi/h,
h = Drop height, (ft),
M = Unbound moisture content per cent,
Y = Dumping device capacity, yd3,
S = Silt content per cent,
For a 100-yd3 dragline operating on a material with
S = 13 per cent, M = 8 per cent, at 8 min/h wind speed
and 60 ft drop height.
e
batch-in = 0.0022 lbs-particulate/ton of material
loaded in.
(c) Unpaved Haul Roads
Cowherd et al.16 suggested the use of the following
equation for estimation of particulate emission from
haul trucks on an unpaved road surface.
eu = 5.9 (S/12) (S/30) (n/3)0.7 (W/4)0.5 (d/365)
where,
eu = Unpaved road emissions as lb-particulates
vehicle make travelled (Particles smaller than 30
with a density of 2.5g/cm3)
S = Slit content per cent,
V = Average vehicle speed, mi/h,
W = Average vehicle weight, t
n = Average number of vehicle wheels,
d = Number of dry d/ y
(d) Active OB Storage Pile wind Erosion
e
pile = 0.05 (S/1.5) (d/235) (F/15) (D/90)
where,
F = per cent of time unobstructed wind speed
exceeds12 mph at a mean pile height,
D = Duration of material storage,d.
Applications
The indigenous coking coal production in India is
not fulfilling the demand of steel industry for which
about 7 Mt of coking is being imported annually17.
The extraction of coking coal is increasing rapidly to
meet the demand. Block II OCP, one of the largest
opencast projects of coking coal owned by BCCL,
was selected for the application of this work. It has
34.6 Mt quarriable reserve of coal. The project report
was sanctioned in the year 1982 for a targeted
production of 2.5 Mt/y and the life of the project was
17 y. The quarry was being worked in two patches
through separate box cuts. Working depth during the
study period was about 60 m in box cut section 3).
Work was going on in X seam having thickness 9.62
m. The project is located in the northwest of JCF in
Dhanbad, Jharkhand. It covers an area of about 6.8
sq km. Many other opencast and underground coal
mines surround it. The main drainage of the region is
through Jamuni River. The region has a tropical
monsoon type climate. The general wind direction is
from the west with few clouds from December to
February. Air originating from the sea to the east and
the south brings about 80-85 per cent of annual
rainfall in June through August. The winter season
extends from November to February with temperature
as low as 5C. The summer season is from March to
 GHOSE: QUANTIFICATION OF DUST EMISSION IN INDIAN COAL MINES 765

June and the highest temperature experienced is 48C. Table 1 Emission factors evaluated for different mining
The rainy season starts in late June and it ends in operations
September. The southwest monsoon brings the major Source Emission factor
precipitation. The annual rainfall in this region is (a)Overburden excavation
1197mm. Scraper loading No data
Shovel excavation 1.0 to 3.0 kg/t
Bucket wheel excavation 0.7 to 2.0 kg/t
Methodology Loading in vehicles 0.7 to 0.4 kg/t
The sources of dust generation were identified. The
(b)Transportation 0.5 to 0.1 kg/t
geological setting of the area was recorded. Different Conveyor belt
machineries used for drilling, mining, removal of Each transit point
*Dumper 1.5 to 3 kg/km of tunnel earthen
overburden, transportation system were also recorded. Dumper dry surface
Different mining activities like topsoil removal, * Total emission will be 0.1 to 3 kg/km of tunnel soiled
kg/vehicle/km/d
overburden removal, coal extractions, size reduction surface
and total quantity handled per day in each case were (c )Unloading and Piling 0.8 to 1.5 kg/t
also recorded. Parameters like mean wind speed, drop Conveyor system 1.5 to 4.0 kg/t
height, unbound moisture content, dumping device Dumper-Bull dozer
capacity, silt content, average vehicle speed, average (d) Mineral excavation 0.5 to 1.0 kg/t
vehicle weight, average number of vehicle wheels, Bucket excavator 0.8 to 1.5 kg/t
number of dry d/y percentage of time unobstructed Shovel 0.08 to 0.1 kg/t
Loading conveyor belt
vehicle wheels, wind speed exceeds 12mph at a mean Loading dumper
Each travel point
pile height, and duration of material storage were 0.07 to 0.3 kg/t average
(e)Transport
evaluated. Conveyor belt 0.05 to 0.1 kg/t
The data obtained were put in the prediction Dumper /truck Each travel point
equations developed for different operations and Dumper /truck 1.5 to 3.0 kg/km Travel dry
emission factors were evaluated for each activity. surface
Statistical average of the rate at which dust released as 0.2 to 0.5 kg/km
Travel by soiled road
a result of some activity were multiplied by that
activity. Thus the rate of emission of dust per unit of a (f) Stock pilling/loading
Conveyor 1.0 to 2.5 kg/t
given activity was computed, which is known as the Dumper/manual 1.5 to 4.0 kg/t
emission factor and expressed as per tonne of mineral
mined, per tonne of mineral crushed, etc. An estimate (g) Size reduction
Jaw crusher 1.5 to 2.5 kg/t
was made for the number of such processes. The total Screening 2.5 to 5.0 kg/t
emission then equals the product of emission factor Loading 0.8 to 1.5 kg/t
times of the number of such sources. Emission thus Stock pilling and retrieval 1.0 to 4.0 kg/t
will represent the best values for different mining
activities. Typical air pollution factors thus obtained box cut section 3 and 40 per cent from the dragline
are summarized and presented in Table1. section.
In the box cut section 3, there were three OB
Quantification of Dust benches equipped with 3 power shovels (10 m3
Opencast mining generates large quantities of dust capacity) and one coal bench with one power shovel.
during its various operations. Different mining The average depth in this section was about 57 m.
activities include topsoil removal, overburden There were three drill machines in this section. The
removal, coal extraction, size reduction, etc. The mine dragline section was equipped with one huge dragline
was producing 2500t of coking coal/d i.e. 0.75 Mt/y. (24 m3, 96 m) was handling about 40 per cent OB, i.e.
during the study period. The stripping ratio was 3.98, 8990 t/d. The dragline was equipped to remove OB up
i.e. 24875 t of OB was removed/d. Out of this, the to 35 m depth and side casted. In the box cut section
average topsoil removal was 2400 t/d. The whole 3 OB was transported through along the haul road for
OCP was divided into two parts one box cut3 about 0.5 km for dumping. The number of dumpers in
section and one dragline section. During the study working condition was 15. After the removal of O/B
period, 60 per cent of production of coal was from and exposure of the coal strata, coal benches were
766 J SCI IND RES VOL 63 SEPTEMBER 2004

Table 2 Quantification of dust generated by using emission factor data

Source Material TPM Unit Amount Remarks
emission of dust
factor generatio
n kg/d
1 Topsoil removal Overburden 0.029 kg/t 69.6 Total OB to be removed
=22475, average OB removed as topsoil
=2400t
2 OB removal
(a) Drilling Overburden 0.59 kg/hole 35.4 Av. number of holes = 60.
length of hole = 13 m
(b) Blasting Overburden
(c) Dumper loading by power shovel Overburden 0.018 kg/t 242.7 OB handled by power shovel in Box cut-3
Sec (60 per cent) =13485 t
(d)Transportation in haul road Overburden 2.25 kg/vkt 356.9 Length of haul road =0.5 km. Distance
traveled by
85t dumper to transport 13485 t OB = 158.6
km
(d)Unloading Overburden 0.001 kg/t 24.9 Total OB unloaded
= 24874 t
3 Coal extraction
(a) Drilling Coal 0.10 kg/hole 4.0 Av.no.of holes in a coal bench = 40, depth of
hole = 10 m
(b) Blasting Coal
(c) Loading Coal 0.014 kg/t 35 Total coal loaded =2500 t
(d)Transportation Coal 2.25 kg/vkt 135.4 Amount of coal loaded per day = 2500 t,
length of haul = 0.7 km, distance traveled by
58 t dumper to transport 2500 t of coal =60.3
km
(e) Coal unloading Coal 0.033 kg/t 82.5 Amount of coal loaded per day = 2500 t
Sub Total 257
4 Size reduction
(a) Crushing and coal feeding Coal 1.5 kg/t 3750 Av. amount of coal crushed daily to
convenient size
=2500t
(b)Convey or belt Coal 0.075 kg/t 187.5 Length of conveyor belt = 90 m
(c)Unloading point to bunker and Coal 1.15 kg/t 2875
chute to dumper
Sub Total 6812.5
5 Wind erosion
(a)Wind erosion of exposed area Coal 2.33 kg/ha/d 1569.2 Total exposed area = 673 ha
Total dust generation =9366.7kg/d

drilled, blasted and coal was transported to the
feeder breaker for size reduction. The coal was
crushed to -200 mm size by a feeder breaker. Coal
handled by feeder breaker was about 2500 to
3000t/d. The crushed coal was transported to bunker
by means of a conveyer belt from which loading to a
dumper was done to dispatch to a railway siding.
The feeder breaker consists of a crushing unit,
transporting crushed coal by a conveyer belt,
unloading into a bunker, and loading from the
bunker to the dumper.
As calculated the dust generation by the
utilization of emission factor data, topsoil removal
generated 69.9 kg/d. Overburden removal operation
generated 660.0 kg of dust/d; extraction of coal
contributed about 256.9 kg of dust/d. Observation of
dust generation due to size reduction contributed
dust amounting to 6812.5 kg of dust/d. The mining
activity generated dust amounting to 7799 kg of
dust/day. Wind erosion also generated a huge
amount of dust of about 1569.2 kg/d. Blasting also
causes a huge generation of dust but due to
unavailability of emission factor data the actual
quantity could not be estimated. For the calculation
of dust generation the emission factor data used are
shown in Table 1. The total amount of dust
generated as calculated by the utilization of emission
factor data was found to be 9368.2 kg/d (Table 2).
 GHOSE: QUANTIFICATION OF DUST EMISSION IN INDIAN COAL MINES
Significance of the Study
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) plays a
crucial role on resolving the conflicts between
developmental objectives and concern for the
environmental quality. In fact EIA is considered to be
a valuable planning and decision-making tool for
prediction and evaluation. This has led to the
preparation of environmental management plan
(EMP) prior to the implementation of any project. The
system of preparing EMP has been accepted as a
statutory requirement for getting clearance from
Department of Environment (DOEn), Government of
India. All such mining projects need to be cleared by
DOEn. To ensure the effective safeguard at the
designing stage against the environmental hazard,
DOEn has issued guidelines for preparation of EMP
report for mining projects. Finally the Environmental
Appraisal Committee (EAC) for mining projects
examines the report before giving any clearance to the
project18.
Air pollution is one of the most important
parameters to be considered in preparing EIA report19.
But there is no well-defined method of predicting the
generation of dust due to different mining activities. A
search into the technical literature available on the
subject reveals that the value of emission factor and
the coefficient of mathematical model have been
determined to evaluate the dust generation due to
opencast coal mines in several countries abroad. But
such studies have not yet been reported in Indian
context. The technology and methodology has its
limitations in site condition, on the method of mining,
geological and geomorphlogical setting of the area. In
the present investigation, attempts were made to
develop emission factors to evaluate the amount of
dust generation due to opencast coal mining in Indian
context, Once the amount of dust generation is
ascertained, the impact on the air environmental can
be evaluated and proper mitigative measures can be
adopted for the reduction of air pollution in the area20.
This is significant in the field of environmental
projection.
Conclusions
The main air pollution problem in coal mining
areas is due to the dust. For the assessment of impact
on air environment quantification of dust emission is
essential. Prediction equations give better estimation
of dust formation in opencast mines. Data collected
can be put suitably to validate the models for the
evaluation of emission factors in Indian context.
767
Emission factor data thus developed can be utilized
for the prediction and assessment of dust generation
due to coal mining activities. This study has an
immense significance in the field of environmental
protection and likely impacts of the findings are
many. Once the amount of dust generation is
estimated, the impact on air environment due to the
project activities can be assessed appropriately and an
air pollution control strategy can be developed to
maintain the right kind of balance between sustainable
development and environmental management. It is
concluded that the study provides a sort of
fundamental scientific insight in the quantification of
dust emission due to coal mining activities.
Acknowledgements
The author is thankful to Ministry of Environment
and Forests, Government of India, for supporting
grants for infrastructral facilities at Centre of Mining
Environment, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad and
providing financial support for the work. Assistance
taken from Sri S R Majee at different stages of the
work is also acknowledged.
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