UKRI-UKGEOS

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UK Geoenergy Observatory in Glasgow

TA31 – UKRI-UKGEOS 

Location

Cuningar Loop Park, Downiebrae Road

G73 1PW Glasgow,  United Kingdom 

Description

The UK Geoenergy Observatory in Glasgow is a British Geological Survey at-scale research facility designed to investigate shallow, low-temperature mine-water heat energy and potential storage. It comprises twelve boreholes penetrating flooded mine workings (45m and 90m depth), bedrock and superficial deposits. Four of the mine-water boreholes are configured to be used in either abstraction or re-injection mode and have been incorporated into a sealed open-loop system via buried pipes.

Each borehole is fitted with a range of sensors including fibre-optics for direct temperature sensing, electrical resistivity sensors and data loggers at depth and surface to measure temperature, conductivity and pressure changes. There is a heat centre on the largest of the four compounds which contains three different types of heat exchangers to enable comparisons of their performance in different conditions. The heat exchangers are linked via a glycol loop to a 200kW output chiller/heat pump. This enables heat to be removed or added to the mine water.

Sensors measuring temperature and pressure changes along the pipework and within the heat centre provide further information about changes in delta T, pressure and heat loss. The system is sized to operate at flow rates up to 12l/s and down to 3l/s on the mine-water side. The temperature of the mine water is around 12°C and a ΔT of approximately 4/5 -5°C is possible. The system is designed to work in a similar capacity to a small mine water thermal heat supply scheme and the incorporation of the wide range of sensors, including measurements of the power, will provide knowledge which can be transferred into commercial requirements.

For further information please contact us through RISEnergy and refer to the website here

Testing Capabilities

  • Thermal energy storage
  • At scale mine-water thermal experiments to emulate a real-life small scale scheme
  • Tracer tests
  • Environmental monitoring (i.e., geochemical changes, micro-biological variations) linked to a mine-water scheme
  • Testing of researchers own equipment (e.g., different heat exchangers or heat storage solutions)
  • There is capability to research into a wide range of areas including geoengineering aspects of heat abstraction, heat storage, hydrogeology, environmental monitoring and mine water energy in general.

Technical Equipment

  • Two abstraction and two re-injection boreholes connected into an open-loop system
  • Pressure, temperature, conductivity sensors
  • Electrical resistivity sensors and data loggers
  • Direct temperature sensors and data loggers
  • Gas clams - soil gas monitoring
  • Dosage pots for tracers
  • Scanning lasers to provide indication of near-surface gas
  • Flanges available on both the mine-water and the glycol loop to enable researchers' own equipment to be added to the system

Additional information

Technology Readiness Level: 7 or above

Special considerations: All site work will require detailed Risk Assessment Method Statement (RAMS) 

Technology clusters: Energy Storage, Others

Website: https://ukgeos.ac.uk/

Availability: All year

Provision of tools to prepare data sets in a FAIR way:  Yes 

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