Simulation-based decision support system for sustainable coalmining operations

Material handling operations at a coal mine have to be conducted such that they favorably impact its sustainability and that of the external world. This sustainability consists of environmental, social and economic dimensions. The goal of this paper is to propose a simulation-based decision support system (DSS) for surface coal mines that would help in choosing good decision parameters for material handling operations considering major sustainability factors. A very large surface coal mine in North America is used as case study. The decision parameters are applied to route coal and deliver pre-specified quality to customer trains with objective of maximizing revenue. The major sustainability factors considered are air emissions, ash sodium, sulfur, revenue and safety (truck accident rate). Taguchi-based design of experiments (DOE) procedure is utilized along with simulation model of material handling network, and real-time information from data warehouse located remotely at the coal mine, to formulate regression models between the decision parameters and sustainability factors. The decision parameters that significantly affect the sustainability factors are identified. It is indicated via experiments that the DSS can be applied to similar coal mines.