The world’s largest hydrogen powered mine truck is being developed by Anglo American in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering.
The ultra-class Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) is part of a sustainability programme at Anglo American called FutureSmart Mining that aims to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
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Julian Soles, Anglo American’s head of technology development said: “With their extensive industry experience, we believe Williams can help us to deliver this ground-breaking project, which is part of our plan to create a smart energy mix that moves us closer towards our carbon and energy targets for 2030 and, ultimately, our vision of operating a carbon-neutral mine.”
The FCEV truck’s hydrogen fuel cell will be paired with WAE’s scalable high-power modular lithium-ion battery system, an arrangement that Anglo American said is controlled by a high voltage power distribution unit delivering over 1,000kWh of energy storage.
The power units will be designed and built at WAE, in Grove, Oxfordshire, and integrated into an existing mining haul truck, with testing taking place later this year at Platinum Group Metals’ Mogalakwena mining operation in South Africa.
Through regenerative braking, the battery system will be capable of recovering energy as the haul truck travels downhill. Studies will take place after the trials to ascertain how the power units can be used to provide energy storage in second life applications.
“We are delighted to be involved in this innovative and exciting project which showcases the scalability of battery technology from automotive and motorsport to “heavy duty” industrial applications,” said Craig Wilson, MD of Williams Advanced Engineering. “Operating within a harsh environment is something we are familiar with as sole battery supplier for the Extreme E programme and we remain committed to supporting long-term sustainability projects.”
Excellent way forward and a good example of how and when large consumers of fossil energy can move toward a cleaner operation. Just hope the policy is implemented
Hydrogen fuel cell and battery technology are all good for point of use reductions but one of the big issues to be resolved with Hydrogen is sourcing it. A quick search reveals most of the fossil fuel majors are also involved in the Hydrogen consortium’s, and the primary source of Hydrogen is steam cracked Methane (from fossil fuel reserves) with a by product being CO or CO2. Electrolysis is energy hungry and currently because of this costly in the end Hydrogen fuel with few big name large volume producers. The fuel majors will want to protect their commercial architectures as vehicle fuels (diesel, petrol) use dwindles and will move to the hydrogen stream to protect the income streams.
( https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-production-natural-gas-reforming )
Quote “Supplying hydrogen to industrial users is now a major business around the world. Demand for hydrogen, which has grown more than threefold since 1975, continues to rise – almost entirely supplied from fossil fuels, with 6% of global natural gas and 2% of global coal going to hydrogen production.” – https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-hydrogen