25 September 2018, 6-7pm - Free
The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME)
Speaker: Charlotte Adams, Durham University
Our declining coal industry means that as deep mines were abandoned, water pumps were turned off and the worked areas flooded with water which now lies at temperatures of around 12 to 20°C.
Spread the previously mined coal over the entire UK land surface and there would be a layer of coal around 5 cm deep. The extracted coal has left void space underground, and allowing for subsidence, we estimate that there are around 2 billion cubic metres of water within flooded, abandoned coal mines. Using heat pumps, we can upgrade the temperature of this water to provide useful temperatures for space heating. The beauty of this concept is that because many villages, towns and cities were developed due to the coal deposits beneath them, there is good correlation between areas of heat demand and abandoned coalfields. It is estimated that the resource potential of the UK could provide heat for around 700,000 homes.
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