Location

Rolla, Missouri

Session Dates

11 Jun 1999 - 17 Jun 1999

Keywords and Phrases

Mine Ventilation Cooling; Cooling Towers; Water Chillers; Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers; Plate and Frame Heat Exchangers; Spray Chambers; Fouling; Performance; Electrical Power

Abstract

This paper describes the mine ventilation cooling system at San Manuel Mine, which has evolved as new deeper and hotter working levels were added to the mine, between 1979 -1997. The expansion philosophy was based on utilizing existing facilities, providing lower capital cost and operational convenience. The cooling system is comprised of three surface chillers of 10.55 Megawatts (3,000 tons) total cooling capacity. Cooling towers, also located on surface, ultimately reject all the heat from underground system. The chilled water is pumped to a shell and tube heat exchanger station located 915 metres underground in a high pressure circulating water closed loop system cooling the shell side. The chilled, shell side water from this station is pumped to a lower level to plate and frame heat exchangers. The plate and frame heat exchangers cool open loops for water sprayed in spray chambers for the main ventilation system cooling located 1050 meters (3440 ft) below the surface. Chilled water is also circulated in air-to-water heat exchanger coils, for ventilation air in blind excavations. Despite many cascading loops, the efficiency of the cooling process continues to improve significantly. Increased efficiency has been achieved by reducing fouling and increasing the overall heat transfer coefficients of the heat exchangers while maintaining the design flow rates.

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Meeting Name

8th U.S. Mine Ventilation Symposium

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Document Version

Final Version

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

File Type

text

Language

English

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Jun 11th, 12:00 AM Jun 17th, 12:00 AM

Performance Assessment of a Multi-Stage Cooling System at San Manuel Mine

Rolla, Missouri

This paper describes the mine ventilation cooling system at San Manuel Mine, which has evolved as new deeper and hotter working levels were added to the mine, between 1979 -1997. The expansion philosophy was based on utilizing existing facilities, providing lower capital cost and operational convenience. The cooling system is comprised of three surface chillers of 10.55 Megawatts (3,000 tons) total cooling capacity. Cooling towers, also located on surface, ultimately reject all the heat from underground system. The chilled water is pumped to a shell and tube heat exchanger station located 915 metres underground in a high pressure circulating water closed loop system cooling the shell side. The chilled, shell side water from this station is pumped to a lower level to plate and frame heat exchangers. The plate and frame heat exchangers cool open loops for water sprayed in spray chambers for the main ventilation system cooling located 1050 meters (3440 ft) below the surface. Chilled water is also circulated in air-to-water heat exchanger coils, for ventilation air in blind excavations. Despite many cascading loops, the efficiency of the cooling process continues to improve significantly. Increased efficiency has been achieved by reducing fouling and increasing the overall heat transfer coefficients of the heat exchangers while maintaining the design flow rates.