With global demand for battery minerals continuing to rise, tech giants ABB, Hitachi, Komatsu, and Sumitomo are working together, developing a clever tech strategy that’s slashed emissions across Japanese mining operations.
The collaboration between Hitachi Construction Machinery and ABB Traction to build a massive, fully electric 240 ton haul truck for extreme duty mining operations reached a critical stage last year, with the completion of their first prototype in February. Over the last year, Komatsu and Sumitomo have signed on as well, and the new haul trucks are doing their thing at the Kansanshi copper-gold mine in Zambia.
“We are delighted to see our collaboration with Hitachi Construction Machinery reaching this crucial step,” Fabiana Cavalcante, Head of Mobile e-Power, ABB Traction, explained last year. “The project is not only helping to tackle the issues involved in dump truck electrification but is also contributing to enabling a low-carbon world through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We look forward to seeing the prototype prove its capability in the Zambian copper-gold mine.”
The deployment at Kansanshi marks the first OEM-led pilot program of this type of electric vehicle in real-world mining conditions.
And, as for what type of electric vehicle is “this” type of electric vehicle – that was a big topic of conversation at The Electric Mine Conference in Chile last week, where ABB, Hitachi, Komatsu, and Sumitomo discussed not just Hitach’s electrification of FQM’s heavy haul trucks, but also the “trolley-style” overhead charging system that enables the trucks to operate around the clock, without the need to stop for charging.
On level ground, the truck’s electric powertrain draws power from its high-capacity battery. During power-intensive uphill climbs, the truck connects to the overhead wires and draws additional power, minimizing the demands on the battery. On downhill runs, the trucks recharge with regenerative braking.
The mine’s clever three-part system greatly reduces (if not outright eliminates) any downtime associated with charging, and enables the truck to operate almost continuously.
Electrek’s Take
The International Energy Agency (IEA, a Paris-based, 31 nation organization established in 1974 that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector) projects that mineral demand from EVs will see 30x growth between 2020 and 2040, with demand for lithium and nickel growing 40x as demand for diesel is dropping faster than most people predicted, reaching a 26-year low last summer.
The IEA’s projections take several battery development scenarios into consideration, and include increasingly familiar terms like utility-scale battery energy storage. All of which is to say: we’re gonna be mining a whole lot more, for a whole lot longer – and decarbonizing those operations is critical to doing all this properly.
The current plan is to convert Hitachi’s fleet of 2500 HP EH4000 240-ton diesel mining trucks to electric driveYou can learn more about the ABB eMine process in the company’s conceptual (read: it’s all CGI) launch video from last year, below, then let us know what you think of the group’s collaboration in the comments.
Hitachi haul trucks + ABB eMine
SOURCES | IMAGES: ABB, Construction Equipment, EV Magazine.
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