Sustainable Biz #8 - Magazine - Page 33
“This is the first time we’ve been able to collect this
kind of information inside real mine workings.
These properties help us determine how much heat
is available, how quickly we can extract it and how
sustainable it could be over time.”
extract it and how sustainable it could be
over time.“As part of the new data release,
researchers are also sharing remarkable
CCTV footage from inside the boreholes,
offering the first glimpse into old workings
that haven’t been seen since they were last
mined decades ago, while also showing
water movement and structural features
that bring scientific findings to life.”Dr
Todd added: “It’s like opening a time
capsule, but instead of coal what we’re
now extracting is knowledge and possibly
clean heat for generations.” These insights
were made possible by using specialised
tools which were carefully deployed
through monitoring boreholes at the
Living Laboratory, located between three
operational heat schemes in a shared
mining block in Gateshead.Using this
equipment, researchers can:see how water
flows undergroundmeasure how much heat
can be stored and extractedunderstand
how mine workings interact across a shared
networkMany of the tools used, such as
caliper, gamma, density, temperature,
electrical conductivity, heat pulse flow
meter and CCTV, are commonly used
in water wells. However, the team also
used a cutting-edge technique called
Borehole Magnetic Resonance (BMR),
described as “an MRI scan for rocks.”
This marks the first known use of BMR in
mine water heat research, providing new
insight into how water is stored and flows
through underground rocks, crucial for
understanding the heat resource.
As well as routine temperature and
chemistry monitoring results, which have
also been released, this new geophysics
dataset adds a new layer of understanding
to the Living Laboratory’s mission to
inform the future of sustainable mine water
heat across Britain’s former coalfields.
It provides open-access data to help
government, industry and academia work
together to broaden the adoption of mine
water heat as a viable, long-term renewable
resource.
Senior Technical Specialist for the
Environment Agency in the North East,
Sally Gallagher, said: “As the environmental
regulator for England our role is to
ensure renewable heat technologies are
sustainable and do not adversely impact
the environment. It’s great to see the first
findings of this innovative research study
and understand more how mine water can be
used for heating.”
Launched by the Mining Remediation
Authority in January 2025, the Gateshead
mine water heat Living Laboratory is the
only facility in the world designed to monitor
how heat, water and geology behave between
multiple operational mine water heat
schemes in a shared underground system.
Access the open geophysical dataset for the
Living Lab.
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