Addressing the pressing demand for biogas and landfill-gas upgrading within the global energy transition, this work strategically combines thermodynamic and kinetic separation principles to identify, from a cooperative-separation perspective, the effective pore-size range that governs carbon molecular sieve (CMS) performance. Thirty anthracite-derived CMS samples with distinct pore structures were synthesized and employed as a statistical set to link pore architecture with dynamic adsorption performance. The results clarify the effective pore-size range and mechanism for enhanced CMS selectivity: CH₄ uptake depends exclusively on ultramicropores (20 Å), whereas CO₂ uptake is less sensitive to pore-size distribution. CO₂/CH₄ separation performance improves linearly with the volume fraction of mesopores >20 Å, defining a 20–60 Å mesopore window as optimal for cooperative CMS. Mechanistic studies show that a high mesopore fraction significantly slows CH₄ adsorption while maintaining a fast CO₂ uptake, thereby amplifying their intrinsic adsorption-rate difference. This work breaks from the conventional purely thermodynamic or kinetic sieving paradigm and offers new design criteria for CMS tailored to on-site biogas and landfill-gas purification.

The arching effect of surrounding rock pressure is critical for ground pressure control in mining areas. Taking a stope in Malipo tungsten mine as the engineering background, this study optimizes stope structural parameters based on the arching pressure theory. Analysis of the stope pressure arch shape equation shows that the pressure arch shape is mainly determined by the lateral pressure coefficient (λ) and stope span (L), while the actual load on pillars equals the weight of rock mass within the overlying pressure arch shell. Pillar loads differ at various stope locations. Combined with the pillar area bearing theory, the rock weight supported by pillars at different stope positions under the arching pressure theory was determined, and a load calculation formula for pillars at various locations was derived. A stope pillar size optimization method was also proposed, which overcomes the defect of excessively large pillar sizes caused by the pillar area bearing theory. It ensures pillar stability during mining while improving ore recovery rates. Taking an existing 830 m-deep stope in the tungsten mine as an example, the optimization method based on the arching pressure theory determined the actual required widths of pillars at different locations. This increased the ore recovery rate from the original 67.56% to 69.47% (an increase of 1.91%). This study provides a reference for the reasonable setting of pillar sizes.