Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Demonstration of Optical Microscopy and Image Processing to Classify Respirable Coal Mine Dust Particles

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dc.contributor Mining & Minerals Engineering
dc.creator Santa, Nestor
dc.creator Keles, Cigdem
dc.creator Saylor, J. R.
dc.creator Sarver, Emily A.
dc.date 2021-08-09T16:52:28Z
dc.date 2021-08-09T16:52:28Z
dc.date 2021-08-02
dc.date 2021-08-06T15:20:06Z
dc.date.accessioned 2023-03-01T18:52:37Z
dc.date.available 2023-03-01T18:52:37Z
dc.identifier Santa, N.; Keles, C.; Saylor, J.R.; Sarver, E. Demonstration of Optical Microscopy and Image Processing to Classify Respirable Coal Mine Dust Particles. Minerals 2021, 11, 838.
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10919/104602
dc.identifier https://doi.org/10.3390/min11080838
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/281638
dc.description Respirable coal mine dust represents a serious health hazard for miners. Monitoring methods are needed that enable fractionation of dust into its primary components, and that do so in real time. Near the production face, a simple capability to monitor the coal versus mineral dust fractions would be highly valuable for tracking changes in dust sources—and supporting timely responses in terms of dust controls or other interventions to reduce exposures. In this work, the premise of dust monitoring with polarized light microscopy was explored. Using images of coal and representative mineral particles (kaolinite, crystalline silica, and limestone rock dust), a model was built to exploit birefringence of the mineral particles and effectively separate them from the coal. The model showed >95% accuracy on a test dataset with known particles. For composite samples containing both coal and minerals, the model also showed a very good agreement with results from the scanning electron microscopy classification, which was used as a reference method. Results could further the concept of a “cell phone microscope” type monitor for semi-continuous measurements in coal mines.
dc.description Published version
dc.format application/pdf
dc.format application/pdf
dc.language en
dc.publisher MDPI
dc.rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject optical microscopy
dc.subject polarized light
dc.subject image processing
dc.subject respirable coal mine dust
dc.subject occupational health
dc.title Demonstration of Optical Microscopy and Image Processing to Classify Respirable Coal Mine Dust Particles
dc.title Minerals
dc.type Article - Refereed
dc.type Text


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