Times to Ignition Analysis of New South Wales

The ‘times to ignition’ theory has had limited use in the coal industry and virtually no use within Australia. The concept was originally applied to a range of Scottish coals to assess their spontaneous combustion propensity during transport in a 3x3m shipping hold. This paper presents results from an investigation into the application of the times to ignition (tad) concept to a range of New South Wales coals using data obtained from adiabatic oven self-heating tests. There is a strong association between tad and the R70 self-heating rate of a coal. The geographical location of the coal has a dramatic effect on the tad value as the initial coal temperature significantly changes the results by varying degrees.