Studies of spontaneous heating liability of some Indian coals

Abstract

Spontaneous heating ultimately leading to coal mine fire pose a major problem and has been an area of concern in mining industry since long. It has drawn the attention of industry as well as researchers to investigate regarding its cause and determine the susceptibility of various coal seams to spontaneous heating. Majority of coal mine fires existing in different coalfields are primarily due to spontaneous combustion of coal. Generally mine fires start very small but gradually it expands to a large scale and causes immaculate loss of natural assets causing pollution of land, water ,air along with huge economic losses to the concerned organisation. Although extensive research work has been done on this topic but proper assessment and determination of liability of various coal types to spontaneous combustion is necessary in dealing with such problems before, during and after mining. It would help the mine operators to plan the extraction and working of coal before spontaneous combustion takes place. Hence, determination of spontaneous heating liability of coal samples is essential to plan the production activities and suitably optimise it in order to do complete extraction within incubation period and prevent mine fire and its losses. This project deals with the study of determination of spontaneous heating liability of coal and its variation with respect to the coal properties. Eight coal samples were collected from different collieries across India: Mahanadi coal fields (MCL), Bharat coking coalfield Limited (BCCL), Singreni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), North Eastern Coalfields Limited (NECL), Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) and were subjected to different experimental techniques for assessment of their spontaneous heating liability.