The 10th International Conference on Energy, Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development (ERESD 2024)

The ventilation air in mines releases a significant amount of dust particles, challenging their efficient removal using conventional methods. Given the rich thermal and humid resources in ventilation air, leveraging the water vapor condensation can stimulate the growth of fine mineral dust, thereby improving removal efficiency. This approach may achieve effective and low-resistance removal of fine particulate matter while facilitating the recovery of heat and water resources, which has performed well in removing dust from coal-fired flue gas. In this study, the viability of enhancing the removal of fine mineral dust by harnessing existing water vapor to boost vapor condensation and particle growth in ventilation air was examined. Comparison was conducted among different methods to choose an optimized one for creating a supersaturated water vapor environment in ventilation air. Besides, the distribution of supersaturated water vapor before and after wall condensation, as well as the efficiency of particle growth were studied based on the FLUENT platform incorporated with the user-defined functions of the particle condensation growth nucleus functions and wall condensation functions. The competitive condensation behaviors of water vapor between particle surfaces and other walls were analyzed to explore the influences of the walls on vapor condensation and fine particle growth. Further research was conducted on the effects of factors such as wall thermal conductivity and material surface energy on competitive condensation of water vapor on particles and walls to seek possible control methods for promoting fine particle growth.