Author(s)

Sabbir Ahamed¹, Minhaj Uddin Monir¹, Pradip Kumar Biswas^2*, Anwar Arfien Khan²

¹Department of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Jessore University of Science and Technology, Jessore, Bangladesh.
²Institute of Mining, Mineralogy and Metallurgy, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Joypurhat, Bangladesh.

Spontaneous combustion of coal is one of the major problems in the coal mine. The fire may occur due to exogenous and endogenous causes, by which coal liberated heat to the air or heat absorbed into it. It causes loss of production, as well as economical or financial losses and polluted the environment. If, the heat liberated during this process is allowed to accumulate, the rate of reaction increases exponentially and there is a further rise in temperature that generates the flame and produce CO, CO₂, CH₄, N₂, O₂ etc. In addition, the heat generated within coal affected by different factors such moisture, ash, volatile matter etc. of coal. This paper deals with the oxidation and spontaneous combustion risk in Barapukuria underground longwall coal mine, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. In this study, the laboratory analyses (proximate analyses) shows the inherent and the total moisture content value is average 2.73% and 5.82% to 12.75%, respectively. It indicates that these moisture contents are moderately liable to self heating. The less ash content value (av.13.2%) shows, it is less liable to spontaneous combustion. In addition to this, the temperature and concentration of some mine gases (CO, N₂, O₂) were monitored to calculate the Graham’s ratio. According to Graham’s ratio, the longwall faces have high oxidation risk and medium combustion risk. Therefore, the actual control of spontaneous combustion of coal is important to save coal mine from mine fires and also provides a real opportunity to improve the financial performance of the overall organization.

Spontaneous Combustion, Proximate Analyses, Underground Temperature, Graham’s Ratio

Ahamed, S. , Monir, M. , Biswas, P. and Khan, A. (2016) Investigation the Risk of Spontaneous Combustion in Barapukuria Coal Mine, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 4, 74-79. doi: 10.4236/gep.2016.44010.