PURPOSE:  Provide the mining industry, labor, and regulatory agencies with scientific, technical, and engineering research on controlling of diesel particulate matter (DPM) and gaseous emissions through laboratory and field evaluations of existing and emerging control technologies.

RESEARCH SUMMARY:  Approximately 30,000 underground miners have been exposed to DPM at levels as high as 500 µg/m3, an excessively high level. The publication of a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) proposed rule to regulate underground miner exposure to DPM, along with a NIOSH initiative, has resulted in the formation of a coal partnership for the purpose of investigating, testing, and promoting effective control technologies. The success of the coal partnership, resulted in the metal/nonmetal industry also forming a partnership with NIOSH that also continues to be supported under this project.

Emission control technologies are evaluated on a mobile engine dynamometer at the NIOSH Lake Lynn Laboratory and at mine field sites provided by the partnerships. This work includes; 1) the selection of potentially viable emission controls, 2) resolving issues related to their use, and 3) information dissemination and education to facilitate their implementation in mines.

This project is also introducing modern clean engine technology into underground mines. The engine subcommittee of the coal partnership, headed by NIOSH, is actively engaged in devising a policy that will permit the use of insulating materials to supplement water-jacketing so that modern clean engines can be used in permissible power packages.

This effort has provided real-world emissions-reduction data for a number of filter media and fuel formulations through laboratory and isolated zone studies in operating mines. The quality of this work has earned both high praise and respect from our constituents and has allowed us to forge new initiatives.

Modern, super-clean, electronically controlled engines are accepted at high altitude western coal mines. A recent outcome of high altitude research involves a mining operation’s decision to replace 54 diesel-powered trucks with vehicles having new low-emitting engines. This resulted from NIOSH recommendations that led an engine manufacturer to develop a new control module, enabling use at high altitude mines.