ABSTRACT
The goal of this R&D project is to create a technically and economically feasible conceptual model for a High Temperature-Mine Thermal Energy Storage (HT-MTES) for the energetic reuse of abandoned collieries based on the example of the former Dannenbaum colliery in Bochum, Germany. During summer non-used surplus heat from solar thermal power plants, garbage incineration, Combined Heat and Power plants (CHP) or industrial production processes can be stored within the mine water of former drifts and mining faces. During the winter season, this surplus heat can be extracted from the mine water and then directly utilized for heating purposes of commercial and/or residential areas. For the evaluation of such a HT-MTES within a former colliery, the corresponding geomechanical parameters of the Upper Carboniferous under thermal cyclic loading need to be evaluated. Therefore, the main rock types of the Upper Carboniferous (claystone, mudstone and sandstone) are subject to a geomechanical characterization before and after thermal cyclic loading of temperatures up to 90°C. Almost 200 abandoned collieries, just within the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia, represent a vast potential for this new type of thermal energy storage.
