An integrated model of an open-pit coal mine: improving energy efficiency decisions
提出了一个露天煤矿的集成模型，用混合整数线性规划协调四个子系统的操作，以提升整体能源效率，并通过案例验证了其辅助决策的潜力。
This article contributes an original integrated model of an open-pit coal mine for supporting energy-efficient decisions. Mixed integer linear programming is used to formulate a general integrated model of the operational energy consumption of four common open-pit coal mining subsystems: excavation and haulage, stockpiles, processing plants and belt conveyors. Mines are represented as connected instances of the four subsystems, in a flow sheet manner, which are then fitted to data provided by the mine operators. Solving the integrated model ensures the subsystems’ operations are synchronised and whole-of-mine energy efficiency is encouraged. An investigation on a case study of an open-pit coal mine is conducted to validate the proposed methodology. Opportunities are presented for using the model to aid energy-efficient decision-making at various levels of a mine, and future work to improve the approach is described.