SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION IN COAL WITH REFERENCE TO JHARIA AREA - A DIS-HONEST APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

1. SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION IN COAL WITH
REFERENCE TO JHARIA AREA - A DIS-HONEST
APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Mohammad Rizwan
&
Neelam Joshi
School of Studies in Earth Science,
Vikram University, Ujjain (M.P.)

2. Contents
 Introduction
 Location of the area
 Geology of Jharia coalfield
 Behavior or coal geochemistry
Petrological behavior of coal
Economic status or aspect
Drawback & spontaneous combustion in Jharia Coalfield
 Environmental issue due to spontaneous combustion
 conclusion

3. Introduction
Coal is a combustible black or dark brown
rock consisting chiefly of carbonized plant
matter and used as fuel. According to Stopes
and Wheeler (1918) - “Ordinary coal is a
compact stratified mass of mummified plant
which has, in part, suffered arrested decay to
varying degrees of completeness”. Arber
(1918) - “Coal is as solid, stratified rock,
composed mainly of hydrocarbons and
capable of being used as a fuel to supply
heat or light or both”.

4. Spontaneous combustion
 Coal particularly low rank coal, has a affinity to
absorb oxygen whenever left in the open air, the coal
is oxidised and gets slowly heated up due to
accumulation of released heat and a time comes when
the temperature exceeds ignition point and the coal
burn on its own the mechanism is known as
spontaneous combustion.

6. Location of the area
The Coalfield lies in the Damodar river valley. This
Coalfield extends with the latitude 23039’ – 23048’ N and
longitude 86011’ – 86029’ E. Jharia coalfield located in the
district of Dhanbad (Jharkhand) and about 260 km North –
West to Kolkata. It is covered 110 sq miles area.
This Coalfield lies within the district of Dhanbad and the
town of Dhanbad is in its northern margin. This field is
roughly sickle shaped and axis running NW-SW. The Coal
basin extends for about 38 km in East - West direction and
a maximum of 18 km in North South direction and covers
an area of about 456 sq km.

7. Location Map of Jharia Coalfield

8. Geology of Jharia coalfield
The Jharia Coalfield forms a part of the East-West trending
Gondwana basin of the Damodar valley in the North-Eastern part
of India. Preliminary results of gravity surveys over this coalfield
have been discussed by “Verma & Ghosh (1974).
The thickness of sediments is nearly 2.4 km from the surface .
The geological section bring outs the major features of the
Coalfield such as gentle slope towards southern along the
northern boundary. A steep slope towards north close to the
southern boundary. Faults and basement uplift at various places in
seen.

9. Geological Succession of Jharia Coal Field

10. Behavior or coal geochemistry
 Petrological behavior of coal
In the Jharia coalfield, coal affected by mica-lamprophyre, away from the
contact with dyke and termed them coke, semi-coke and unaffected coal.
In coke vitrinite is not discernible but “dark areas with white patches” are
seen having reflectivity of fusinite, being vesicular. In semi-coke, vitrinite
is less conspicuous and the white substance is prevalent resembling semi-
fusinite. Unaffected coal is characterized by vitrinite. (B. Mukherjee –
1962).
Jharia coal are affected by igneous sills of mica-lamprophyre, thermally
metamorphosing the seams in contact into natural coke. Petrologically,
four zones are traceable away from the contact; natural coke, coked coal,
affected coal and unaffected coal. Natural coke – mineral-filled vacuoles
and strongly anistropic fused matrix with unaltered fusinite. Coked coal –
vacuoles are less, anisotropism is less marked & spherical units are 50
microns. Affected coal is folded & micro-laminated with vitrinite and
inertinite. Unaffeted coal is typical bituminous coal. (Pareek – 1966)

11.  Economic status or aspect
Since the first reported fire in the Jharia started in 1916 at least 37 million
tons of coal have been consumed in the inferno, reaching temperature as
high as 7310C. It is estimated that close to 1.5 billion tonnes of coal are in
inaccessible due to burning.
Jharia coalfield has been rightly called the most important store house for
metallurgical coal in India. Coking coals of inferior quality (high-ash coking
coals) as found in the Jharia coalfield, make a finest domestic fuel (soft
coke) available in India. But the soft coke is manufactured in the open and
therefore, crores of rupees worth of by-products are lost to the country.
In jharia area lamprophyre dyke is frequently found indicates the
geosynclinal deposition of coal. Due to this dykes the coal of jharia hes been
chared and converted into jhama. This jhama is well known for the
germanium concentration which is one of the fine metal used as war mineral
as well as coating on railways wheels.

12.  Drawback & spontaneous combustion in Jharia Coalfield
Uncontrolled coal fires reportedly began in the Jharia Coalfield
(JCF) in 1916, about 26 years after the start of mining (Munshi
1995). New fires appear and many existing fires continue to expand
(although a few fires have been extinguished and others greatly
reduced in size).
The fire effects, including ground subsidence, have produced
unprecedented havoc; loss of life, property and productivity of the
land surface and disruption of the lives of people in the coalfield.
To date the fires have: 1) affected half of about 90 collieries,
2) affected over 17 sq. km. of the coalfield, 3) consumed 40 million
tonnes of coal and 4) isolated from recovery 1.45 billion tons of
coal.
In Jharia, a total of 75.77 square km area of land has been affected
due to fire (17.32 sq.km.), subsidence (39.47 sq.km), excavation
(12.68 sq.km) and dumps (6.30 sq.km).

14. Environmental issue due to spontaneous combustion
 The enormity of the problem and the impact on the economy of India and
the health and safety of the local population justified an assessment to
determine the extent of the fires, their rate and direction of propagation
potential effects in both the short and long term on continued coal
production and to identify abatement alternatives for extinguishing,
controlling and preventing the fires.
 Toxic gases produced spontaneous combustion are following-
Sulphur dioxide So2
Oxides of nitrogen Nox
Hydrogen Sulphide H2 S [also flammable]
Carbon monoxide CO [also flammable].
 Explosive gases that are most likely to be present during a heating and that
are flammable-
Methane CH4
Hydrogen H2
Carbon Monoxide CO

15. The Peoples Carrying Drinking Water To Their Houses at
DEEPU DHOWRA Slum Area In Jharia

16. WATER POLLUTION NEAR COAL
FIELD

17. Air Pollution near Jharia
coalfield

18. Destruction and subsidence

19. Emigration

20. Conclusion
 Spontaneous combustion in coal mine of stated
area leads to detrimental situation and alarming
for the future growth of economy, needs to be
analyzed in great details. In present endeavor,
author have tried to foresee the seriousness of
coal fire in the area under study as well as life
of the habitats.