Thaw consolidation using near-surface geothermal systems

Important results from the project

The aim of the project was to assess the technical and economic potential of the method ”thaw consolidation”, by which a wet fine grained material kan be dewatered through a number of freezing cycles, at the same time as the waste heat/cold is being reused. We achieved a good general picture of the economic potential. A further aim was to contact potential future users of hte method, which we did.

Expected long term effects

We concluded that the method has a good technical potential for dewatering of fine grained materials, to the plasticity limit of each material, and also that the method has a good economic potential for certain materials. Contacts with potential future users has shown that there is an interest from the industry to take part in future development of the method.

Approach and implementation

The work was conducted as a lab study and a economic scenario study. The lab study was conducted by a master thesis student who tested the dewatering potential and described the correlation between water volume leaving the material and the number of freeze-thaw-cycles. In the scenario study a number of economic scenarios were described and the costs associated with them were calculated. The scenarios could then be compared to scenarios representing the most common handling methods of wet fine grained materials today, resulting in an assessment of the economic potential.