Application of Hydro Borehole Mining (HBM) Technology for Lignite Extraction—An Environmental Assessment (LCA) and a Comparative Study with the Opencast Method

Abstract

The article presents the impact of lignite mining on the environment associated with the introduction of hydro borehole mining (HBM) technology. The results are partially based on the HydroCoal Plus project results, where an environmental assessment of lignite HBM technology was performed. In order to reach the goals of the task, a life cycle assessment (LCA) study was used to assess selected environmental aspects of the HBM single-borehole lignite production process covering selected environmental impact categories such as energy consumption, fuel consumption, water consumption and carbon footprint. The LCA procedure was adapted in an innovative way, constituting another added value to the shown research. The second part of this paper describes opportunities identified by the authors to minimize the environmental impact of lignite production by implementing the HBM method compared to the conventional opencast method.

In-situ experimental study on hydro-borehole technology application to improve the hard coal excavating techniques in coal mine

“…The studies of cutting rocks using a high velocity jet of water (i.e. water jet) date from the 1960s 4 – 7 , when the mechanism and threshold conditions required to break rocks were investigated. It was found that a water jet with insufficient velocity would not be able to cut rocks but merely wash away the poorly cemented grains from the rock surface 8 , 9 .…”