Coal Seam Fires Pour Out CO2 and Poisons

Foam was exactly what I thought would be a good idea for the down deep fires. I didn't know that anybody had the solution already. It seems that the various governments involved have not made this a priority. I can't think of an excuse for that.

I would start a go fund me page and get all the greenies on board, then get this foam guy to do this in sections...

..."Then, two years ago, Michalski drew up a new, detailed plan to cut off one of Centralia’s four main fires. “Centralia’s fire is shaped like the letter H, with four limbs moving off in four different directions,” he says. Michalski, who has drawn up successful coal firefighting plans for several other Pennsylvania fires, proposed cutting off the fire’s northwest limb by filling strategic slices of the mine with coal combustion ash that wouldn’t fuel the advancing fire. “If this method worked on this one limb, we could then build three more barriers and effectively contain the fire in a box where it could eventually burn itself out,” he says.

Michalski took his idea to PDEP and was met with a lot of positive feedback, he says. But, to his knowledge, no further action was taken by the agency."...

...by isolating smaller branches of the fire they could work on one section at a time making the effort more affordable and manageable...

Your question leaves me guessing. Gizmodo was not listed in Allsides.com, but

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/gizmodo/

Apparently not much motive to put this one out:

kdvr.com/2016/11/15/120-year-old-fire-still-burning-in-colorado-town/

"The Tiptop underground coal fire in Breathitt County, Ky., typifies the results... The origin of this fire possibly occurred before mining ended at Tiptop some 80 years ago... In May 2008 and January 2009, a team measured the emissions and metals in the area. The carbon monoxide emissions reached 600 parts per million (ppm) in May and more than 700 ppm in January whereas the carbon dioxide emissions were 2 percent by volume and then over 6 percent by volume. These concentrations exceed the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (OSHA) eight-hour safe exposure limits of 50 ppm of carbon monoxide and 0.5 percent by volume of carbon dioxide. Mercury was detected at greater than 500 and 2,100 micrograms per cubic meter in May and January, respectively, exceeding the OSHA eight-hour exposure limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter. During both sampling periods, the team also found numerous volatile organic and carbon-sulfur compounds, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

earthmagazine.org/article/rising-global-interest-coal-fires

Maybe you could bomb them with plastic explosives to eat up all the oxygen and collapse the cavities....or bunker buster bombs....

I think pieces of dry ice should be tried. They would tend to remove heat and oxygen at the same time. Even regular ice with enough quantity should be tried. Has it been tried?

Dry ice is prohibitively expensive to begin with, but getting any ice down to the fire is virtually impossible....

Not in every case

Have you ever poured water on molten lava...?

I would want to use a helicopter on the one shown for China, but using a trebuchet for ice might work:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal-seam_fire

Why not just go with liquid nitrogen?...not sure what would happen, but it would be exciting and possibly even epic....In any case would make a good video, you know if they survived...

Although liquid nitrogen is much colder than dry ice, it is also very expensive. And it would be much harder to get it in the hole safely than dry ice except maybe where there is a crack in the soil where the smoke is coming out. But then you probably couldn't get as much in as is necessary to stop the fire.

Why not put boreholes into the hot coal and pump water down into the hot carbon where it will break down and produce H2 which can be used for the fuel cells.

Remember that in the early days gas works used to treat coke with water to produce water gas a mixture of H2 and CO to be burnt in homes.

Surely these uncontrolled fires could be harnessed to produce energy and even steam with the right sort of piping. The steam could be used for LP turbine to generate electricity.

Any sort of generation requires a controlled source of energy...not to mention the fire is constantly moving and the environment is extremely toxic...

No doubt this one is still burning:

alaskapublic.org/2018/06/20/two-coal-seam-fires-merge-to-form-rapidly-growing-wildfire-near-healy/

You would think the military would have a special unit for fighting these fires as they are a threat to people....they certainly have enough money...

https://www.nad.usace.army.mil/About/Regional-Centers-of-Expertise/Fire-Protection/

Contracts For Nov. 8, 2019

https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2012852//

https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/News/Article/Article/1594592/army-engineers-to-battle-western-wildfires/

sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Mysterious-underground-fire-Yosemite-Stanislaus-14428686.php

The term "controlled burn" is an oxymoron. Some other examples: "old babe", "working vacation", "resident alien", "clearly misunderstood" and "military intelligence"

No I believe there are valid examples of all of those terms...

Another state added to the list. This may be a common start of wildfires.

sltrib.com/news/environment/2019/06/21/coal-waste-piles-still/

..."While the uncontrolled burning of coal may seem alarming, this scenario is neither uncommon nor does it pose an immediate threat to the environment or public safety, according to Darren Olsen, a district ranger on the Manti-La Sal National Forest."...

Wait what? Why is this source of CO₂ of no concern? ...and every other source is...? Not to mention the other toxic byproducts....all of which seem to be a threat...

We could cut our CO₂ emissions by 20% just be extinguishing these fires...

Yes, and I think that should be the top priority for any money going to combat climate change. As time goes on, more fires are going and few if any are put out. That means that this is contributing exponentially to the total.

I agree...start immediately...

Why not drill and inject water to harvest in-situ geothermal energy from the fires?

Eventually you put it out, but in the meantime you generate some cash.

See #11

So you're telling me that you couldn't find the leading edge, drill and get some heat out of it?

Do we actually have any engineers here?

No, I don't think that will put it out. It keeps spreading out on the edges. You would have to have a pipe coming out with the hot water to harvest any heat. Your pipes would be in the middle to be at the hottest spot, but that spot keeps changing.

"On the face of it, this is not a volcano in the TransBaikal region of southern Siberia, but it has many similarities. The ground is hot to the touch..."

http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/f0203-is-this-an-ancient-natural-pyre-where-underground-fires-have-raged-for-thousands-of-years/

This is a case where there is lots of ice around to use to put in the hole.

I don't think you realize the scope of the cavernous holes you are suggesting to fill, and the amount of water you would need...

You would have to pump half the ocean down there....then again it may solve the sea level rise issue....

In the case of the picture above, you just need Big Bad John to rip out the beams.

In the thick toxic gas and smoke so dense you could cut it with a knife, and temperatures in the hundreds, I'm afraid anybody entering would be something akin to a volcano sacrifice....

Use gas masks or send a robot in with a rope. Or one artillery shell should do it.

Now we're getting someplace....