Analysis of spontaneous combustion liability indices and coal recording standards/basis

The characterization of the physical and chemical properties of coal on a standard provides an understanding of its characteristics towards spontaneous combustion. The trend of linear relationships between coal recording standards (% air-dried (ad), % dry (db) and % dry ash free (daf) basis) of 30 selected coal samples from the Witbank coalfields and spontaneous combustion liability indices were evaluated. The spontaneous combustion liability indices of these samples were evaluated by crossing point temperature (XPT), Stage II Slope, FCC (Feng, Chakravorty, Cochrane) and the Wits-Ehac tests, while the coal properties were determined from the proximate and ultimate analyses. The results obtained from these coal properties were related to different liability indices to develop trends of linear relationships using regression analysis. The ad basis indicated higher correlation coefficients than the db and daf basis for the XPT and FCC index, while the daf showed higher correlation coefficients than the ad and db basis for the Wits-Ehac index. It was found that the trend of linear relationships of these coal properties differs from one liability index to the next. The XPTs showed a better trend followed by the Stage II Slope on the coal properties among the spontaneous combustion liability indices evaluated.