Investigating the Effect of a Mitigation Trench on CO2 Fluxes on a Reclaimed Coal Mine Spoil
Abstract
High CO2 fluxes associated with reclaimed coal mine spoils pose an environmental hazard where such sites are used for building. CO2 concentrations in excess of 25% have been reported in homes constructed on or down gradient of such spoils. the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a mitigation trench used at one mine site on CO2 fluxes across the trench using chamber-Based trace gas measurement. LI8100 automated CO2 flux system was used to measure CO2 fluxes from 32 sample points located across a deep mitigation trench on June 8 and 9. the maximum recorded fluxes were 7.29 and 8.18 μmol/m2/s, with averages of 4.15 and 5.50 μmol/m2/s, up and down-dip respectively. These preliminary results show CO2 flux is higher up-hill than down-hill at 95% significant level. This work shows that flux measurement can be used to investigate CO2 migration on reclaimed mine land. Further work is necessary to allow geostatistical modeling of the spatial variability of CO2 fluxes over reclaimed coal mine spoils. Knowledge gained would assist mining practitioners and regulators in reclamation planning for envisaged post-mining land uses.
Recommended Citation
M. Mathiba and K. Awuah-Offei, "Investigating the Effect of a Mitigation Trench on CO2 Fluxes on a Reclaimed Coal Mine Spoil," SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit 2010, pp. 303 - 306, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Jul 2010.
Department(s)
Mining Engineering
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-161738082-2
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2024 Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
08 Jul 2010
