Water from abandoned mines as a heat source: practical experiences of open- and closed-loop strategies, United Kingdom

Banks, D. , Athresh, A., Al-Habaibeh, A. and Burnside, N. (2019) Water from abandoned mines as a heat source: practical experiences of open- and closed-loop strategies, United Kingdom. Sustainable Water Resources Management, 5(1), pp. 29-50. (doi: 10.1007/s40899-017-0094-7)

Abstract

Pilot heat pump systems have been installed at two former collieries in Yorkshire/Derbyshire, England, to extract heat from mine water. The installations represent three fundamental configurations of heat exchanger. At Caphouse Colliery, mine water is pumped through a heat exchanger coupled to a heat pump and then discharged to waste (an open-loop heat exchange system). The system performs with high thermal efficiency, but the drawbacks are: (1) it can only be operated when mine water is being actively pumped from the colliery shaft for the purposes of regional water-level management, and (2) the fact that the water is partially oxygenated means that iron oxyhydroxide precipitation occurs, necessitating regular removal of filters for cleaning. At Markham Colliery, near Bolsover, a small amount of mine water is pumped from depth in a flooded shaft, circulated through a heat exchanger coupled to a heat pump and then returned to the same mine shaft at a slightly different depth (a standing column arrangement). This system’s fundamental thermal efficiency is negatively impacted by the electrical power required to run the shaft submersible pump, but clogging issues are not significant. In the third system, at Caphouse, a heat exchanger is submerged in a mine water treatment pond (a closed-loop system). This can be run at any time, irrespective of mine pumping regime, and being a closed-loop system, is not susceptible to clogging issues.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Heat pump, colliery, mine water, green energy, thermogeology, iron.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Burnside, Dr Neil and Banks, Mr David
• Authors: Banks, D., Athresh, A., Al-Habaibeh, A., and Burnside, N.
• Subjects: Q Science > QE Geology; T Technology > TC Hydraulic engineering. Ocean engineering; T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Sustainable Water Resources Management
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 2363-5037
• ISSN (Online): 2363-5045
• Published Online: 13 April 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Sustainable Water Resources Management 5(1):29-50
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License