Russian State Geological Prospecting University (Moscow, Russia):

Lebedev V. S., Professor, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences

Moscow State Mining University (Moscow, Russia)
Skopintseva O. V., Professor, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, e-mail: skopintseva54@mail.ru

«Tekhnoservis Konsalting» LLC (Moscow, Russia)

Savelev D. I., Leading Specialist, Candidate of Engineering Sciences

It is generally accepted that methane is the main substance, causing fire and explosion in coal mines. Such conclusion is proved by the fact, that, being the most volatile component, methane is firstly released from coal seams in their water intrusion. Meanwhile, heavy hydrocarbons (such as propane and butane), deeply absorbed in coal, are considerably dangerous. These hydrocarbons are subsequently released from coal. However, in case of appearance of high temperature, when mining machine cutter comes into contact with coal (especially, containing solid inclusions), these hydrocarbons are released rather intensively. This article presents the results of studies of gas components in coal of several Kuznetsk coal basin mines. Samples of different grades were subjected to thermal degassing (heating up to 200 °C in inert gas atmosphere), followed by identification of separated volatile components by gas chromatography. There was found that the most dangerous emissions of propane and butane are medium metamorphism coals (grade"F"), where proportion of these components in the total volume of released gases is prevalent, reaching 94% (84.8%, on average). Against this background, the proportion of methane looks insignificant. This fact must be taken into account in formulation of preventive steps in gassy mines. Mine atmosphere must be classified as a mixture of "air — methane — heavy hydrocarbons — coal dust", and considered as a whole.

1. Lebedev V. S. Uglevodorodnyy sostav i izotopnyy sostav ugleroda metana ugolnykh plastov i gazovykh skopleniy, sformirovavshikhsya za schet «ugolnykh» gazov (na primere Donbassa) (Hydrocarbon composition and isotope composition of methane carbon of coal layers and gas cumulations, formed due to the “coal” gases (on the example of Donbass)). Gornyy Informatsionno-Analiticheskiy Byulleten. Tematicheskoe prilozhenie «Metan» — Mining Informational and Analytical Bulletin. Thematic application “Methane”, 2008, pp. 212–219.
2. Lebedev V. S., Telesheva S. Yu., Skopintseva O. V., Prokopovich A. Yu. Gornyi Zhurnal — Mining Journal, 2009, No. 2, pp. 70–71.
3. Lebedev V. S., Ivanov D. V., Skopintseva O. V., Savelev D. I. Izvestiya vuzov. Geologiya i razvedka — Proceedings of universities. Geology and Prospecting, 2010, No. 2, pp. 86–88.