Degassing of the Developed Coal Seams along a Directional Route Using Wells

Abstract

The technology for conducting degassing work in the Russian mines is determined by the experience of half a century of using methods and means to reduce the methane abundance of excavation areas based on drilling wells along the developed and adjacent coal seams into mined-out spaces. The parameters of degassing and methane emission sources are legalized by the industry regulations, scientifically substantiated, and published in the scientific and practical works. The mines of the Kuznetsk coal basin and the Vorkuta deposit, mainly with high productivity of coal mining in the conditions of developing a suite of methane-bearing coal seams using complex mechanized faces were selected as objects of study: named after S.M. Kirov, named after V.D. Yalevsky (formerly «Kotinskaya»), Boldyrevsky coal seams (index 24) and seam 52. Gas hazard of the coal mines is determined by the volume of methane emissions, explosions of methane-air mixtures, loss of people life and is caused by the joint influence of natural, mining, organizational and subjective factors. The main indicator of gas hazard when developing a suite of methane-bearing coal seams is the absolute methane abundance of the excavation area. The method was used to predict the intensity of methane release from the exposed surface of a mined coal seam into the bottomhole space of the longwall and adjacent coal seams. Methane release from the exposed surface of a contiguous coal seam, subject to unloading from the rock pressure, was determined by analogy with the mined seam. The release of methane from the broken coal was established experimentally. When the working face unloads adjacent coal seams, the intensity of methane release from them into the working face is summed up.