Benchmarking moist coal adiabatic oven testing

Coal self-heating leading to spontaneous ignition is an on-going safety and environmental issue for the coal industry. To assist with developing an appropriate Spontaneous Combustion Management Plan (SCMP) it is necessary to assess the propensity of the coal to spontaneously combust. This paper presents preliminary results of a new test method that benchmarks moist coal self-heating using an adiabatic oven against actual site performance. The test is conducted on the coal in its as-received moisture state. There is a significant time separation to thermal runaway between each of the coals tested to date. Coals with moisture contents greater than 7% go through a temperature plateau region before reaching thermal runaway, whereas coals with moisture contents less than 7% steadily increase in temperature until reaching thermal runaway