Report of Investigations 9348: Laboratory Determination of Signature Criteria for Locating and Monitoring Abandoned Mine Fires

Details

• Journal Article:
  Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 9348
• Personal Author:
  Kim, Ann G.
• Description:
  The U.S. Bureau of Mines mine fire diagnostic methodology to locate and monitor fires in abandoned mines and waste banks is based on controlled sampling of the mine atmosphere to determine changes in the concentration of hydrocarbons desorbed from heated coal. To provide background data for this methodology, a laboratory study was conducted in which samples of coal and coal waste were heated under controlled conditions. Gas samples from the combustion furnace were analyzed for standard gases co2 and CO and for the c1 to c5 hydrocarbons. In all tests, the concentration of desorbed hydrocarbons increased during heating and decreased during cooling. A dimensionless hydrocarbon ratio, r1, was developed as the signature for heated coal. For bituminous coals, the value of r1 increases during heating of coal samples and decreases during cooling of the same samples. Generally, r1 values of 100 or more indicate coal sample temperatures of at least 100 deg c. The emission of higher molecular weight hydrocarbons from anthracite samples was very low, resulting in relatively low r1 values at all temperatues. Data from field projects confirmed these results. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Chemistry Coal Coal Mining Environmental Monitoring Fires Hazardous Substances Hydrocarbons Laboratories Mining Occupational Health Safety

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• Keywords:
  Gas-analysis; Hydrocarbons; Site-surveys; Concentration-Composition; Coal-mining; Desorption; Chemical-composition; Laboratory-equipment; Experimental-design; Temperature-dependent; Toxic-substances; Methane; Abandoned-sites; Mine-fires; Environmental-monitoring; Mine-wastes
• Source:
  Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, RI 9348, 1991 Jan; :1-19
• Series:
  NIOSH Numbered Publications   ; Mining Publications  
• Subseries:
  Report of Investigations
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRC - Pittsburgh Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  25 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10008558
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-177351
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1991
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:824af0e868eb8d8c3a2b913deac96d18afabfd23e3896687b5eef71bd94e5e0978a960f1cffe44e91ce74671d8edf56f09440faca0d5e91d548c45c173061a70
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/10556/cdc_10556_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.10 MB ]