Open Cut » Maintenance & Equipment
This project aimed to understand how much energy could be harnessed (and further used) from haul trucks travelling on long downhill runs, to reduce the overall usage of diesel fuel. It is understood that many of the mining operations have pits between 200m to 300m deep and the amount of energy being lost or burnt during the downhill cycle is significant. This energy could potentially be recovered and utilised during the uphill cycle / climb.
It is estimated that a single haul truck could power an average house for approximately 2 days with the energy lost / burnt during each downhill run. If a truck was to burn off between 2-3 mw of power during the downhill coast, the question has been raised; how much energy could be harnessed and utilised during critical times - e.g. at the start of the uphill push?
At the time of commencing this project, it was thought that the future technology would be 100% battery powered trucks. This means the trucks we currently utilise and the trucks that we purchase today, will still be operating in up to 20 years, therefore the need to explore how to harness this energy, which in turn, will reduce diesel usage. While the project was not completed as per the original scope of work, a significant amount of effort was invested in understanding and calculating the potential energy that can be harnessed across multiple asset types, during downhill runs.
The desktop study portion of the project was completed; being the calculation of the energy generation or loss from haul trucks descending into pits. Unfortunately the other portions of the study fell short, due to the absence or limited information which was driven by the constraints or availability of stakeholders during the COVID period and the business priorities at the time.