Thermodynamic variation law and influence mechanism of low-temperature oxidation of lignite samples with different moisture contents

Abstract

Coal spontaneous combustion (CSC) is one of the main disasters that threaten the safe production in coal mines. Moisture, which is the main factor affecting coal oxidation, has a considerable impact on CSC. In this paper, the variation characteristics of TG-DTG and DSC-DDSC curves of two kinds of lignite during low-temperature oxidation were investigated. The following results were obtained: Oxidation-induced heat production (OHP) starts to play a leading role in the temperature range of 50–75 °C; pyrolysis-induced heat absorption (PHA) grows faster than OHP in the temperature range of 70–130 °C; and OHP is dominant in the temperature range of 130–260 °C. Furthermore, for coal samples from Shengli (SL) Coal Mine and Yuanbaoshan (YB) Coal Mine, the initial heat release temperature and the end temperature both conform to the Lorentz function T=T0+2A(B4(M−Mc)2+B2). Thermodynamic parameters reach the maximum under the moisture content of 12%–17% where the CSC is the most likely to occur. In the oxygen adsorption and weight gain stage, the activation energy decreases and gradually stabilizes with the increase in moisture content. In the accelerated oxidation stage, moisture in coal plays a chemical catalytic role in the processes of oxygen chemical adsorption and intermediate complex formation and decomposition. However, excessive moisture cannot accelerate the coal-oxygen composite reaction.