The oxidation characteristics and spontaneous combustion (SC) tendency of raw long-flame coal (RC), water-soaked 200-day coal (S200), pre-oxidized water-soaked coal at 200 °C (O200S200), and pre-oxidized soaked coal at 300 °C (O300S200) in an oxygen-poor environment were investigated using a programmed warming system. The results show that pre-oxidation water-soaked treatment (PWT) promotes the coal-oxygen complex reaction and increases the rate of coal oxygen consumption (OCR) and the rate of carbon and oxygen compound production. The rate of CO and CO2 production of the water-soaked (WS) coal increased by 0.329 mol·(cm3·s)-1 and 0.922 mol·(cm3·s)-1, respectively, compared with that of the original coal sample. PWT reduces the activation energy of coal in the low-temperature oxidation stage (the maximum difference can be up to 110.99 kJ/mol) and enhances the oxidizing and heat-releasing capacity. There was a synergistic effect between the pre-oxidation (PO) and WS treatment, and the lowest comprehensive determination index of the SC propensity of coal in O200S200 samples was 831.92 which was 4.72 lower than that of RC samples, presenting a more SC tendency. Low oxygen concentration has an inhibitory effect on the oxidation characteristic parameters of coal, and the apparent activation energy of the low-temperature oxidation stage of pre-oxidized water-soaked coal (PWC) increased to 206.418 kJ/mol at 3% oxygen concentration. The lower the oxygen concentration of the anoxic environment, the lower the risk of SC of the coal samples. The results of the study can provide theoretical guidance for the identification and prevention of SC disasters in coal seams with shallow burial and close spacing.
Keywords: Coal spontaneous combustion; Gas production characteristics; Oxidation kinetics; Pre-oxidized water-soaked coal; Spontaneous combustion tendency.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.