Abandoned mines across the world leak contaminated waters into precious water resources, threatening human populations and natural environments alike. The primary demand from the industry for addressing the contamination is a passive system that utilizes locally available and cheap material, with little energy or maintenance requirement. Passive treatment systems can operate in remote regions, using diverse, inexpensive, and locally available material with low waste production, but are subject to ambient conditions and often space intensive. The geothermal gradient available at abandoned mines, or the corresponding geothermal reservoir proximal to the mine, is a viable heat energy source that can provide advantageous temperature conditions for established remediation techniques, namely bioremediation. The following paper presents data from a column experiment to show the effect of an imposed temperature gradient on the permeability and microbial kinetics of a bioreactor. The data is then applied to models which reflect evolving thermal and mass transfer in the multiphase system. The paper emphasizes the intricate balance of the coupled thermal-hydrological-chemical model to improve the performance of a bioreactor that utilizes no mechanical parts. The addition of geothermal energy to a bioreactor is shown to improve long-term permeability, enhance reaction and precipitation kinetics, and decrease spatial expanse of designed bioreactor systems.

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