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• Spontaneous heating observed in haystacks and in wood are known to be mainly due
to the activity of bacteria.
6. Pyrites etc.
STAGES IN SPONTANEOUS HEATING
Thermal Decomposition(2200 C)
“OPEN FIRE”
After the indication period, open fire with visible active combustion breaks out.
In open fires, seams seldom burn with a bright flame but they glow developing bluish-white clouds
of smoke.
WHY SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED ABOUT IT?
IMPACTS
• Environmental Pollution: Besides destruction of the affected areas, coal
fires often emit tonnes of soot, noxious and toxic gases, including carbon
monoxide and Sulphur dioxide, Land subsidence.
Sweating ,
• In practice , the first sign that a heating has developed is the characteristics smell of fire stink or
gob stink.
• In the initial stage of heating , the smell resembles that of petrol , but as the heating progress , it
changes to the odour of kerosene , and later to the odor of tar.
2. Chemical indication :
• As coal passes through different stages of spontaneous combustion ,gaseous products
such as CO, CO2, CH4, C2H2, CnH2n and H2O are liberated , depending on the stage of
oxidation.CO and CO2 are liberated at low temperature up to 1000c.
• The following gas indices commonly used for early detection-
𝐶𝑂 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑
a) Graham’s ratio= *100
𝑂𝑥𝑦𝑔𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦
𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑜𝑥𝑑𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑
b) Young’s ratio = *100
𝑜𝑥𝑦𝑔𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑦
𝐶𝑂 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑
c) Willet's ratio = *100
𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑝+𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑠
𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑂−𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑂
d) CO/CO2 ratio= ∗ 100
𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 −𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑜𝑥𝑖𝑑𝑒
𝐸𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑁𝑖𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑜𝑥𝑖𝑑𝑒
e) Morris ratio =
𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑥𝑖𝑑𝑒+𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑜𝑥𝑖𝑑𝑒
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