Control of Heat and Humidity in German Mines

In order to increase the economic efficiency of West European hard coal, great efforts are being made at present in the coal-producing countries to lower production cost. This is also to be achieved in Germany by a drastic increase in the saleable output per working face to an average of 10,000 t/d, which is possible by longer Iongwall faces (400 ± 50m). In such cases there will be substantial heat addition due to machines. As a result the climatic limits will be exceeded at Iongwall faces even with lower than average rock temperature. Working in high temperature and/or humidities can lead to lack of concentration of miners, heat collapse and extremely dangerous heat stroke. In order to minimise the cost of…