Emerging Technologies As a Venue to Decrease Incidents Related to Methane Explosions in Colombian Coal Mines

Methane explosions are very common in underground coal mines around Latin America. Colombia is not the exception, many methane explosion incidents have occurred in the last years. One of them took place in August 2021 in La Carbonera mine in Tópaga, Boyacá that caused twelve fatalities, mainly because of carbon monoxide poisoning. One of the victims was using a personal gas analyzer at the moment of the methane explosion. We have carefully analyzed the gas concentration of methane, oxygen, and carbon monoxide before and after the incident and have documented how this information can give clues on what caused the explosions. Furthermore, a careful review of the data weeks prior to the explosions suggested the existence of information that could have been used to alert of the upcoming tragedy. We have conducted Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations and have coupled them to Artificial Intelligence subroutines that show how emerging technologies can be used to minimize incidents such as the 2021 explosion at Tópaga.