By Dr. Paul A. Kittle, Aquafoam, Inc.
Foam dust suppression has been widely used for many years, but installation on underground mining machinery, especially longwall shearers, has not advanced. The anticipated coal dust rules will likely require utilization of all existing technology, and, likely, some additional dust suppression performance not currently available. All of the technical elements needed for a longwall shearer foam dust suppression installation are known and available, but require a substantial final implementation effort from the mining machine manufacturers, the coal mining community, and the technology suppliers. No single entity can produce the final accomplishment alone. What is known, what is needed, what are the roadblocks, will be presented.
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