Another incredible discovery has been made following the ecological footprints of environmental sustainability. It’s certainly added a feather to the cap on the road to reducing carbon emissions. A South African-based company, “Anglo American,” which has expertise in global mining, has recently built a prototype of the world’s largest hydrogen battery hybrid truck. As the name suggests, it aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the mining industry on the natural environment. This long-haul hybrid truck has exceptionally more power than the previously used diesel-powered truck, which consumed 134 liters of diesel per hour, thereby contributing to a lot of carbon emissions as well. However, this hydrogen battery hybrid truck is much more efficient than its antecedent and is capable of carrying a weight of 320 tonnes rather than the 220-tonne payload which was previously carried by the diesel trucks.
This project envisioned integrating environment-friendly technology in all respects. Various fuel cells are incorporated into this truck’s hydrogen battery, and each cell delivers up to 800 kW of power when combined. The whole battery has the potential of dissipating 2 MW of energy. The CEO of Anglo American, Duncan Wanblad, said, “With diesel emissions from our haul truck fleet accounting for 10-15 percent of our total Scope 1 emissions, this is an important step on our pathway to carbon-neutral operations by 2040.” If this pilot is successful, we could remove up to 80 percent of diesel emissions at our open-pit mines by rolling this technology across our global fleet.”
An important thing to acknowledge here is that this prototype is a part of the “Anglo American’s nuGenTM Zero Emission Haulage Solution (ZEHS)” project, which is progressing to achieve a green environment. Not only this, but a lot of other companies have also collaborated in the designing and manufacturing process of this incredible truck. These include engineering companies like Ballard, ENGINE, NPROXX, and First Mode. To meet the routine industrial needs at Mogalakwena PGM mine, the truck is designed specifically keeping in mind the swings and shifts of this place.
However, the company has a mission to replace a fleet of 40 trucks with the newly built hydrogen-powered hybrid trucks to save the enormous cost of fuel and reduce the negative impacts of carbon on the environment. The CEO said, “Over the next several years, we envisage converting or replacing our current fleet of diesel-powered trucks with this zero-emission haulage system, fuelled with green hydrogen.”