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Optimized Mine |
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Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) currently accounts for 35-45% of an underground mine energy consumption. For large mines, this may represent $20-30M per year. HVAC in underground mines is required to dilute and remove hazardous substances, control the thermal environment, and provide oxygen for humans and engine combustion. As easier ore bodies are mined out and available reserves dwindle, mines have to extract deeper ore bodies, and the energy required for HVAC increases exponentially with depth. Since energy prices continue to increase and carbon emission costs are being added to financial statements, aggressive energy management will become inevitable to remain competitive. Because of the unique requirements of this niche market and the limitations of existing underground tracking, communications and fluid-dynamics modeling technologies, no compelling solution has been offered to the market so far. Simsmart used and enhanced its physics based “Engineering Suite” dynamic modeling and simulation tool to develop a mining ventilation optimization application. Its Engineering Suite is a proven mature product with applications mainly in the naval military sector in the USA, Canada, Australia and European countries. It has been utilized for multi-discipline design, systems performance analysis, optimization and training applications for systems involving liquids, gases, HVAC, electrical generation and distribution, controls and propulsion elements (gas turbines, diesel engines, gearboxes, …). Typical real-time modeling applications involved thousands of system components. The OM-VOD solution enables optimal energy management of the mine HVAC through the following automation: ü Real-time tracking of all diesel equipment and personnel for on-demand ventilation ü Real-time monitoring of diesel equipment on/off status and location ü Mine ventilation design performance analysis through dynamic modeling & simulation ü Real-time solving of the mine ventilation network of air mass flow and heat balance ü Real-time control and optimization of ventilation equipment for optimal HVAC at lowest cost Benefits include 20-45% reduction in HVAC energy costs and a reduction of the carbon emissions. The mining ventilation optimization system is built on an open architecture supporting OPC (see www.opcfoundation.org). Therefore, the ventilation optimization application OPC server integrates all of its internal components to any existing or future OPC compliant PLC and SCADA systems. The mining ventilation optimization system has the following components: |
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ü A link to a battery-powered wireless network mesh that tracks the operating machinery. ü A virtual mine ventilation network dynamic model and fan speed optimizer. ü A Human Machine Interface (HMI) that bridges optimized fan setpoints to the physical world. ü The battery-powered network mesh also provides SCADA functionality to route optimized setpoints to the fans and automated regulators. |
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The OM-VOD system works as follows: ü The operating machinery in workplaces is monitored in real-time by the battery-powered wireless mesh network. A ventilation demand for each stope is calculated as a function of the operating machinery horsepower in each workspace. ü Based on a complete dynamic mine ventilation system optimization using a physics based high-fidelity real-time simulation, all fans including intake, exhaust, booster and auxiliary fans and automated regulators are modulated to an optimal speed for minimal energy consumption as a function of the calculated demand. The system establishes in real-time a dynamic total mass and thermal balance for the mine ventilation system. ü A graphical HMI bridges newly calculated setpoints where an operator can visualize the optimizer behavior. All ventilation system control and measurement information is available on the HMI. The operator may also disable any fan or regulator from the optimizer control. The operator will then have full remote control over the fan or regulator. The HMI also provides data archiving for trending and reporting on system operation and performance. ü The calculated speed setpoint for each fan and position for automated regulators are sent to the physical devices via the same wireless battery-powered wireless mesh network or via an existing PLC network infrastructure.
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