Fire Protective Coating - A Novel Approach for Preventing Spontaneous Combustion in Coal Mines

The problem of spontaneous combustion is very common in coal mines. Coal industry is facing a lot of problems due to occurrence of fire in opencast coal mines. At present, over 70% of the total coal production in Indian mines is obtained by opencast mining. Fire in coal, particularly in opencast mines not only causes irreparable loss of natural wealth but also damages the surface structures and pollutes the environment. It is well known that 75% of the fires occur due to spontaneous combustion of coal. A fire protective coating material has been successfully developed and applied in Karkatta OCP, Dakra, CCL, Jagannath OCP, Talcher, MCL and Jhingurdah OCP, Singrauli, NCL. Huge amount of national property could be saved from occurrences of fire by the use of CMRI developed fire protective coating. The objective of this paper is to describe about fire protective coating material, its advantages and applications in different opencast coal mines for preventing spontaneous combustion.