The central and western region of Inner Mongolia is an important coal producing area in China, so there are many coal power plants here. These coal mines and power plants discharge a large amount of coal-solid wastes such as coal gangue, fly ash and desulphurized gypsum every year,which occupy a large amount of land resources. And many of gangue hills are in the status of spontaneous combustion,and release a large amount of harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, which seriously pollute the surrounding atmospheric environment, and affect the sustainable development of the enterprises.
At present, most mining enterprises useclay to cover the surface of gangue hill to prevent air from entering the interior and to reduce the spontaneous combustion of gangue hill. However, this method can not completely extinguish the internal fire source of gangue hill, but can only have a temporary relief effect.Other regions in China have achieved certain success in using clay as grouting slurry to extinguish fire in gangue hills. However, the clay resources in the western part of Inner Mongolia are rare and it is difficult to obtain good clay. Additionally, the clay with sand and stones has defects such as poor viscosity and large particles, and is not suitable being used as a grouting fire extinguishing material. The replicability and popularization of this treatment technology are impossible in the region.
For the environmental characteristics and industrial development status of the ecologically fragile region, fire extingushing slurry with different properties using coal-based solid wastes was developed to treat the spontaneous combustion of gangue hills. By studying the synergistic mechanism of coal based solid wastes, additives were developed and fire extinguishing slurries with different properties were prepared. According to the depth and temperature distribution range of gangue hill spontaneous combustion, the corresponding treatment technology of deep-grouting, spraying and surface-grouting is adopted to form a "three-slurries" comprehensive treatment model, which effectively cuts off the internal channel of air into the gangue hill, and improves the acidic environment inside the gangue hill. The gangue hill will not be re-burned after treatment. This technology has been used in the treatment of many gangue hills and has been obtained good results.
Utilizing coal-based solid wastes as the main fire extingushing raw material to treat the spontaneous combustion of gangue hills not only protects the local clay resources, but also is a new way for the bulk utilization of coal-based solid waste. This method has greatly reduced the treatment cost, and realized "treating waste with waste", which has remarkable local characteristics and obvious economic, social and environmental benefits.