Mining Technology
Summary
In a country with no operational coal mines, the UK Coal Authority has proposed to once again turn these operations to heating homes and businesses. But this time, they will not provide coal for burning. The plan, to take warm water from flooded mines, would turn an environmental problem into a community solution, and the idea is spreading.
The UK closed its last colliery in 2015. While there are plans to open another, the UK Coal Authority currently oversees the collateral damage left by the industry. Practically, this means it manages several mine water treatment facilities.
In the coastal town of Seaham, near Newcastle, one treatment facility has plans to lead the way in an energy revolution. Here, water from the former Dawdon Colliery is treated for its high levels of salt. While this water would usually be managed with lagoons, local wildlife and transport links made an active chemical treatment plant necessary.
The extracted water is also warm, so much so that in 2011 the plant started pumping heat from the water for its own needs. Now, the UK government plans to build a new village a few miles away, and in February this year it approved plans to use the mine water to heat it.
In the new village, builders will design 750 homes to use water extracted from the defunct mine. This would be a stable heat source, unaffected by outside factors, with the potential to provide 6MW of heating energy for no carbon emissions.
The Coal Authority worked with Tolent Housing on the project, with professional services firm RPS consulting.
RPS technical director Stuart Long assisted in consultations, saying: “The technology involved isn’t particularly complex, but the problem we have in this country is a mistrust of district heating systems. People think they are being bound into an energy tariff that they have no control over. This isn’t the case on the continent; particularly in Scandinavia, where they are streets ahead of the UK.”
The Seaham project is the most advanced of the five that are in progress, with another 70 projects being investigated. Soon, borehole drilling in Gateshead will investigate adding 6MW of energy to a district heating scheme. In south Wales, engineers at the Caeraw project are designing the next set of boreholes to take heat to nearby houses.
Jeremy Crooks, head of innovation from the Coal Authority, told us pumping stations currently process 100MW of heat energy. With nowhere to go, this heat dissipates into the environment.
He said: “As an energy source, this is an area that doesn’t require massive amounts of innovation or new technologies. It’s already sitting there; it just hasn’t been done in the UK. The restraint is the commercial side: is it viable as an energy source compared to other sources? With our first schemes, we’re looking to be 10% below the price of gas heating.
“A quarter of the population live on top of coal fields, including nine of the ten largest urban centres. Regardless of location, the mines could also benefit horticulture. The water can be used to heat growing houses and then spread the benefit across the country via food.”
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