Investigation the Risk of Spontaneous Combustion in Barapukuria Coal Mine, Dinajpur, Bangladesh

Abstract

Spontaneous\rcombustion of coal is one of the major problems in the coal mine. The fire may\roccur due to exogenous and endogenous causes, by which coal liberated heat to\rthe air or heat absorbed into it. It causes loss of production, as well as\reconomical or financial losses and polluted the environment. If, the heat\rliberated during this process is allowed to accumulate, the rate of reaction\rincreases exponentially and there is a further rise in temperature that\rgenerates the flame and produce CO, CO2, CH4, N2,\rO2 etc. In addition, the heat generated within coal affected by\rdifferent factors such moisture, ash, volatile matter etc. of coal. This paper\rdeals with the oxidation and spontaneous combustion risk in Barapukuria\runderground longwall coal mine, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. In this study, the laboratory\ranalyses (proximate analyses) shows the inherent and the total moisture content\rvalue is average 2.73% and 5.82% to 12.75%, respectively. It indicates that these\rmoisture contents are moderately liable to self heating. The less ash content\rvalue (av.13.2%) shows, it is less liable to spontaneous combustion. In\raddition to this, the temperature and concentration of some mine gases (CO, N2,\rO2) were monitored to calculate the Graham’s ratio. According to\rGraham’s ratio, the longwall faces have high oxidation risk and medium\rcombustion risk. Therefore, the actual control of spontaneous combustion of\rcoal is important to save coal mine from mine fires and also provides a real\ropportunity to improve the financial performance of the overall organization.