Preparation of the Environmentally Friendly and High Stable Gel Foam Based on Biomass Xanthan Gum for Inhibiting Coal Spontaneous Combustion

ABSTRACT

In order to improve the environmental friendliness of inhibiting coal spontaneous combustion, a new environmentally friendly biomass gel foam was successfully prepared by using xanthan gum (XG), aluminum citrate (Alcit), gluconate-δ-Lactone (GDL), alkyl glycoside (APG), and tea saponin (TS). When the concentrations of XG, Alcit, GDL and biomass composite foaming agent were 4, 4, 0.4, and 0.3 wt%, respectively, the gel foam had a half-life of up to 27 days. The gel foam water retention study showed that the water loss rate of its was 60% lower than that of water and 58.6% lower than that of foam after heating at 60°C for 10 h. The temperature-programmed experiment showed that the gel foam could delay the accelerated oxidation temperature of coal from 90°C to 140°C. The fire extinguishing experiment showed that the gel foam could extinguish coal fire quickly, the temperature of coal rapidly dropped from 960°C to 121°C within the first 20 min and the reburning of coal fire was not observed after the extinguishment. This study is useful for the development of environmentally friendly gel foams for inhibiting coal spontaneous combustion.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Environmentally friendly
• gel foam
• biomass
• xanthan gum
• coal spontaneous combustion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [52074011]; University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province [GXXT-2022-018, GXXT-2020-057, GXXT-2020-079]; Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation [1908085J20].