The world’s largest platinum quarry, Mogalakwena, in northeastern South Africa, has started operating the planet’s largest hydrogen fuel cell truck.
It was originally a Komatsu 930E dump truck, with a 16-cylinder diesel engine that functioned as a generator, generating power for the motor wheels. However, it was replaced with eight 100 kW Ballard fuel cell modules. And the fuel tank was replaced with 1MW lithium-ion batteries from Williams Advanced Engineering.
As a result, the mine truck reaches 2 MW (2,682 hp), which is enough to transport 315 tons of ore. And the gross weight of the machine exceeds 500 tons. All the work on this no-nonsense transplant was done at First Mode in Seattle.
Not insignificantly, the hydrogen for the giant is produced locally, using a 3.5 MW electrolyzer. The latter is powered by 100-megawatt solar panels. At full load, this produces up to one ton of environmentally friendly hydrogen per day.
Anglo American, which owns a platinum mine in South Africa, wants to convert up to 40 of its six-mine trucks to hydrogen by 2030. And the plan for 2040 is to make all the company’s quarry trucks around the world carbon-neutral.
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