Acoustic Enclosures
Case Study: Stillingfleet Mine
The Client
Stillingfleet was part of the Selby Coalfield in North Yorkshire, one of the biggest and most sophisticated mining operations in Europe, employing thousands of workers over a 20-year period. By 2004, changing geological conditions and the falling price of coal on world markets meant that the mine was no longer commercially viable and was forced to close.
The Challenge
Mine gas is an unavoidable by-product of coal mining as it is created in the chemical process of coal formation. Mining activity creates cracks and crevices that allow substances to be released, and, as it is not possible to make a disused pit completely gas-tight during the sealing off process, gas continues to enter the atmosphere long after the mine has closed.
The leaking mine gas from Stillingfleet is estimated to be as much as 12 million cubic metres over a 10 year period and UK Coal planned to use it to generate electricity. However, the generating sets needed to do this produced noise levels above the threshold set out in guidelines, jeopardising the company’s plans.
The Solution
Kimpton designed and installed acoustic enclosures for the project’s four 2.5 megawatt generators.
Meticulous attention had to be paid to combustion and cooling airflows, so the Kimpton team’s detailed knowledge of generator application design parameters was critical to ensuring that the final acoustic enclosure installations meet all the client’s requirements.
The installation reduced the noise levels to within planning guidelines, ensuring
that the project could go ahead.
