Control of fugitive dust emitted by combination of water spray and industrial ventilation as an efficient and economical solution at a mining company

Dust emission is one of the main health and environmental problems during the crushing, screening and conveying process in mining company. The goal of this study was designing, implementation and evaluation of industrial ventilation and combination with a water spray for control the airborne particles as well as economic analysis on crushing unit of a mining company.
After ensuring the lack of destructive effect of humidity on material properties, a water spray system was designed and installed for settling some of produced dusts. Other emitted particles were also controlled by designing and implementation of local exhaust ventilation system. This system was evaluated after installation. For collection of dust, three Stairmand cyclone with high efficiency were used. Finally, the efficiency of water spray and industrial ventilation systems was investigated as single and combined in the control of fugitive particles in ambient air, occupational exposure and environmental emission.
The efficiency of the wet and ventilation system, alone and combined in reducing workplace dust concentration were 49%, 76% and 95%, respectively. Moreover, the efficiency of the wet, ventilation and combined system in reducing the exposure to repairable particles were 54%, 73% and 88%, respectively.
According to the present evaluations by implementing the combination of these two systems, the occupational exposure of workers, ambient dust concentration and emitted dust to environmental was fell to less than permissible limits. According to the economic analysis, over 80% of total costs by combined procedure was reduced. Therefore, this system can be proposed as an effective and cost-effective in such conditions.