Ventilation on Demand - MERI

The energy costs of underground mining operations are becoming prohibitive as operators continue to deepen their mines in pursuit of increasingly valuable and scarce ore bodies. Much of this massive energy usage is consumed by the ventilation systems. The mining industry needs a better ventilation control software/technology to help it combat mounting costs in a sustainable way. In addition, there is a requirement to improve control and optimize modeling of air movement systems. Traditional mine ventilation practice is to provide ventilation to all part of the mine where equipment could possibly be operating. This project will develop the controls to limit the ventilation of areas where no equipment is operating and to optimize the ventilation control settings.