General Process Testing

The Coal Authority operate over 75 minewater treatment schemes that remove contaminating metals from mine water prior to the treated water being discharge into a receiving watercourse.

Schemes range from complex process engineering plants, through pumped wet wells and boreholes/mineshafts, to totally natural (passive) schemes without a power source.

A number of sites require the addition of pH correcting or oxidising reagents.

Flow rates range from circa 5 litres/sec to 400 litres/sec.

A standard pumped treatment scheme utilizes 32 digital inputs, 8 analogue inputs and 8 digital outputs.

The majority of schemes comprise of aeration cascades, settlement ponds and reed beds.

All schemes are subject to regulatory consents and licenses.

General process testing is to provide treatment options for mine water using optimised processes, novel technologies and the most applicable methodology in terms of least whole life cost for new and existing schemes.

The Coal Authority believes to achieve this, the development of testing programs and conducting investigations is essential.

In addition, mine water chemistry is highly variable and very often site specific.

These variances should be considered in unit operations and/or continuous processing in treatment campaigns.

Practical areas of interest from a potential supplier include: • Sample collection and preparation • Laboratory testing (off and on site) • Pilot testing (off and on site) • Analytical Capabilities • Competency in operation of mine water treatment unit operations (filtration, thickening, settling, and sampling) • Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) • Integrated unit operations with: o Mass balance o Reagent consumption o Aeration rate o Retention time o Optimisation Design/modelling capabilities of the supplier must include: • Rheology • Plant conceptual design • Process automation • Process control • Pressure filter sizing • Centrifuge sizing • Whole life costs We would like to invite interested companies to meet with us at our Mansfield office during September / October 2018 to better understand our requirements and offer suggestions on how we might fulfil our objectives through a future tender process.

Once the Coal Authority has assessed interest, it will advise if meetings are to be conducted on an individual basis or as a group.

If you have any queries or wish to attend please express your interest by contacting peterkobryn@coal.gov.uk no later than 18 September 2018 Participants should note that we reserve the right to use any information shared within this market engagement to develop a mature service specification for future procurement purposes.

Any costs incurred by participating in this exercise must be borne by the participating organisations.

Following this exercise we shall determine if and how we will approach the market to secure the services.

Please note that any future procurement will be subject to a separate advertisement