In recent years, Shendong Coal Group has been acting upon the requirements of business transformation. It formulated an action plan for building smart mines, and took proactive moves to integrate artificial intelligence, big data and other advanced technologies with the coal mining industry in the drive.
As early as in 2013, Shendong Coal began to plan for the building of smart coal preparation plants. Through active exploration, it has formed a plan integrating smart sensing, controlling, management and decision making and realized a great leap from traditional coal preparation to smart coal preparation.
In the seven-floor washing workshop of Shangwan Coal Preparation Plant, nearly no workers were seen, but only the roar of machines could be heard. “With the remote control and video monitoring system, workers no longer need to stay with the machines 24 hours a day. They are able to inspect and control equipment in the control room,” said Zhang Xinyuan, a senior technician from the coal preparation plant.
In the lounge of the workshop, the operation of the 150 machines could be seen from a smart terminal. Ma Teng, a worker in the plant, held such a terminal while keeping close watch on the operation. “It is cool, and I’m happy with the building of the smart coal preparation plant,” Ma said with pride.
Today, Shangwan Coal Preparation Plant has realized unattended operation, integrated control, automatic data collecting, and smart big data-based analysis of operation status. The plant also established a digital model covering the whole process of coal washing and preparation, and a smart decision making system. It has also established a number of smart supporting systems like smart chemicals adding and smart slurry treatment. The coal preparation plant has built itself into the smartest of its kind in China.
