Investigation on Fires in Coal Mines and Approach for Prevention – Case Study

Abstract

Coal absorbs oxygen even at lower temperatures than the ambient temperature and they start heating up. This heating without any external source of supply of heat generally leads to due to auto-oxidation, also called spontaneous heating of coal.Due to auto-oxidation, we are faced with many dangerous problems. Therefore the assessment of this problem has become necessary and hence we are trying to calculate and predict how susceptible or prone any coal might be towards spontaneous heating before its use in any industry. As a Mining Engineer some steps towards the prevention were noted from the observations of earlier investigators and some suggestions are made from our findings which may reduce the possibilities of tendencies towards auto-oxidation and also to find some suitable way to minimize the threat caused due to this spontaneous heating.