When the scientists of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University planned their two-month trip to the People’s Republic of China, they understood that although the primary objective was scientific research, the visit would be incomplete without exploring innovative enterprises and industrial sites. Bridging the gap between fundamental science and production is a crucial prerequisite for economic development through technology transfer—something well understood in China.
As part of their visit to Taiyuan University of Technology (TYUT), the delegation from Saint Petersburg University visited a site where the construction of a deep geothermal borehole is underway.
«The government of Shanxi Province allocated TYUT 30 million yuan for the construction of extraction and injection wells at a test site located 60 kilometers from Taiyuan, near a major energy enterprise. The goal is to extract hot water for scientific research in this area and to provide electricity and heat supply to consumers. The planned depth of the well is 4,700 meters, with the current achieved depth being 4,200 meters. At this depth, the water temperature reaches 95 °C. Meanwhile, a similar well with a planned depth of 4,100 meters is under construction directly adjacent to one of TYUT’s academic buildings in the city. Its current depth is 4,000 meters», - said Valentin Morenov, head of the delegation.
According to him, there is currently a trend in China toward reducing the carbon footprint of electric and thermal energy generation. In this context, projects in the field of renewable and alternative energy are of great relevance. One such approach is geothermal energy. It is noteworthy that the initiative for these developments came from an educational institution.
As of 2024, geothermal sources account for approximately 0.4–0.5% of all electricity consumed by Russian citizens. This energy is produced by four geothermal power plants located in Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. There is also significant potential in this regard in the North Caucasus, the Baikal region, and Western Siberia. Although in these regions high temperatures are found at relatively shallow depths—around 1 to 1.5 kilometers—the Chinese experience was of great interest to the mining specialists from Saint Petersburg.
Equally valuable was the visit to the company Xiang Ming Intelligent Control, which specializes in the development and production of automation technologies for the mining industry.
The company develops products such as automated shaft monitoring platforms and chute monitoring systems for integrated mining operations, underground communication control systems for coal mines, centralized belt conveyor control systems, electro-hydraulic control systems for hydraulic supports, intelligent systems for various types of industrial robots, and other technological solutions.
«At the Mining University, students receive extensive training in the digitalization of the mining industry, working with simulators from companies such as BELAZ and Caterpillar. This allows them to immerse themselves in the world of intelligent manufacturing and learn to operate core types of mining machinery in a completely safe environment. New graduates enter the workforce already familiar with the operation of modern open-pit equipment. Here, our postgraduate students had the opportunity to see how similar technologies—including the latest scientific developments—are created and tested in China. During the tour, they were not only given a detailed explanation of the networked electro-hydraulic control system, the intelligent coal mining management system, and communication control solutions, but were also allowed to try them in practice», - emphasized Li Yunpeng, coordinator of the university’s scientific and educational programs with the PRC.
Joint scientific work between the two universities is continuing in parallel.
At the Department of Electric Power Engineering and Electrical Technology, Pavel Suslikov, a postgraduate student from the Department of Electric Power Engineering and Electromechanics at the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University, is conducting research under the supervision of Qin Wenping from TYUT. The main objective of his study is to improve the energy efficiency of mineral extraction facilities through the application of modern digital technologies.
«This research emerged in response to the need for a unified approach to the design of autonomous (remotely located from centralized power systems) electrical networks, which account for more than half of all mining enterprises. As an approach to determining the parameters of electrical networks, I employ mathematical and simulation modeling combined with machine learning methods. This combination enables the achievement of highly accurate and detailed results, which, in turn, will assist engineers in designing isolated power systems by allowing them to assess the parameters of generating equipment while taking into account the application of modern network management technologies at the design stage, ultimately ensuring high energy efficiency throughout the entire production lifecycle», - explained the mining specialist.
The research work of Anastasia Shabalina, a postgraduate student from the Department of Organization and Management, falls within the field of raw materials sector economics—specifically, the optimization of an oil and gas company’s investment portfolio based on the assessment of environmental business factors. While in China, the young researcher is primarily interested not in laboratory facilities, but in scientific discussions with local scholars and access to the university’s extensive library, with its collection of academic journals, databases, and specialized literature on economics, finance, and the oil and gas industry.
«As part of the internship, I plan to study the system of risk identification and assessment in companies of China’s mineral resource sector, as well as the process of integrating this system into the management framework of an oil and gas company. Colleagues from TYUT provided me with a detailed overview of the current economic situation in the Republic’s mineral resource sector. I am working on a model for an oil and gas project portfolio under conditions of high uncertainty, so I paid particular attention to the specialized software widely used here for optimization and forecasting—the Indian platform KanORS Veda. All of these factors combined will allow me to deepen my knowledge in portfolio theory and conduct an analysis of existing optimization methodologies and the prerequisites for their development, with a special focus on comparing Chinese and Russian approaches,”», - noted Anastasia Shabalina.
Her academic advisor at TYUT is Professor Yao Xilong from the School of Economics and Management, whose work is recognized as key in China in the fields of sustainable development and the advancement of innovative energy infrastructure. His research areas include the energy revolution and the alternative role of green methanol in the context of carbon emissions reduction. Consultation with Professor Xilong will enable the postgraduate student to incorporate climate project indicators into her optimization model.
At the end of the week, the delegation from Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University visited the Faculty of Chemistry and toured the laboratory facilities.
Various technologies being studied at the Faculty may find application in the projects of all internship participants—ranging from ecological approaches to reducing the anthropogenic impact of various industries to the economic aspects of rare earth metal extraction and processing. The faculty staff presented several ongoing scientific projects to the delegation from Saint Petersburg, thereby offering them material to reflect upon in terms of broadening the scope of their own research.
