Modelling Minewater Heat Extraction: Prof Jeroen van Hunen

Prof Jeroen van Hunen, University of Durham

Lecture Synopsis:
Can Coal Mines Heat Our Homes - Again?

Warm water in the ~23,000 disused, flooded mines in the UK offer a huge, low-carbon geothermal energy resource that could heat, cool, and provide heat storage for a quarter of UK homes and businesses, notably economically disadvantaged regions, such as former mining and many urban communities. To utilise and optimise this enormous energy supply and storage opportunity, research is required on a number of aspects, including optimised abstraction strategies of those heat resources, introduction of innovative heat storage solutions to level out diurnal and seasonal energy demand fluctuations, mapping the financial landscape for mine geothermal energy, and integration of the technical aspects with governance frameworks, social acceptance and economic viability.

By integrating novel simulation tools (Figure 1), innovative heat storage solutions, thorough evaluation of the governance and economic landscape, and community participation, The recently started project ‘Geothermal Energy from Mines and Solar-Geothermal heat’ (GEMS) aims to provide integrated solutions, from initial heat extraction to the end user, for employing mine water geothermal heat energy as sustainable, low-carbon heat source.

Speaker Bio: Professor Jeroen van Hunen
Jeroen van Hunen is a professor in computational geoscience at the University of Durham. He has 25 years of research experience in modelling Earth systems and dynamics, and leads the Geodynamics Research Group. His research involves numerical fluid flow modelling on a range of scales, from Earth’s mantle convection and plate tectonics down to water flow through abandoned mines. He recently obtained £1.6M funding from UKRI funding to for the interdisciplinary research project ‘Geothermal Energy from Mines and Solar-Geothermal heat’ (GEMS) that will explore the various challenges involved in using water from flooded and abandoned mines as a sustainable heat source to warm our homes.

Timings:
00:00:00 - Introductory Notices
00:04:22 - Lecture
00:49:50 - Questions
00:59:55 - Vote of Thanks

About the Institute:
The Mining Institute is the Royal Chartered membership organisation for science and technology in the North. Founded in 1852 by some of the most important contemporary Northern scientists and engineers, our members still actively contribute to academia, industry and public life across the region.