The technology for conducting degassing work in the Russian mines is determined by the experience of half a century of using methods and means to reduce the methane abundance of excavation areas based on drilling wells along the developed and adjacent coal seams into mined-out spaces. The parameters of degassing and methane emission sources are legalized by the industry regulations, scientifically substantiated, and published in the scientific and practical works. The mines of the Kuznetsk coal basin and the Vorkuta deposit, mainly with high productivity of coal mining in the conditions of developing a suite of methane-bearing coal seams using complex mechanized faces were selected as objects of study: named after S.M. Kirov, named after V.D. Yalevsky (formerly «Kotinskaya»), Boldyrevsky coal seams (index 24) and seam 52.
Gas hazard of the coal mines is determined by the volume of methane emissions, explosions of methane-air mixtures, loss of people life and is caused by the joint influence of natural, mining, organizational and subjective factors. The main indicator of gas hazard when developing a suite of methane-bearing coal seams is the absolute methane abundance of the excavation area.
The method was used to predict the intensity of methane release from the exposed surface of a mined coal seam into the bottomhole space of the longwall and adjacent coal seams. Methane release from the exposed surface of a contiguous coal seam, subject to unloading from the rock pressure, was determined by analogy with the mined seam. The release of methane from the broken coal was established experimentally. When the working face unloads adjacent coal seams, the intensity of methane release from them into the working face is summed up.
2. Zaburdyaev V.S. Coal mine methane. Moscow, Vologda: Infra-Inzheneriya, 2022. 276 p. (In Russ.).
3. Zaburdyaev V.S. Scientific basis of the coal mine degassing. Moscow, Vologda: Infra-Inzheneriya, 2023. 120 p. (In Russ.).
4. Mine Safety. Proceeding of the 27th International Conference of Safety in Mines Research institutes. New Delhi, 1977. Vol. III. pp. 625–703.
5. Zabourdyaev V.S. Role Degasification in Providing Safe Working Conditions in Gassy Mines. International Coalled Methane Symposium. Tuscaloosa, 1997. pp. 249–264.
6. Instructions for monitoring the composition of mine air, determining gas abundance and establishing mine categories for methane and/or carbon dioxide: Order of Rostechnadzor of December 6, 2012 № 704. Available at: https://rulaws.ru/acts/Prikaz-Rostehnadzora-ot-06.12.2012-N-704/ (accessed: August 08, 2023). (In Russ.).
7. Ruban A.D., Artemev V.B., Zaburdyaev V.S., Zakharov V.N., Loginov A.K., Yutyaev E.P. Preparation and development of highly gas-bearing coal seams: reference book. Moscow: Gornaya kniga, 2010. 500 p. (In Russ.).
8. Safety rules in the coal mines: Federal rules and regulations in field of industrial safety. Ser. 05. Iss. 40. Moscow: ZAO NTTs PB, 2020. 198 p. (In Russ.).
9. Artemev V.B., Ruban A.D., Zaburdyaev V.S., Yutyaev E.P. The industrial rules of technology of extraction and recycling of mine methane in development of highly gas coal layers by underground mining. Ugol = Coal. 2010. № 2. pp. 18–20. (In Russ.).
10. Instructions for degassing coal mines. Ser. 05. Iss. 22. Moscow: ZAO NTTs PB, 2020. 240 p. (In Russ.).
11. Mine methane in Russia. Informational article. International Energy Agency. Moscow: Mashinostroenie, 2010. 73 p. (In Russ.).
12. Instructions for determining and predicting the gas content of coal seams and surrounding rocks during geological exploration. Moscow: Nedra, 1977. 96 p. (In Russ.).