Coal is crushed in power stations by ball mills and is then blown into boilers by forced draft fans to be burnt like oil. I spent 10 years in power gen and used to be a member of NFPA 850 and I have never heard of non combustible coal.
The coal which someone mentioned as being spontaneously combustible is, I think, known in the US as Powder River Coal. Bulk coal carriers often experience spontaneous heating of coal in their holds on long transits - usually caused by moisture content. Agree sprinklers will not stop explosions - after withdrawal of halon 1301 I 'd like to hear what will. Any number of explosions in grain, flour and sugar silos every year - these can be disastrous. Stewart On 23 Feb 2011, at 22:20, A.P.Silva wrote: > They claim the coal is crushed to powder form before being brought into the > building, and that the powdered coal has been tested to be non-combustible. > I'm waiting for the report. > > Tony > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of njarendt > tds.net > Sent: February 23, 2011 2:43 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Fertilizer Plant > > Never heard of coal dust being noncombustible. We have employees up in the > mines and it is combustible and explosive per them. > > Norm > > On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 3:41 PM, A.P.Silva <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Coal dust is used in a process to manufacture fertilizer, in a 40,000 >> sq.ft. >> building, about 28 feet high. The issue is whether the building has to >> be sprinklered. The owner claims the coal is non-combustible and thus >> the building occupancy is low hazard industrial, in which case it >> would not have to be sprinklered. Anyone can comment on the occupancy? >> >> Tony >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Sprinklerforum mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum >> >> For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] >> >> To Unsubscribe, send an email >> to:[email protected] >> (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) >> > > > > -- > Norman Arendt, CHS III, CMAS, PhD, CFEII President Infragard Madison Members > Alliance Middleton Fire District Plan Reviewer and Investigator PCII and CVI > Certified _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum > > For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] > > To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] > (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum > > For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] > > To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] > (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
