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Sustainability
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Prevention of Thermodynamic Disasters in Mines and Environmental Sustainability
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Prevention of Thermodynamic Disasters in Mines and Environmental Sustainability

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 543

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Changkui Lei

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Safety and Emergency Management Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
Interests: thermodynamic disasters; underground coal fires; artificial intelligence and application; gas explosions; chemical process safety
Dr. Jun Nian

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Safety and Emergency Management Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
Interests: utilization and prevention of mine gas; coal mine gas drainage; underground coal gasification
Dr. Xiaobo Lv

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Safety and Emergency Management Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
Interests: coalbed methane extraction; mine gas prevention and control technology; multi-physics field coupling; environment sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Thermodynamic disasters are caused by uncontrolled combustion and explosions underground in coal mines, including spontaneous coal combustion, exogenous fires, gas combustion explosions, coal dust explosions, etc. These disasters not only damage equipment and lead to casualties but also cause a series of environmental problems such as land subsidence, air pollution, and water resource pollution. After the occurrence of thermodynamic disasters in mines, a variety of secondary disasters can occur, such as roof falls, secondary or multiple explosions of gas, mine fires, the destruction of ventilation systems, the generation of high temperature and toxic and harmful gases, the abnormal emission of gas, coal dust (multiple) explosions, etc. These secondary disasters are usually more destructive than primary disasters, and the consequences are more serious. Therefore, it is extremely important to conduct research on the prevention of thermodynamic disasters in mines and environmental sustainability.

This Special Issue aims to study the mechanisms of disaster occurrence and causation, safe and efficient prevention techniques, and practical and reliable environmental protection strategies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Environmental restoration and sustainability;
  • The mechanism of coal fires/spontaneous combustion;
  • The risk assessment of gas explosion accidents;
  • New theories and technologies for mineral dust prevention;
  • Sustainable methods for thermodynamic disaster prevention;
  • The early warning of spontaneous coal combustion and gas explosions;
  • Gas extraction and utilisation;
  • The thermokinetic mechanism of coal oxidation.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Changkui Lei
Dr. Jun Nian
Dr. Xiaobo Lv
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • environment sustainability
  • spontaneous coal combustion
  • gas explosion
  • coal dust explosion
  • risk assessment
  • gas extraction
  • thermokinetic mechanism
  • thermodynamic disasters
  • artificial intelligence

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

29 pages, 12981 KiB  
Article
Study on the Effect and Mechanism of Plasma-Activated Water to Improve the Wettability of Coal Dust
by Xu Zheng, Shaocheng Ge and Hongwei Liu
Sustainability 2025, 17(8), 3647; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17083647 - 17 Apr 2025
Viewed by 211
Abstract
Coal dust seriously affects the underground working environment. The current water-spray dust reduction technology uses a large amount of water and has a poor effect on coal dust with poor wettability. This study proposed a clean and sustainable technology using plasma-activated water (PAW) [...] Read more.
Coal dust seriously affects the underground working environment. The current water-spray dust reduction technology uses a large amount of water and has a poor effect on coal dust with poor wettability. This study proposed a clean and sustainable technology using plasma-activated water (PAW) to alter the wettability of coal dust and improve its dust control effect. The PAW was prepared and its physical and mathematical properties were tested by a device designed in-house. The influence of PAW on the wettability of coal dust was determined by the coal dust contact angle experiments. The effect of PAW on the surface morphology of coal dust was analyzed by a scanning electron microscope. The effect of PAW on the pore structure of coal dust was analyzed through the specific surface area and pore size experiments. The results showed that PAW contained a large number of active substances such as H2O2, NO3−, and NO2−, showing strong and stable oxidation. PAW could significantly reduce the instantaneous contact angle of coal dust, and the higher the degree of coal dust metamorphism, the more significant the reduction effect. The surface morphology, pore volume, specific surface area, and fractal dimension of the coal dust were significantly changed after PAW treatment. PAW could transform the non-uniform three-dimensional spatial distribution of the coal dust surface into an approximate two-dimensional planar distribution, thus enhancing the wettability of the coal dust. With the increase in PAW ionization intensity, the contact angle of long-flame coal was negatively correlated with the mesoporous pore volume. The contact angle of gas coal was negatively correlated with the micropore volume and micropore specific surface area, and was positively correlated with the mesopore volume. The contact angle of meager lean coal was positively correlated with the macropore specific surface area. The surface morphology, pore volume, specific surface area, and fractal dimension changes in coal dust treated with PAW can reveal the wettability enhancement mechanism to some extent. The results of the study can provide pre-theoretical guidance for the field application of PAW coal mine dust reduction technology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prevention of Thermodynamic Disasters in Mines and Environmental Sustainability)
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