Assessment of Coal Mine Road Dust Properties for Controlling Air Pollution

The paper describes analytical results of physico�chemical parameters and proximate analysis of coal dust collected from road surface of four opencast coal mines located in different coalfields of India. Value of pH, water holding capacity, ash percentage, moisture content, volatile matter, bulk density, specific gravity and fixed carbon was found to be in the range of 5.1–7.7, 21.17−31.71%, 45−76%, 0.5−3.0%, 12.6−20.0%, 1.15–1.70 g cm−3, 1.73–2.30, and 10.2–45.3%, respectively. The study revealed that the coal dust abundantly available on road surface of opencast coal mines may be used as domestic fuel. Hence, collection and utilization of coal dust accumulated on mine road would not only reduce air pollution in mining regions but also help in enhancing economic benefit of coal mining industry by selling waste coal dust as domestic fuel