Investigation of Methane Recovery in Coal Mines During Ventilation Operations Through CFD Simulation

The controlling of methane in underground coal mines and the possibility of its recovery is a step towards improving safety and environmental issues. Nevertheless, we are witnessing serious incidents such as explosions due to the excessive accumulation of methane in mines. On the other hand, with the current pattern of ventilation, significant amounts of this renewable energy source are wasted every year. In this research, Computational Fluid Dynamics used to model the behavior of methane and its safe recovery. Examining two turbulence model of Spalart-ellmars and k-ε with both regular and irregular meshes showed hat the first one with regular mesh has led to a 15% reduction in methane percentage error compared to experimental results. Finally, during different main and secondary ventilation scenarios, the behavior of methane was simulated in an underground mine and a new ventilation approach was proposed. The proposed method led to economic extraction of methane, while securing the mine.