UW Researchers to Begin Study Using Coal Char for Mine Site Reclamation 

While appearing on Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse, University of Wyoming Director of Internal Communications, Chad Baldwin, said the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Abandoned Mine Lands Division, UR Energy USA and UW have launched a five-year partnership to study a new technique to restore land disturbed by surface mining. 

UW researchers will apply soil amendments, including coal char produced in Wyoming, and measure whether they improve soil health and help native plants return to old surface mining sites. 

Coal char is a solid byproduct created when the gases and tars are driven out of coal by high temperatures without direct combustion. According to UW, coal char acts as a low-cost alternative to biochar, helping semiarid soils (dry soils that receive limited annual precipitation) retain moisture, improve porosity and boost cation exchange capacity (a measure of how many positively charged ions a particular soil can hold on the surfaces of its particles).

C. Baldwin  

The first three years will focus on field testing; the final two years will be used to study the recovery of the site and then begin transferring any proven technologies to active industry sites. 

The project will also fund a UW doctoral student and several undergraduates to create a direct talent pipeline for future Wyoming reclamation professionals while producing data to guide future reclamation work in the state and beyond. Testing will begin immediately near old Wyoming uranium surface mines that are no longer used.

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