Mine Environmental

Engineering
MND406
Dr. Bhardwaj Pandit
Assistant Professor
Department of Mining
Engineering
IIT (ISM) Dhanbad
 Mine Fires: Introduction
 Most common hazard particularly in coal
mines (both UG and opencast).

 Financial loss

 Direct: Loss of coal reserve, mining

equipment, fire-fighting cost, recovery cost

 Indirect: Production loss, increased

operating costs.

 Non-Financial: Life and Health of workers,

large source of green house gas emissions.

 Fire Triangle

 Indian Coalfields – First fire in 1865 in

Raniganj.

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 Types of Coal Mine Fires
 Two Types -

 Spontaneous combustion/incipient fires/seam fires: No visible flame, smoke may be

visible.

 Open fires: Visible active flame. Last stage of seam fires. Can occur in timber
supports and mine equipment too.

1. Due to Friction

2. Electrical

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Formation of Coal

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 Constituents of Coal
 Coal attributes - density, calorific value, moisture content, volatile matter, fixed
carbon, ash, maceral content and rank, total iron, non-pyritic iron, total sulphur,
pyritic sulphur.

 Refer to this website for more information - www.uky.edu/KGS/coal/index.php

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 Spontaneous combustion of Coals
 Refers to Self heating – originating from auto-oxidation (of organic component of coal)
at ordinary atmospheric temperatures that is catalytic, exothermic and self sustaining.

 Leads to deterioration of coal.

 The process is complex and we lack full understanding.

 Starts with physical adsorption of oxygen on coal surface subsequently resulting into
chemical chain reaction

Coal + Oxygen  Coal-oxygen complex  Oxidized coal + CO+CO2+H2O+Heat

 If the heat produced is not dissipated at a sufficiently fast rate (by radiation, conduction,
convection or all three processes), it produces a further rise in temperature, which
accelerates the rate of oxygen sorption and heat accumulation until the ignition
temperature of the coal is reached.

 Weak air current becomes an important condition. The poor thermal conductivity of coal
also favours heat accumulation.

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Factors affecting liability of Coals towards spontaneous combustion

 Coal properties:

 Surface area of coals: Increases with increase in total surface area – fragment size
and pore size.

 Coal Rank: Lower rank  more susceptible to spontaneous heating, since it has
more moisture and Volatile matter content, making it more reactive.

 Volatile Matter: High VM content  more susceptible

 Moisture content: More susceptible at particular value (MC 0) and is lower on either
side of MC0. Exact mechanism not clear.

 Presence of Pyrite: Promotes spontaneous combustion. Conditions get more

favourable in wet conditions and FeS2 is finer in size.

 Ash content: May or may not accelerate depending upon mineral composition of ash.

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Factors affecting liability of Coals towards spontaneous combustion

 Coal properties:

 Temperature: Greatly influences. Rate of oxidation increases with rise in

temperature. However, for in isothermal conditions, oxidation decreases with time.

 Concentration of oxygen in contact air: Directly proportional of O2 concentration.

Minimum O2 required for spontaneous combustion is around 7%.

 Methane content of coal: If methane fills the pores, it creates inert atmosphere
reducing the susceptibility. However, with time as methane escapes, oxidation
begins.

 Geological Factors:

 Thickness of coal seams: Thickness more than 3 m pose great hazard.

 Faults: Tectonic disturbance such as faults lead to coal being in crushed state.
Leakage of air can happen in mine working.

 Irregular bands of coal and unworkable seams. 9