Experimental investigation on the proneness of coal samples to spontaneous heating using proximate analysis and crossing point temperature method

Abstract

Auto oxidation or spontaneous heating of coal is one of the major problems in coal mining industries. Many coal mines fires were reported due to auto oxidation. Therefore, a detailed investigation of the coal properties against the proneness to the spontaneous heating is very much necessary. In this paper an experimental investigation on the field collected coal sample was conducted to identify the proneness of these samples towards the spontaneous heating. To perform this study, the five types of coal sample were gathered from the different part of Indian coal mines. The inherent properties of the coal samples namely, moisture content, volatile matter, ash content and fixed carbon were calculated in percentage in the laboratory. Further, the laboratory testing on the coal samples were performed to measure the crossing point temperature which is nothing but the temperature of coal at which the coal temperature equal to the reference sample (bath) temperature. This will help in understanding the susceptibility of coal samples to self-heating. In the experimental analysis the maximum values of proximate analysis of moisture content, volatile matter, ash content and fixed carbon are 21.48%, 43.09%, 26.84% and 44.81% respectively were observed among all five coal samples. Moreover, the maximum and minimum value of crossing point temperature of the field collected samples were correspondingly 179.6 °C and 135.4 °C.