Experimental investigation on spontaneous combustion oxidation characteristics and stages of coal with different metamorphic degrees

Coal spontaneous combustion (CSC) is a major disaster threatening coal mine safety; therefore, the investigation of coal spontaneous combustion and oxidation characteristics has been a hot topic in the long term. In this paper, the experimental temperature programmed system is used to carry out the simulation experiment of coal spontaneous combustion and oxidation of three kinds of coal with different metamorphic degrees under three oxygen concentrations (9%, 15%, 21%). The effects of metamorphic degree and oxygen concentration on coal oxidation characteristics were analyzed, and the variation laws of crossing point temperature, three characteristic point temperature, and apparent activation energy were qualitatively discussed. Finally, coal oxidation reaction stages were evaluated and divided. The results show that the concentrations of CO and C 2 H 4 are negatively correlated with the degree of deterioration but increase with the increase of oxygen concentration. High metamorphic coal corresponds to high crossing point temperature (CPT). The average error between the CPT value calculated from the BM empirical correlation and the experimental data is very small, which is 6.42%. The higher the metamorphic degree of coal, the higher the three characteristic temperature points (critical temperature, xerochasy temperature, and activity temperature). The oxidation process of the three coal samples is divided into four stages: surface oxidation, oxidation self-heating, accelerated oxidation, and deep oxidation. The apparent activation energy of each stage exhibits significant variability, with varying patterns displayed with the degree of metamorphism.