British-headquartered multinational mining company Anglo American has officially unveiled the prototype for the world’s largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck.
This mining truck is designed to operate under everyday mining conditions at the PGM Mogalakwena mine in northeastern South Africa which is also the world’s largest open-pit platinum group metal mine.
With the launch of this eco-friendly mining truck, Anglo American intends to replace its 40 conventional truck fleet which claims to use about one million liters of diesel each year.
In addition, the truck is part of Anglo American’s nuGen Zero Emission Haulage Solution (ZEHS) to create a green hydrogen system at the mine site.
The system will draw power from a solar power plant to supply a hydrogen electrolyzer to separate the water, which will then provide the trucks with green hydrogen fuel.
Duncan Wanblad, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said that nuGen is a true demonstration of Anglo American’s FutureSmart Mining program that is changing the future of the mining industry.
“With diesel emissions from our fleet of haul trucks accounting for around 10-15% of total emissions, this is an important step on our path to carbon neutral operations by 2040,” he explained on his official website, Saturday (7/5/2022).
According to him, the mining industry has played an important role in helping the world to decarbonise, both through its emission footprint and the metals and minerals it produces which are essential for low-carbon energy and transportation systems.
“Over the next few years, we are considering converting or replacing our current fleet of diesel powered trucks with this zero-emissions, green hydrogen-fueled haulage system,” he said.
“If this trial is successful, we can eliminate up to 80% of diesel emissions in our open pits by implementing this technology across our global fleet,” added Duncan.
The ZEHS project is expected to be fully up and running by 2026. This is the first step in making eight of the company’s mines carbon neutral by 2030. Not only that, global mining companies have also set a target to make all their operations clean by 2040.
This 2 megawatt (MW) hydrogen battery hybrid truck produces up to 800 kW more power than its diesel-engined predecessor with a 1.2 MWh battery pack and is capable of carrying a payload of 290 tonnes to 320 tonnes.
