Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Mathematical modeling of the effect of pressure on low-temperature oxidation of coal indicates that high partial pressure of oxygen significantly accelerates the physical and chemical interaction between coal and oxygen. Based on these findings, this paper develops a new test method for ranking the susceptibility of coal to spontaneous combustion, using a high-pressure technique to shorten the testing period. By combining an isothermal high-pressure fixed-bed flow reactor with appropriate diagnostic instrumentation, an experimental facility is designed to determine the rate of coal oxidation, the concentration of oxygenated products, as well as the rate of heat release during oxidation. It is expected that, when the facility is operated at a partial pressure of oxygen of 5MPa, the time needed to carry out an experiment will be shortened by 75% in comparison to the data reported in the literature at atmospheric pressure.