Przebieg i przyczyny endogenicznego pożaru węgla kamiennego na zrekultywowanym składowisku odpadów komunalnych w Katowicach

Slopes of the abandoned municipal waste landfill in the city of Katowice remediated in 1998 have been thermally active since 2007. The thermal activity was caused by spontaneous coal combustion within the sub-surface (0.5–1.5 m below ground level) layer of coal mine waste used for engineering the landfill. Exploitation of biogas from the landfill prior to thermal events may have enhanced exothermic oxidation of coal waste. The smoldering is the prevalent and persistent form of coal combustion in the landfill and is responsible for high emissions of CO (up to 3%), CO2 (>18%), methane and a suite of gaseous hydrocarbons. Attempts to extinguish coal fire did not prevent the advance of smoldering front at a rate of tens of metres per year.