Ecological Management of Coal Waste Piles

The goal of project ECOAL-MGT was to develop and test, in the field, a technological tool that makes it possible to continuously monitor self-combusting coal waste piles. The tool obtained spatial and temporal data, which could then be used to determine the dynamics of the pile and probable evolution scenarios. The optical fibre sensors have a set of unique features that can design, develop and implement a detection system capable of responding to the demanding requirements of these environments in extreme temperature conditions. From this starting point, the consortium was formed to cover the geology and optoelectronics skills necessary to create a prototype to be evaluated in real conditions. The information acquired will make it possible to optimise the system and, after that, validate the technology with conditions to be broadly applied in coal waste pile monitoring, specifically piles in combustion.