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

Abstract

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.

A combined pumping test and heat extraction/recirculation trial in an abandoned haematite ore mine shaft, Egremont, Cumbria, UK

“…For a short-term period of operation, the heat yield will be somewhat higher (if we assume r 0 = 4 m, the heat yield may be 27 W m -1 K -1 ), but for typical temperature differentials of 3-5 K, the heat yield is unlikely to exceed several tens or maybe 100 W m -1 . This type of arrangement is called a ''standing column'' system and has been described by Mikler (1993), Deng (2004), Deng et al (2005), Orio et al (2005), O'Neill et al (2006), andBanks (2012). If all the abstracted water is returned to the shaft or borehole, the ''bleed percentage'' is said to be zero.…”

“…This is the type of system operated at Markham Colliery No. 3 shaft near Bolsover, Derbyshire, UK (Athresh et al 2015;Burnside et al 2016b;Banks et al 2017). If there is no natural advection of water up or down the shaft, the heat transfer rate will ultimately be constrained by the thermal conductivity of the rocks in the shaft walls (Eq.…”

“…The use of groundwater for this purpose is advantageous, because its temperature is usually constant throughout the year, at a level slightly above the annual average air temperature (for shallow groundwater), and typically increasing at a rate of 1-3°C per 100 m depth (Kavanaugh and Rafferty 1997;Banks 2012). Groundwater is thus usually significantly warmer than outdoor air in winter and significantly cooler in summer (making it an ideal source of winter heating and summer cooling).…”

“…Mine water has been used for several decades for heating and cooling; reviews have been provided by Banks et al (2003Banks et al ( , 2004, Watzlaf and Ackman (2006), Hall et al (2011), Preene and Younger (2014), Ramos et al (2015), Bracke and Bussmann (2015) and Banks et al (2017). Among a number of mine water, heat pump systems operating worldwide can be listed: Park Hills, Missouri, USA (Watzlaf and Ackman 2006;DOE 2015), Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada (Jessop 1995;Jessop et al 1995;Raymond et al 2008), Marywood University, Pennsylvania, USA (Korb 2012), several in Saxony, Germany (Ramos et al 2015), Henderson molybdenum mine, Empire, Colorado, USA (Watzlaf and Ackman 2006), Saturn coal mine, Czeladz, Poland (Malolepszy et al 2005;Tokarz and Mucha 2013), and Novoshakhtinsk, Russia (Rostov Regional Government 2011; Ramos et al 2015).…”

“…In the UK, however, the few operational mine water heat pump schemes are either at a pilot stage or at a very modest scale (not exceeding several tens of kW thermal output): Shettleston, Glasgow, and Lumphinnans, Fife (Banks et al 2009), Dawdon, County Durham (Watson 2012;Bailey et al 2013), Caphouse mining museum, near Wakefield (Athresh et al 2016;Burnside et al 2016a;Banks et al 2017) Markham, near Bolsover (Athresh et al 2015;Burnside et al 2016b;Banks et al 2017), and Cefn Coed, Crynant, South Wales (Farr et al 2016). …”