Structural Differences of Spontaneous Combustion Prone Inertinite-Rich Chinese Lignite Coals: Insights from XRD, Solid-State13C NMR, LDIMS, and HRTEM

Abstract

China has a considerable lignite deposit in the Xinjiang province, but surface and underground coal seam fires pose a threat to the resources, environment, economy, and health. As the chemical and physical structure impacts coal fire propensity and behavior, two raw Xinjiang lignites were examined from the Shaerhu (SEH) and Piliqing (PLQ) Collieries. The SEH lignite is more prone to spontaneous combustion (from regional observations). These coals were of the same geological age and were both inertinite-rich 69.8 and 95.6% for SEH and PLQ, respectively (by the point counting approach). The more spontaneous combustion prone lignite had a significantly higher micropore contribution and surface area (92.4% and 195.6 m2/g), while both coals had similar micro- and mesopore size distribution ranges. Despite being classified as lignite by the mean vitrinite random reflectance (Rr, 0.30 and 0.26%) the inertinite contribution displaces some of the structural properties to be similar to the vitrinite-rich, high-vola...