MAIN COMPONENTS OF FOSSIL COALS, THEIR CONSUMER QUALITIES AND HAZARDOUS PROPERTIES OF COAL SEAMS

Purpose: the goal is to more fully disclose the essence of the geological processes of coal formation and improve the regulatory framework for the safe conduct of mining operations to establish correlations or trends in changes in the elemental content of the main components of organic mass and mineral impurities for different states of coal during metamorphic transformations of coal seams. Methodology: the technique involves using carbon content as a criterion for assessing the degree of metamorphism of the transformation of coal seams, since it practically functionally controls the sum of the remaining main components of the organic mass throughout the entire range of coalification. This made it possible to use reliable experimental data from technical and elemental analysis of reference and regulatory documents on the consumer qualities of coal in scientific research, established by standard methods over several decades, to predict the hazardous properties of coal seams. Results: The patterns of changes in the elemental content of the main components of organic mass and mineral impurities for different states of coal samples (analytical, organic, working) during metamorphic transformations of coals have been established. Scientific novelty: Based on the change in the elemental content of the relative organic mass of carbon and hydrogen, as well as the moisture of analytical samples, three characteristic stages of metamorphic transformations of coal seams were established, which determine their dangerous properties. With a carbon content of 79÷89%, the hydrogen content per conventional organic mass remains unchanged, and the transformations at this stage are almost completely associated with the reduction of oxygen in other components of mineral impurities. Individual differences between mine layers at this stage of transformation are associated with the moisture content in analytical samples and the amount of external moisture removed during sample preparation. With a further increase in the influence of metamorphic processes (increase in carbon content to 89÷93%), a decrease in hydrogen content occurs, which indicates the removal of a certain proportion of moisture from the analytical samples together with external moisture from the system. At the third stage of metamorphic transformations of coal seams (carbon content more than 93%), together with external moisture, based on the minimum values of hydrogen and moisture in analytical samples, there was a further reduction in the moisture of analytical samples to their minimum values. Practical value: the research results make it possible to develop proposals for improving the regulatory framework for safe mining operations in terms of predicting the manifestation of hazardous properties of coal seams. Keywords: coal seams, hazardous properties, mining operations, coal, samples, condition, analysis, components, organic mass, mineral impurities, metamorphism, forecast, regulatory framework, safety, improvement.