Volume 5: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part IV

Numerical Study of Mine Water Heat Recovery System Using Coupled Heat Exchanger Units Hosein Kalantari, Sajjan Pokhrel, Amin Shadi, Ali Ghoreishi-Madiseh, Agus P. Sasmito

Abstract

This paper conducts a numerical study to investigate the Mine Water Heat Recovery (MWHR) system using a code developed in MATLAB. The system comprisestwo heat exchanger units, one located in mine water discharge region (Heat capturing unit) and another in mine intake air region (Heat delivery unit). Former captures heat energy from hot water at mine water outlet using a glycol closed-loop circuit and latter exchanges this captured heat with mine intake cold air. Thermal coupling between these two mentioned units is taken into account in the code. A typical underground mine in Canada is investigated as a case study to evaluate the feasibility of the system. In addition, to have a wider overview, a parametric study is conducted to investigate the impact of various parameters including mine intake air heating demand and mine intake air flow rate on energy savings.

Keywords mine water heat recovery system, underground mining, energy recovery, mine ventilation system