MATRIC Focuses Research on Coal Mine Safety
The State Journal, January 20, 2006
By Beth Gorczyca
bethg@statejournal.com
SOUTH CHARLESTON - Miles of roads separate the South Charleston Technology Park from most of the state's coal mines.
But researchers at the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center (MATRIC) hope projects they are working on in their South Charleston labs will help save lives miles underground.
Keith Pauley, MATRIC's executive director, said scientists and researchers at the center are working on nine different mine safety systems that would improve communication and tracking of workers and vehicles once they go underground, as well as improve safety equipment those miners depend on.
He said engineers have been working on the different systems for several months. But those efforts were ratcheted up earlier this month after 13 miners were trapped underground for more than 41 hours at the Sago mine in Upshur County. Twelve miners died in the hours after the Jan. 2 explosion. One miner, Randal McCloy Jr., survived and is still in a Morgantown hospital in serious condition.
"The Sago mine disaster hit home for a lot of people," Pauley said. "We want to take the scientists and engineers we have and apply them to a problem that is important to West Virginia."
Among the tools being developed at MATRIC are systems that help track miners and the vehicles they ride in underground.
"Communicating with miners underground is a critical issue," Pauley said. One of the systems would use radio frequencies to keep continuous track of miners after they enter the mine. Another system, Pauley said, would monitor miners' blood pressure, heart rate and pulse, among other things, to make sure the miners are safe.
"That way, on top of the ground, they know how healthy the men are, not just where they are," he said.
A third system under development would keep better track of the mantrips that miners ride when going to the face of a mine. The vehicle tracking system would know exactly where the mantrip stopped and why.
Pauley said all three of those systems would help rescuers find trapped miners in the event of an explosion or problem underground.
He said researchers also are trying to figure out a way to use equipment such as beepers to communicate with miners underground.
All of those systems use off-the-shelf technology to help miners. That's something that really appeals to Pauley.
"I think all of those systems have merit," he said. "We need to be looking at technology that's already out there that we can use in different ways." Researchers at MATRIC also are working to develop new electronic emergency exit indicators and ultrasonic locators for miners underground, as well as obstacle avoidance equipment for mine workers to use above ground.
"The leading cause of death at mines isn't from roof falls; it's from equipment," he said. "Some of those machines used at mines are just one big blind spot. This equipment could help operators know what is around them."
Pauley said other researchers are working on advanced oxygen generators and carbon monoxide scrubbers. "Those two play on our chemistry skills," he said. MATRIC has a staff of 25 people, 12 of whom have doctorates, and it's growing quickly. The staff has nearly doubled since March, when it had 14 employees, including seven people with doctorates.
Pauley said he anticipates the staff growing to 40 people by the end of the year.
The center also is developing 18 new labs in the former Dow lab building, known as 701. Of those 18 labs, four will focus on chemicals, three will focus on automotive issues, three will be used to develop software, three will be dedicated to biomedical research and five will be geared toward life sciences and operated in partnership with West Virginia State University.
Two of the labs will be operated in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense.
"We're growing so fast," he said. "It's a really exciting time to be up here."