TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2022//
TI  - Influence of water erosion on fire hazards in a coal waste dump - a case study
JO  - Science of the total environment
A1  - Różański, Zenon
A1  - Wrona, Paweł
A1  - Pach, Grzegorz
A1  - Niewiadomski, Adam P.
A1  - Markowska, Małgorzata
A1  - Wrana, Aleksander
A1  - Frączek, Robert
A1  - Balcarczyk, Leszek
A1  - Quintana, Guillermo Vaquero
A1  - de Paz Ruiz, David
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Dump fires are a significant environmental problem in post-mining areas. The TEXMIN project has shown that climate change could lead to more extreme weather events in the future, intense precipitation among them. The impact of water erosion on the development of endogenous fires in coal waste heaps has not been investigated thus far. Meteorological data collected from the studied dump area in Libiąż, Poland confirmed that heavy rainfall occurred many times, causing surface erosion on the slope. Gully erosion was observed on the western slope of the heap, the depth of which was up to 1.6 m. Data showed that between areas with and without water erosion, there was a significant difference in measured temperatures and gas concentrations that defined the fire intensity. Erosion facilitated self-heating such that internal temperatures increased to 52.9 °C. Further, at a depth of 1 m in the self-heating zone, maximum gas concentrations were 15.65 vol%. CO(2), 10 ppm CO, and 0.435 vol%. CH(4), while the O(2) concentration dropped below 1.0 vol%. These results show that despite preventative measures, thermal activity reactivated in the vicinity of gully erosion and caused the self-heating zone to expand.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0048-9697
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155350
ID  - ref1
ER  -