An overview of mine gas drainage technologies in Australia

摘要

Australia has developed a number of gas drainage technologies over the last twenty years and achieved significant success in gas and outburst control. To prevent outbursts in coal mines, Australia uses extensive gas pre-drainage techniques to reduce the virgin seam gas content below the outburst threshold levels. One of the major developments in this field in Australia is the development of directional drilling technology, which significantly increased the targeted pre-drainage capability of the coal industry. These developments have led to the prevention of outbursts and significant improvements in gas drainage performance and productivity in the coal mining industry. A number of developments have also taken place in the recent years to achieve a step-change improvement in goaf gas drainage performance. A brief summary of various gas drainage technologies and practices being used in Australia are summarised in this paper.