Risk and mitigation of self-heating and spontaneous combustion in underground coal storage

Sipilä, Juha; Auerkari, Pertti; Heikkilä, Anna-Mari; Tuominen, Risto; Vela, Iris; Itkonen, Jyrki; Rinne, Mikael; Aaltonen, Kalevi

doi:10.1016/j.jlp.2012.01.006

Cited by 38 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Any heated coal can be directed either to combustion or to a short-term storage with enhanced monitoring and prevention systems. On coal entering storage directly from ship, differences up to about 20 have been shown in the same coal batch (Sipilä 2009). Measuring highest local temperatures for hot spots in the main storage is more difficult, although they are most likely to appear within 1-3 m from the surface providing air access.…”

Section: Monitoring Of Autoignitionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Thermal images showed two hot spots on the silo surfaces, one next to a maintenance door and another on nearly opposite side of the silo (Figure 5a). At the time of thermal imaging, the fire status had already improved and the coal surface level was only at a height of 6.3 m. At discharging, relatively strong steam flow was observed next to the bottom maintenance door and the concrete wall (Sipilä 2009). …”

Section: General Case Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(a) Thermal camera image of a hot spot in the silo and (b) post-fire inside appearance of the bottom maintenance door opening(Sipilä 2009). 454J.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emerging risk of autoignition and fire in underground coal storage

Sipilä¹,

Auerkari

Heikkilä

et al. 2013

Journal of Risk Research

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The risk and prevention of autoignition in underground coal storage facilities are reviewed in the light of the recent incidents of smouldering fires. Also, the opportunities are considered on the efficiency of the alternatives to prevent and extinguish closed-space fires. The complexities in avoiding and extinguishing underground fires are highlighted in the case example, describing the observations and outcome of a smouldering coal fire in the storage. The principles of self-heating and most critical factors in spontaneous combustion such as the condition and quality of coal are fairly well known, but usually only provide partial help in fire prevention. The documented cases and the case example suggest that nitrogen injection can be useful for extinguishing controllable fires. Three-phase foams and oxygen-displacing exhaust gases appear preferable against uncontrolled fires, particularly if access to the fire area is limited or impossible. Otherwise, efficient fire extinction during power plant operation can be challenging, as any air ingress tends to feed the fire and results in losses of the extinguishing agent and the heating value of coal. Methods and indicators for detecting and predicting the ignition are discussed, and improvements are suggested to enhance the storage and plant availability.

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Section: Monitoring Of Autoignitionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: General Case Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Emerging risk of autoignition and fire in underground coal storage

Sipilä¹,

Auerkari

Heikkilä

et al. 2013

Journal of Risk Research

Self Cite

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“…The spontaneous fires in some naturally-blasted mines account for more than 90% of the total number of mine fires, making the study of the influence of oxidation and secondary oxidation on the spontaneous combustion characteristics of coal has become a top priority, concerning the study of secondary oxidation that is not yet particularly perfect. At present, the methods to prevent spontaneous combustion of coal are usually found according to the three processes of coal spontaneous combustion (Singh et al, 2012;Sipilä et al, 2012) and the factors that affect the spontaneous combustion of coal (Liang and Wang, 2011;Morla et al, 2013;Wen and Dai, 2004;Tao et al, 2012). Up to now, many researches on the oxidation of coal have been carried out at home and abroad, deepening the understanding of spontaneous combustion mechanism (Wu et al, 2015;Pinelli, 2000;Mao et al, 2013;Miroshnichenko et al, 2014) and the tendency of spontaneous combustion (Sahay et al, 2007;Miroshnichenko et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2009;Kam et al, 1976).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of initial oxidation and secondary oxidation on spontaneous combustion of lignite

Huang

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2019

IJMMP

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In order to prevent the re-ignition of residual coal, this study presents a study of initial oxidation and secondary oxidation on the spontaneous combustion characteristics of coal. Three physical experiment methods:pore volume analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and cross point temperature method, were used to study the spontaneous combustion of lignite. The results show that the pore volume of coal increases with the increase of oxidation temperature. With the increase of temperature, different functional groups in the coal sample show different trends. Compared with initial oxidation, the tendency of the functional group changes again during the secondary oxidation. In the case of constant initial temperature of secondary oxidation, the crossing point temperature of coal samples show a decreasing trend at first and rising later. And in the case of constant initial temperature of initial oxidation, the crossing point temperature of coal samples show a trend of rising.

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“…Historically, coal is the fossil fuel most used to produce energy and nowadays it is still one of the most used fuels all over the world, with a total world consumption of 8,123,601 thousand tons in 2011 (U.S. Energy Information Administration). Thus, coal storage is a common practice and the associated hazards, its harmful effects to the environment and human health (Fabiano et al, 2013) and its self-ignition and spontaneous combustion risks are commonly studied (Sipil€ a et al, 2012). But coal production is gently being reduced (World coal association, 2013) and replaced by other products, such as biomass.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%