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Dependency on fossil fuel and associated carbon footprints have increased the urge to look for methods to increase the thermal efficiency of heating and cooling systems. Exhaust air heat recovery system is one of the promising solutions with viable potential in industrial applications such as mine ventilation and so on. Direct contact heat exchange...
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... a mesh sensitivity and uncertainty analysis were performed to find out the appropriate mesh size and number of nodes and element for this proposed CFD model. For the CFD simulation Fluent 19.0 was used with the three different mesh cases as shown in Table 1. Therefore, a mesh consisting of 2.5 × 10 6 elements is considered for the numerical model. ...Citations
... Underground mining is among the most energy-intensive industrial activities [1,2]. This is especially true in Canada. ...
Mining operations in remote locations rely heavily on diesel fuel for the electricity, haulage and heating demands. Such significant diesel dependency imposes large carbon footprints to these mines. Consequently, mining companies are looking for better energy strategies to lower their carbon footprints. Renewable energies can relieve this over-reliance on fossil fuels. Yet, in spite of their many advantages, renewable systems deployment on a large scale has been very limited, mainly due to the high battery storage system. Using hydrogen for energy storage purposes due to its relatively cheaper technology can facilitate the application of renewable energies in the mining industry. Such cost-prohibitive issues prevent achieving 100% penetration rate of renewables in mining applications. This paper offers a novel integrated renewable–multi-storage (wind turbine/battery/fuel cell/thermal storage) solution with six different configurations to secure 100% off-grid mining power supply as a stand-alone system. A detailed comparison between the proposed configurations is presented with recommendations for implementation. A parametric study is also performed, identifying the effect of different parameters (i.e., wind speed, battery market price, and fuel cell market price) on economics of the system. The result of the present study reveals that standalone renewable energy deployment in mine settings is technically and economically feasible with the current market prices, depending on the average wind speed at the mine location.
Reliance on fossil fuel to generate power and to precondition the intake air for secure underground operation increases the carbon footprint of the remote mines in cold climatic zones, such as Canada and Sweden. Although the fossil fuel-based power plants are the most dependable options in these off-grid establishments, almost two-thirds of the burnt fuel to generate electric power is discarded as heat through the various streams. Identifying this scenario, the present study conducts a numerical analysis on preheating the mine intake air with the heat wasted through the jacket water of these power generation units. A MATLAB-based thermodynamically coupled code was developed to assess the techno-economic viability of the proposed concept. Parametric studies on the effectiveness of heat exchanging units showed that investing in the improvement of the heat delivery devices would be more important than the heat recovery units. Sensitivity analysis conducted on the diesel power generation, intake airflow rate of the mine, and modified heating degree days of the remote location established the necessary degree of confidence in the results obtained from the investigation. Analysis indicated that a typical off-grid mine in northern Canada could save around two-thirds of the fossil fuel burning for heating purposes and reduce the associated carbon emissions.
The need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions is becoming more and more apparent. To avoid a tipping point, scientists agree that emissions need to reach net zero by 2050, which will require unprecedented changes to the way electricity is generated, particularly for remote off-grid mines. In this paper, the potential to achieve 100% renewable penetration for a remote mine will be investigated, with an example case study for a mine in the Canadian Arctic. Five key pillars to achieve net zero operation will be discussed: energy efficiency, hybrid power, microgrid integration, alternative vehicles, and low carbon technologies. In addition, the state-of-the-art in renewable generation, energy storage, and hydrogen storage are presented. The key enablers for a mine to achieve 100% renewable penetration for electricity and vehicles are identified, along with benchmark costs and savings opportunities. Strategies and challenges for existing mines to achieve high renewable penetration are discussed. The remote mine of the future will be significantly different from today’s operations; changes to the operating strategy and process, energy generation, and vehicle fleet will be the key enablers.
Diesel has long been the most affordable and most popular source of energy used in cold climate remote mines for provision of electricity, haulage and heating. However, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning diesel has become a concerning environmental impact for these mining operations. Renewable energy systems, such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaic, can serve as alternative solutions to mitigate this issue. Although some progress has been made to shift towards green energies, the high capital cost of battery storage systems is still a challenge for full decarbonization of the mine energy system. Hydrogen and thermal storage systems can play a favorable role in facilitating the application of renewable energies at mine sites owing to their relatively less expensive storage costs. This study aims to offer a renewable energy system for full provision of electricity, haulage and thermal power at remote mines through hybridization of renewable and multi-storage systems. A comprehensive techno-economic evaluation has been conducted to identify the optimal renewable solutions for different types of mining methods. The results of this study indicate that while hydrogen-powered vehicles deem to be a cost-effective solution for surface mines, battery electric vehicles are ideally suited for application in underground mining. Also, it reveals that hybridizing fuel cell and battery for electric storage results in economically superior performance compared to fuel cell alone and battery alone options for both surface and underground mining methods.
