AKJ Industries - Dust Control Solutions

AKJ Industries was founded in 1981 and is a privately held Indiana corporation. AKJ serves customers and clients from our three divisions; steel processing, refinery processing and specialty chemicals. We take pride in our people, whose leadership and experience has allowed AKJ to continually sit as the industry leader in providing services and products for dust control and cold weather material handling problems, hazardous waste to fuel conversion, and synthetic fuels binder technology.

DUST CONTROL IN MINES – WET SPRAY VERSUS FOAM

Wet spray and foam are two options for dust control. Wet spray methods involve mixing a surfactant with water and the dust is controlled. Foam programs involve mixing a surfactant, water and air to produce foam that controls dust on the material being treated.

UNDERGROUND MINE DUST CONTROL

Water addition rates are much higher underground than above, so dilution rates are also higher. Treatment programs can be as simple as using coal soap #10 in a cartridge feeder, to using a foam program with a conditioning following feed system on a longwall stage loader.

Coal soap #10 is a solid surfactant product designed for use on continuous miner units. The material is applied using a cartridge feeder where the product is slowly dissolved by the flow of a by-pass stream of water through the cartridge feeder. The amount of flow is controlled by a valve at the top of the feeder.

The conditioning following feed system is unique to AKJ. It takes a reading from the power center and adjusts the chemical feed rate based on the number of amps being drawn. The controlled method improves results and reduces costs.

HIGHWALL MINER SYSTEMS

Highwall miners recover coal from strip mine highwalls. They basically operate like a continuous miner entering the coal face of the highwall, followed by a conveying system to remove the coal. The coal is stacked out, generating dust. Instead of merely using water to control dust, AKJ uses coal soap #10 technology which can be mounted on the highwall miner. This system improves dust control and reduces the amount of water needed, which reduces costs.

CAR TOP BINDERS AND COAL PILE SEALANTS

Some mines are required to treat coal for dust control in transit. A common way of doing this is to utilize sealant material such as resin or latex. The same technology works for sealing coal piles to control wind blown dust. Application rates are product, material and conditions specific.

ROAD DUST CONTROL

Mine haul roads generate dust that creates a safety hazard, increases vehicle maintenance, increases road maintenance costs and can cause public relation problems. Coal soap #10 on fill lines to the water trucks works by providing reduced surface tension of the water. This effect allows water to penetrate into the soil, providing more effective dust control.

RDS-16 is a calcium chloride based product which works by binding the fines in the road surface and drawing moisture from the atmosphere to replenish the dust control. The current state-of-the-art technology uses our petroleum resin-based product RDS-78, which works by binding the fines into a hard surface resistant to rain.

One concentrated application of a properly prepared haul road will minimize dust for weeks. With subsequent follow-up applications of dilute RDS-78, the haul road can be virtually dust-free all summer long.

AKJ Industries is on the verge of introducing the next generation road dust product line. The line is currently in field testing and we expect it to be commercialized by late August 2007. When commercialized, this new line will attain the same effectiveness as our RDS-78 at a fraction of the costs.

DUSTRAK MONITOR

We offer a Dustrak monitor which gives readings of respirable dust levels so you can evaluate the dust control results. Use of a dust suppression program can only do so much. It is important that plants maintain the mechanical aspects of their equipment to control coal spillage and dust.