The ground source heat pump (GSHP) was first used in 1862, for freezing ground in connection with sinking a shaft in Swansea, United Kingdom. It was subsequently developed in Germany in 1882 to 1883 into the ‘Poetsch process’ for freezing ground during construction of mine shafts. The Poetsch process was an indirect closed loop GSHP system, circulating a chilled brine from a heat pump around a network of coaxial borehole heat exchangers. These early systems typically employed ammonia as a refrigerant and a calcium or magnesium chloride solution as the brine. Such a system was used between 1904 and 1906 to sink the shafts of Dawdon Colliery, County Durham, United Kingdom through water-bearing Permian strata. Also, around that time, the Newcastle-based turbine pioneer, Charles Parsons, suggested that such a GSHP system could transport heat to the surface during the construction of a 12 mile deep “Hellfire Exploration” shaft, that could potentially access geothermal power.
Dave Banks was born in Bishop Auckland. He is a hydrogeologist and environmental geochemist with almost 40 years' experience from the water industry, geological survey, academia, humanitarian aid and consultancy sectors. He started his career as a practising field hydrogeologist with Thames Water and the Natural Rivers Authority, and then moved to Trondheim to take a post with the Geological Survey of Norway, eventually becoming section leader for hydrogeology and geochemistry. Since returning to the United Kingdom in 1998, Dave has been active as a consultant, founding his own company, Holymoor Consultancy Ltd. and successfully running it until 2024. Currently, Dave holds a 40% post as a Principal Hydrogeologist at the water resources consultancy Envireau in Derby and he also holds a 20% post as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. In recent years, Dave has become increasingly interested in the use of the ground and groundwater as a source and sink of heat. He was active during the blooming of the United Kingdom's ground source heat industry in the late 1990s and has contributed to laying the foundations of the science of ‘thermogeology’ in the United Kingdom. He is especially interested in the thermal properties of Caledonian rocks and in the geothermal potential of the United Kingdom's flooded coal mines. Dave is also a member of the emergency preparedness rosters of Norwegian Church Aid and Groundwater Relief. He has assisted in the planning, assessment and delivery of humanitarian aid in the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) sector since 1997. Dave's work has taken him to a range of international projects and he can claim experience from locations as varied as Svalbard, Somalia, Nepal, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bolivia and Huddersfield.
17:30-18:00 - Tea and Coffee
18:00-18:50 - In-person only Lecture Starts
18:50 to 19:00 - Q & A
Welcome to our October NEIMME Lecture. NEIMME is the Royal Chartered membership organisation for Engineering, Science and Technology in the North.
For more information about our events and the benefits of NEIMME membership see: https://mininginstitute.org.uk/membership/
For information on IOM3 membership see: https://www.iom3.org/
