Characteristics of oxygen consumption of coal at programmed temperatures

Oxygen consumption is an important index of coal oxidation.In order to explore the coal-oxygen reaction,we developed an experimental system of coal spontaneous combustion and tested oxygen consumption of differently ranked coals at programmed temperatures.The size of coal samples ranged from 0.18～0.42 mm and the system heat-rate was 0.8℃/min.The results show that, for high ranked coals,oxygen consumption rises with coal temperature as a piecewise non-linear process.The critical coal temperature is about 50℃.Below this temperature,oxygen consumption decreases with rising coal temperatures and reached a minimum at 50℃,approximately.Subsequently,it begins to increase and the rate of growth clearly increased with temperature.For low ranked coals,this characteristic is inconspicuous or even non-existent.The difference in oxygen consumption at the same temperatures varies for differently ranked coals.The results show the difference in oxygen consumption of the coals tested in our study reached 78.6%at 100℃.Based on the theory of coal-oxygen reaction,these phenomena were analyzed from the point of view of physical and chemical characteristics,as well as the appearance of the coal-oxygen complex.From theoretical analyses and our experiments,we conclude that the oxygen consumption at programmed temperatures reflects the oxidation ability of coals perfectly.