Research into Treatment
WYG have participated in several research studies into improving the effectiveness of mine water treatment. These projects include:
Bullhouse Project
A joint design and research project with Imperial College, London to incorporation of facilities to allow the monitoring of the 'ochre' build-up and the project in its operation. IMC/ WYG participated in the design of practical desludging and jetting systems to reduce maintenance costs.
Ammonia Removal
A further joint scheme with Imperial College, London. WYG designed a passive wetland scheme to seek to reduce the ammonia concentration in the minewater at the Woolley site. Imperial College monitored the operation of the site and were able to show that ammonia reduction was being achieved but by a different mechanism to that originally envisaged.
PIRAMID
Engineers who work for WYG acted as a sub-contractor and were largely responsible for the production of the main project deliverable "PIRAMID Consortium (2003) Engineering guidelines for the passive remediation of acidic and / or metalliferous mine drainage and similar wastewaters". Passive in situ remediation of acid mine / industrial drainage (PIRAMID) was a 3 year research project of the European Commission Fifth Framework Programme (Contract no. EVK1-CT-1999-000021). The project co-ordinator was Professor Paul L Younger, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. The complete PIRAMID consortium, comprised of research institutions from five EU member states (UK, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden) and one other European country (Slovenia). IMC/ WYG Engineers acted as a sub-contractor and were largely responsible for the production of the main project deliverable "PIRAMID Consortium (2003) Engineering guidelines for the passive remediation of acidic and / or metalliferous mine drainage and similar wastewaters". The project was concluded in March 2003.
EU ERMITE
IMC / WYG were a UK stakeholder on the FP5 project "Environmental Regulation of Mine Waters in the European Union (ERMITE) EVK1-CT-2000-00078". The project co-ordinator is Professor Jorge Laredo, (Escuela de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain). The complete ERMITE consortium, comprised of research institutions from five EU member states (UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Sweden) and two other European countries (Slovenia and Bosnia Hercegovina). The goal of ERMITE was to provide integrated policy guidelines for developing European legislation and practice in relation to water management in the mining sector. These guidelines are intended to be coherent with the catchment management approach defined by the Water Framework Directive and the sustainability principles enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty. The project concluded in March 2004.
IMAGETRAIN
IMC / WYG's engineers also contributed to a further FP 5 project "Innovative Management of Groundwater Resources in Europe Training and RTD Co-ordination Project (IMAGE-TRAIN) EVK1-2001-80002" by attending workshops and Cluster Meetings. One of the objectives of IMAGE-TRAIN was to transfer existing and emerging knowledge to young scientists and academics in the European Union and the EU Accession Countries and IMC/ WYG engineers have been involved with this transfer of experience and knowledge, acting as lecturers at Advanced Study Courses organised by the Project Co-ordinator (Gundula Prokop, Environment Agency, Austria). The project concluded in August 2004.
ECSE - WATERCHEM
Specialists within IMC / WYG are currently involved in an EU research group that is interested in the past, present and future potential impact that coal & lignite mining may have on the environment within EU countries. This group comprises partners from PPC (Greece), DMT & DSK (Germany), and Aitemin (Spain) as well as IMC/ WYG. Our involvement is to research into the impact of mine water on aquifers. This involves collaboration between all of the partners within the research group to draw all of the data together prior to assessment and interpretation. This project commenced in 2004 and is due for completion in 2007.
ASURE - Bioremediation
WYG jointly funded (along with RioTinto and Scottish Coal) the BIOREM4 programme ASURE. Bioremediation of acidic mine waters by sulphate reduction in novel, compost-based field-scale bioreactors.Lead by Bangor University and partnered by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, WYG, Rio Tint and Scottish Coal; the objectives of the project were (i) to identify the processes and rates of biogeochemical transformations of sulphur, iron and carbon in compost-based passive systems; (ii) to characterise indigenous microorganisms engaged in these activities using techniques of microbial molecular ecology, and;(iii) to advance engineering design concepts for such treatment systems. It is envisaged that the outputs from this project will accelerate uptake of this technology in the UK and create export opportunities. This project concluded in March 2006.
Collaboration
IMC / WYG collaborated with Newcastle University on a test rig measuring the accretion of ochre onto artificial media at Kibblesworth in Durham. Newcastle have participated into research on the Highly acidic drainage from a spoil heap in Cumbria for WYG and carried out studies of mine water quality at the Francis & Deerplay Projects.