An analysis of self-ignition of mine waste dumps in terms of environmental protection in industrial areas in Poland

Abstract

The aim of the paper was to work out a new comprehensive methodology to monitor thermal activity at mine waste dumps. The methodology was tested through monitoring thermal phenomena occurring in the areas of extractive waste dumping facilities located in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland. Within the framework of the study, a comparative analysis of three waste dumps was performed; the first two of them, which were not previously reclaimed, are in part thermally active, whereas the third one comprises one section which was partially reclaimed and another section which is still being operated. The research objective was to observe the changes of atmospheric emissions of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the three selected facilities within the period of 21 months of constant monitoring. The novelty of the methodology of thermal activity monitoring at burning mine waste dumps consisted in the application advanced chemometrics methods. The collected data were analyzed by means of the Hierarchical Clustering Analysis supplemented with a color map of the experimental results. Based on the newly developed methodology, it was determined that thermal processes occur in all of the three analyzed sites. The non-reclaimed waste dumps characterize of intense thermal phenomena covering the majority of the studied area. It was also observed that the most intensive thermal activity occurs in the central sections of the dumps with temperature values reaching the level of 600 °C accompanied by high emissions of PAHs. In addition, the research results demonstrate that despite the reclamation processes, there are certain areas which still remain thermally active in one of the studied extractive waste dumps. This manifested itself by high measured concentrations of all the analyzed PAHs and locally increased surface temperatures which, however, did not exceed 200 °C; the majority of the areas of the reclaimed waste dump characterized of temperatures in the range of 20–30 °C.

Monitoring potential spontaneous combustion in a coal waste dump after reclamation through unmanned aerial vehicle RGB imagery based on alfalfa aboveground biomass

“…The purpose of land reclamation is usually to increase vegetation cover and reduce soil erosion in the short term by artificially covering with topsoil and introducing local plant species, and then further establishing a self‐regulating ecosystem in the longer term (S. Li et al, 2013; Ren et al, 2021). Even if mining enterprises put in a lot of land reclamation effort, the spontaneous combustion risk still exists (Batugin et al, 2019; A. Li et al, 2021; Smoliński et al, 2021). Spontaneous combustion in a coal waste dump is hidden from view in the initial stages, and often does not receive much attention.…”

Design of an IoT-Based Monitoring System as a Part of Prevention of Thermal Events in Mining and Landfill Waste Disposal Sites: A Pilot Case Study

“…In this work [11], the authors focused on the methodology of monitoring thermal processes in mining waste disposal sites and changes in emissions of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH). Two mining waste disposal sites that were not reclaimed were monitored, one that is partly reclaimed and partly in operation.…”

Numerical Simulation of the Dynamic Change Law of Spontaneous Combustion of Coal Gangue Mountains

“…Misz-Kennan et al 14 explored the movement rule of the fire source inside the gangue mountain by measuring the temperature of the surface, interior, and surrounding air of the gangue mountain for many years. Smoliński et al 15 obtained the change law of the temperature field of the gangue mountain by monitoring the atmospheric emissions above the gangue mountain for 21 months. Krzysztof et al 16 determined the spontaneous combustion tendency of coal gangue mountains by experimentally measuring the properties of coal gangue.…”