IAP-24-113

Underground heat storage in abandoned coals mines for Net Zero

Britain is trying to reduce its carbon footprint and to mitigate the worst impacts of global warming (Adams and Gluyas, 2019). One big challenge is finding better ways to heat our homes and buildings without releasing more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (Ireland et al., 2023). As we use more renewable energy, like solar and wind power, we need a way to save some of that unused energy for when we need it, like on cold days. Storing this energy underground in the form of heat is one way to do that, and disused coal mines that have now been flooded by groundwater offers a promising opportunity to store that heat (Kirkup et al., 2020). These mines are already being used to heat buildings, such as in Gateshead, but this project seeks to investigate if we can store additional heat in those mines during the summer and use it to warm homes in the winter.
This PhD project is all about exploring new ways to store and use heat from old coal mines (Fraser-Harris et al., 2022). You will use state-of-the-art computer models (Mouli-Castillo et al., 2024; van Hunen et al., 2024) to figure out how to store and retrieve this heat, and you will also look at the social, financial, and regulatory landscape surrounding the technology to provide context to your research and make in more impactful. The goal is to make heating our homes more environmentally friendly.

The GEMSToolbox software (Mouli-Castillo et al., 2024) was developed at Durham University. It offers numerical modelling capabilities of mine water flow and heat exchange between the subsurface and water flowing through the mines will be used to assess whether and under which conditions a disused mine system can be used as a seasonal heat storage facility. Model calibration will be performed using the Gateshead mine water heating living lab, run by the Coal Authority. Geographical information data sets and data obtain during the GEMS project from the UKGEOS facility in Glasgow, managed by the BGS, will also be made available.

Year 1

Training in numerical modelling & data; knowledge exchange with the Coal Authority, regional institutes, and local authorities; developing & testing of models; project specific and transferable skills.

Year 2

Code adjustment and development; application to targeted test sites; academic publication writing.

Year 3

Industrial secondment to enhance skill set and future employability; collect scientific results that will be written up in the form of several scientific publications; these will be combined with further chapters to integrate into a first draft of the PhD thesis.

Year 3.5

Project completion: finalizing thesis and submission of scientific manuscripts.

The student will join a vibrant research culture in the department of Earth Sciences, in which ~50 postgraduate students work on a wide range of Earth Science research projects. The student will closely collaborate with academic staff, postdoctoral researchers and fellows, and collaborators in various departments and the Durham Energy Institute. During a placement at the Coal Authority the student will have the opportunity to meet and collaborate with a range of departments across the business including environment, engineering, licensing and mining information enriching their skills sets whilst working with us.