Evaluation of hydrogen energy production of mining waste waters and pools

Abstract

The importance of renewable energy sources is increasing due to the limited natural gas and diminishing reserves of oil and coal. Because of lesser environmental impact and lower production costs, renewable energy sources don't pose a significant threat to the environment and human health. One of the most important renewable energy source is hydrogen energy; which is a synthetic fuel and can be produced from various raw materials such as water, fossil fuels and biomass. Hydrogen is a storable energy carrier. When produced by methods like electrolysis of natural water sources on earth, hydrogen can be converted into energy with high efficiency without causing any negative impact on the environment and just emerging water or water vapour as a by-product. Hydrogen energy has the ability to be used as energy in automotive industry, air transport and all industries. While it can be used by burning directly, it can also be used as an energy source in vehicles using fuel cells. Other uses are in the chemical industry, petrochemical industry, mobile applications (cell phones, computers, etc.) and built applications (backup power units, power requirement at remote locations, etc.). During production in mines, quarries are filled with groundwater and ponds are formed. This leads to problems such as low productivity, low production, additional storage costs, high maintenance costs of construction machinery, road building and maintenance costs, the costs caused by the wet material and the decrease in equipment efficiency. The resulting excess water is often stored in the tailings ponds by the help of various drainage methods and pumps or disposed. The spread or release of the waste water emerging during the mining and mineral processing to the nature irresponsibly, create a major problem for that area and the environment. In this study, utilization by converting the excess underground water coming up during the mining operations and the wastewater from mineral processing to hydrogen energy is being investigated.