My Short Story: Personnel Protective Equipment

As the day passed, my colleague had conversation on his phone with his parents describing about the events of the day. To my curiosity when I was heeding I discovered that they were unaware of the basic protection equipment. When I had a chat with my friends belonging to other streams they too had a very little idea about this which led me to write a post on this topic.

The equipment's that are worn by the personnel to reduce the effect of hazard in their field of work are known as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). They can protect the individual from physical force, electric shocks, burning heat, airborne dust and bio-hazards. These are extensively used in the jobs related to occupational and safety purposes, in daily life and sports. In cricket the batsmen gets dressed up with helmet and pads to defend the ball which is thrown at high pace likewise in mines the personnel are required to wear helmet, gum boots, mask etc. which helps them from various hazardous conditions encountered in the mines.

Human brain is the essential element for the functioning of the body and is very much sensitive to the shocks or blows on the head. Helmets are used to cover the head and they annihilate the mechanical energy and preventing from penetration. The stones present on the drives can make walking a difficult task with bare foot or the boots. The safety boots are provided which protects the toe with a metal present inside the boot. Gum boots are used in the mines where poor drainage system or the heavy ingress of water is observed which make the drive muddy and loose. They are splendidly known as Wellington boots in the fashion world. Machines working in the mines produce lots of dust and noise.  The airborne dust produced during its transit or drilling can be inhaled by the person working in that region and at a long run it affects the respiratory system of the personnel and the noise can make the person go deaf. To forestall these things personnel have been provided with mask and ear muffs for being safe and sound. Some of the uncommon things in the mines are goggles to protect the eyes, and self rescuers for rescuing themselves from ambiance containing low oxygen percentage.

During my training period, I was provided with helmet, goggles, mask, ear muffs and gum boots while entering into the mine. I was very much casual while having them on. The first shock I acquired was when I advanced along a low heighted gallery and a rock bolt protruding out of the roof hit my helmet. I had stars flying around my head till the supervisor made me sit and gave me water to stabilize. Then after a while of rest, we moved on and I was very much careful but then we encountered watery region which was slippery too. I was assured that the water will not enter inside the gum boots and I wouldn’t slip off. While we were moving I was feeling cold feet which I thought of the water being cold but that kept on increasing then I realized that water has entered into the boot by a tiny hole and my foot was drenched and became heavy. The boot being itself heavy now the water added up the weight, it became difficult to walk with one foot lighter and another heavier.  When I reached the working face there were machines running making loud noise and for my goodness there was no problem with the ear muffs. While we were returning from the face we stopped in front of the ventilation door to rest as I was drenched with my own sweat and panting. As I was feeling uneasy inside the mask, I removed it and didn’t put it on. When my supervisor opened the ventilation door the air gushed in with the dust, my eyes were covered with goggles so that prevented from getting my red. But the fact that I removed my mask made me foolish as it made me sneeze quite a lot.

The lesson I learned during the training made me to check the PPE’s before wearing and should be careful though they are worn and never ever remove them till we reach the surface. Personnel Protective Equipments are used to save your life but the fact that if we be foolish while using these things and not be careful from our prospective it would be difficult to halt the accidents. Though we are using these there are many accidents happening in the mines that are related to not using the PPE’s properly. So there is only rule………

                              SAFETY FIRST, PRODUCTION MUST

Coal Regulatory Authority

Energy has the vital role to play in the development of the human beings to sustain with the ever changing environment. Industrial revolution created a major turnover in the use of energy resources. The energy mainly refers to the fossil fuels and electricity. Managing these resources is the key asset of the country. The global economy is affected by the production and consumption of these resources. To economize and manage energy resources there should be governors. Regulatory authorities have come up with this challenge to become the governors of the energy resources.

India has five ministries that are responsible for energy utilization. They are atomic energy, renewable, petroleum and natural gas, coal and power. The Atomic Energy Commission is part of the ministry and there are independent regulatory authorities for petroleum and natural gas and the power. The Office of Coal Controller as the name suggests has the power of controlling the coal utilization in the country. Lately regulatory body for coal is being planned which has come into effect due to the coal allocation scam or popularly known as Coalgate. Can regulator body be the substitute for the coal commissioner?

The Office of Coal Controller, one of the oldest offices of coal sector was established to have a government control over the coal production. The functions of this organization being stipulating and inspecting the grade and size of the coal, as an authority in the case of disputes between consumer and producer, managing the quality of the coal during loading of trucks, permission to grant opening or reopening of the coal mine or seam and providing financial support to coal operators for various purposes. This office was deregulated of the distribution and pricing of the coal in 1966. The distribution and allotment of the coal was taken up by the ministry of coal.

The arbitrary allocation of the captive coal blocks and the allegations of anomalies in coal block allocation have made the government to establish the Coal Regulatory Authority. The main functions of this regulator body are formulation of the price of the raw coal, washed coal and other by products, allocation of the coal blocks, improvising the technology of the mining operations and all the functions of the Coal Controller.

The regulatory body will be playing the main role in bringing in the competitiveness among the companies for e-auction for coal blocks and the trade margins, increasing the transparency of the allocation of the coal reserves. The prices of the coal will be determined by the producers but this body has to provide eye shot on the pricing. The long run disputes between CIL and NTPC over the fuel supply agreements will be resolved the regulatory body. The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has approved the draft bill and the government has started to work on the establishment without the approval of the parliament through executive order. Coal regulatory authority having higher responsibilities than the OCC can be replaced as the governor of the coal sector. Till now government has not yet decided about making the OCC obsolete but as the Coal regulatory Bill get passed in the Parliament this will be a query to wonder on. 

Coal to Liquid Technology: An Alternative Source for Transportation

 About 96% of all energy used in the transport comes from petroleum. Increasing energy demand and rise in vehicle ownership lead to have an energy supply balance. In the world coal reserves are ten times more abundant and more evenly distributed. Can liquefying the coal be an alternative fuel source for transportation?

Coal Liquefaction is a process that has been around a long time. This technology was extensively used by Germans during the period of World War II. In 1960’s South Africa faced the world oil embargo during which they switched towards the coal liquefaction and they are producing 70% of the liquid fuel needs. Recently China had shifted its focus towards coal liquefaction and is been successful in implementing the direct liquefaction plants. India having some of the largest coal reserves in the world can liquefaction change the scenario of the Indian liquid fuel needs?

Coal liquefaction is a process that converts coal from a solid state to liquid fuels, to produce the substitutes of petroleum products. The conversion of coal to liquid fuel can be processed by various liquefaction processes but they are broadly classified into two types i.e. Direct Coal Liquefaction (DCL) and Indirect Coal Liquefaction (ICL).

Direct Coal Liquefaction was developed by Friedrich Bergius during the period of World War II and it is also known as Bergius Process. In this process, the dry coal is mixed with recycled solvent to form coal slurry which is subjected to high temperature and high pressure in the presence of hydrogen gas and catalyst. The liquid products that are produced are of low quality and they require further refining to achieve high grade fuel products. Various catalysts are used to improve the rates of conversion of the coal to liquid fuel. The direct processes that are processed in the companies at present is the modification and extension of the Bergius process.

Indirect Coal Liquefaction is the multi step process in which the first requires the gasification of coal to produce syngas (a mixture of CO and H₂ gas). The second constitutes of conversion of syngas into liquid fuels using one of these methods i.e. Fischer-Tropsch process or Methonal process. F-T process is the oldest ICL process where syngas is subjected to chemical refinement to produce liquid fuels in the presence of catalyst. In Methonal or Mobil process, the syngas is converted to methonal which is subsequently converted into liquid fuel over a catalyst. Initial syngas can be obtained from coal alone or from coal-biomass mixture.

These processes produce whole lot of products which include clean petroleum and diesel, synthetic waxes, lubricants, methonal and dimethyl ether.  These fuels are sulfur free, low in particulates and nitrogen oxides. One tonne of coal can yield almost one-half tonne of liquids. Process has been developed to use coal from low ranked lignite to high volatile bituminous coal. They can be used for power generation, transportation and cooking. The coal rich country which has high oil prices and concerned with increasing oil import price is best suitable for coal liquefaction process.

Coal liquefaction process is significant energy consumption process which at industrial scales requires multibillion dollar capital investment which presents a high investment risk. The life cycle of liquefaction process emits large amounts of greenhouse gas. The coal-biomass mixture has an advantage over pure coal which emits much lower greenhouse gas. There has been a pocket size effect of lowering the greenhouse gas through sequestration. The increase in coal mining will again result in environmental consequences.

India has a significant potential to invest in coal to liquid technology as there is an increasing demand of oil imports and the oil price reaching its pinnacle. India being one of the largest emitter of greenhouse gas, this process will further increase those emissions which will be the area of improvisation. In India, Oil India Limited has successfully tested the direct coal liquefaction technology in the Northern Coalfields Limited. Ministry of Coal has allotted two coal blocks in Talcher coalfields to M/s Strategic Energy Technology Systems Ltd. and Ramchandi Block to M/s Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. with production capacity of about 80,000 barrels of oil per day per project which are expected to commence by 2018. 

Civil and Mining Product: India’s longest rail tunnel

Engineer’s spree of developing the human skills to indulge themselves into making the sparkling changes in the society has got magnificent accomplishment.  Civil engineering deals with design and construction while mining engineering deals with excavation but when construction has to be dealt with excavation in underground; it’s time to step into a new field, Underground Space Technology. It deals with planning, design, construction and maintenance of underground structures. Construction of a tunnel is one of the challenges in this technology. Though there are very few tunnels in India, presently India is one of the emerging markets in tunneling projects.

In the recent times, India has accomplished its longest railway tunnel network named “Pir panjal Railway Tunnel”, one of the most challenging and marvelous project of Indian history. The 10.96 Km. long tunnel is the India’s first and Asia’s second longest railway tunnel connecting the Jammu Kashmir with other parts of India throughout the year. The methodology adopted for the construction of this tunnel was New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) with latest technology in 3D monitoring system. This is the India’s first large scale project where NATM has been implemented. NATM is based on the concept whereby the surrounding ground itself becomes a load bearing structure through activation of a ring like body of supporting ground. It’s most suitable for soft ground excavation and where smooth profile can be obtained for establishing load bearing ring.

A Himalayan mountain in which the tunnel has been excavated consists of eight geological strata’s based on geological investigations. The condition of the rocks made them to adopt different techniques to excavate using tunnel excavator for soft ground, road header for rocks having Unconfined Compressive Strength less than 100 Mpa and drill & blast method for hard rocks. The first ever use of road header for excavation in India. The excavation area of the tunnel varied with the geological conditions and the final cross sectional area being 48 Sq. m. The total area of the tunnel was excavated in three parts i.e. top heading, benching and invert. For early completion of the project, the excavation was started from three faces each from either sides and third from adit towards north. The excavation sequence of NATM is:

1. Mobilization of the strength of rock mass to its maximum extent.
2. Installation of initial primary support.
3. 3D monitoring to assess the deformation in initial support    system.
4. Sequentially excavation, closure of invert and support system.
5. Finally applying the permanent lining.

The tunnel is almost straight having a height of 7.3m and width of 8.4m with highest ever overburden of about 1,100m. The adit and shaft were excavated to shorten the critical length of drive and to set apart the difficulties near portals. They were used for the maintenance and ventilation purpose during the operation and they will be serving as the escape routes during emergency conditions. The midpoint of the tunnel is heightened from either side to provide an excellent drainage system. The tunnel has been made waterproof and fire fighting system is provided. Adjacent to the rail track, 3m wide concrete road is constructed throughout the tunnel for maintenance and emergency purposes.

 Routine work proves to be unbearable because of the boredom it produces, that’s where challenges keep you active. This project too had its major challenges which were like slope stability near the portals, the geological conditions, high water ingress, restricted drill & blast due to existence of village over alignment of tunnel and low performance of road header. They have excellently overcome the challenges offered by the environment and the climate.

 Being India an emerging market in tunneling projects, India is having lots of projects going on and some of the highlighted projects are metro railways in New Delhi and under river tunnel in Kolkata. The technologies used in these new projects are turning the face of the engineering works in India making on par with that of the world class tunnels. 

Source: economictimes.com

Shale Gas, an energy innovation: India is willing to adopt

            India has been prominently consuming energy from coal, hydro, nuclear and from past few years by natural gas. India is the fourth largest energy consumer throughout the world though there is a critical shortage of electricity generation capacity. Now can this shale gas alter the fortune of India?

Past half a decade, analysts were foretelling that the US will be importing natural gas at an increasing rate as they will be drying out their own resources. The crackling accomplishment of the oil companies in the US in producing the shale gas resources at large extent has changed the doom of energy deficit country to a surplus one. Can this shale gas prove as a silver bullet to India as that in US?  A small insight about the shale gas would lead to the opinions.

Shale gas is unconventional source of natural gas found in shale formations. It is present in the form of bubbles in the impermeable shale rock. They are rich in organic matter and chemically it consists of methane. Shale gas has come into limelight due to technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.     

 The way to extract the shale gas is to vertically drill till it penetrates the shale rock and then make a channel in the shale formations parallel to the ground known as horizontal drilling. Water is mixed with sand and chemicals (Hydrochloric acid and carcinogens) and the mixture is injected at high pressure into these channels to create fractures which release shale gas. This is known as hydraulic fracturing or otherwise known as fracking. The efficiency of these works will mainly define the rate of production of shale gas.

In India the potential of extraction of shale gas is high. India being one of the largest consumers of oil and petroleum products imports more than half of oil and gas requirements. Shale gas production in India itself will truncate the increasing trade imports. This will lead India to substantially decrease its dependency on Middle East countries. The recent hikes in electricity price in India are affecting the public and the manufacturing companies. As the US have cutoff their electricity prices by shale gas production, India could be expecting the same in the coming years. The shale gas production can be effective in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions when compared to coal production though it refers to produce more than the conventional gas.

Positive side of this technology has had a great impact on India as an energy deficit country and is alluring towards investments in this sector. Every technology has its good and bad faces, so this technology too has its challenging issues which have to be improved to get the environmental nod. A large amount of water is required to be pumped into this borehole for fracking. India’s water scarcity condition can’t afford large amounts of water as one seventh of the world’s population is dependent on the 4% of the world’s water resources. For this, Indian authority has found a remedy and has assured of starting these projects in coastal areas and areas with high rainfall and water logging. With large of water comes large amounts of chemicals i.e. the deadly hydrochloric acid and carcinogens that would remain in borehole and can contaminate the ground water. An alternative way of fracking has been found by GasFrac of Alberta, Canada by using liquefied propane instead of mixture of water and chemicals.

The increasing no. of earthquakes has been eminent in the US after the shale gas production started. One of the theories suggests that it is due to water pushed back into the fault that tends to cause earthquake by slippage of fault. This is the area this technology has to be improvised further.

India has a long way to go before it can successfully extract shale gas. In India, shale gas will be targeted at Cambay basin, Assam Arakan basin, Damodar Valley, KG Basin and Cauvery basin. The estimates of shale gas reserves are estimated to be around 60 trillion cubic feet (TCF). Indian Oil Corporation, OIL, GAIL and RIL have started to invest in this sector in USA. Realizing the huge potential of shale gas reserves in India, Government of India is geared up to attract best companies for

its exploration purposes. It would entirely depend on the policy regulations made by the government realizing the issues of water, land etc for sustainable development.