A Need-To-Basis Dust Suppression System using Wireless Sensor Network

India being the second largest producer and importer of coal in the world, coal mining industry is one of the major contributors for the economic growth of the country. However, mining activities generate tremendous amount of dust and fines leading to air pollution, which in turn causes several health and environment hazards. Hence it is important to control the dust being generated by effective dust suppression mechanisms. One of the methods employed is sprinkling or spraying of water, which is done manually at most places. However, this method can lead to wastage of water if it is overdone or not effective enough if underdone. Automating the sprinkling systems is a way to overcome this issue. The paper proposes an automatic dust suppression system which activates sprinklers on a need-to-basis depending on the concentration of airborne dust. The system monitors the amount of coal-dust present in the atmosphere and activates the sprinklers when the dust content exceeds permissible safe limits. This paper discusses the intelligent dust suppression system consisting of a scalable network of dust sensors and wireless sensor nodes that are used to measure the dust levels at various locations of the coal mines or coal handling areas and activate the sprinklers based on area wise dust concentration.