A Novel Method for Borehole Blockage Removal and Experimental Study on a Hydraulic Self-Propelled Nozzle in Underground Coal Mines

When coal bed methane (CBM) drainage boreholes cross fractured, soft, or water-swelling strata, they collapse and block frequently. Borehole blockages result in a rapid decrease in CBM extraction ability, which leads to a reduction in CBM output and threatens coal mine safety production. To solve these problems, a novel method that uses a self-propelled water-jet nozzle to dredge blocked boreholes in coal seams has been proposed on the basis of the existing technology. Based on a theoretical analysis of the reason for borehole caving and the theory of blockage removal, we optimized the nozzle inlet pressure and selected an appropriate high-pressure resin pipe. A field experiment on the blockage removal of blocked CBM drainage boreholes using the proposed method was run in the Fengchun coal mine, Qijiang, Chongqing, southwest China. In this field trial, the time spent to unblock a borehole varied between 18.52 and 34.98 min, which is much shorter than using a drilling rig. After blockage removal, the average pure volume of the methane drainage of a single borehole was increased from 0.03 L/min to similar to 1.91-7.30 L/min, and the methane drainage concentration of a single borehole increased from 5% to similar to 44%-85%. The extraction effect increased significantly.