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Mining group Anglo American unveiled 6 May what it described as
the prototype of the world's largest hydrogen-powered mine haul
truck in South Africa, having pledged to achieve carbon neutrality
in operational emissions by 2040.
With diesel emissions from its haul truck fleet accounting for
10-15% of its direct emissions, the London-headquartered company
has taken a leading role in developing zero-emission trucking in
mining operations. Other major miners, like BHP, are studying
similar projects.
Anglo American's prototype truck, which has a payload of 290
metric tons (mt), has been installed with a 2-MW hydrogen fuel cell
and a battery system and placed in operation at its Mogalakwena
platinum mine. The company's goal is to power such trucks with
renewable energy in electricity and hydrogen forms at its mining
sites.
"Over the next several years, we envisage converting or
replacing our current fleet of diesel-powered trucks with this
zero-emission haulage system, fueled with green hydrogen," CEO
Duncan Wanblad said in a statement when the vehicle
was debuted.
"If this pilot is successful, we could remove up to 80% of
diesel emissions at our open pit mines by rolling this technology
across our global fleet," added Duncan, who succeeded Mark Cutifani
last month after the 64-year-old's retirement.
Anglo American plans to retrofit 40 diesel-fueled trucks at
Mogalakwena to become hybrids as an initial step. Zero-emission
haulage could be rolled out to five to seven sites by 2030 before
the company's global fleet of around 400 trucks is fully
decarbonized by 2035.
To counter climate change, the company has promised to reduce
net GHG emissions by 30% before 2030, relative to the 2016 levels
of 17.9 million mt of CO2-equivalent (CO2e), before reaching carbon
neutrality 10 years later.
"This [pilot] is an important step on our pathway to carbon
neutral operations by 2040," Wanblad said.
Hydrogen ambition
Anglo American spent three years developing the zero-emission
truck with First Mode, a US-based engineering firm, Ballard Power,
a Canada-based fuel cell developer, NPROXX, a Netherlands-based
hydrogen storage firm, and ENGIE, a France-based utility tasked
with green hydrogen supply in the project.
In 2019, ENGIE placed an order for a 3.5-MW
electrolyzer from Oslo-listed Nel ASA for the haulage project.
Anglo American has built a hydrogen production, storage, and
refueling complex at Mogalakwena that incorporates the electrolyzer
and a solar photovoltaic field.
"We realize the importance of green hydrogen in the
decarbonization of heavy-duty mobility," said Sébastien Arbola,
executive vice-president in charge of thermal generation, hydrogen
and energy supply at ENGIE.
Anglo American, Engie, Bambili Energy, state-owned South African
National Development Institute, and the South African government
have teamed up to explore opportunities to develop hydrogen
clusters in the country.
Three hubs were identified in a feasibility study published last
October, including one that centers around the Mogalakwena mine.
The cities of Johannesburg, Rustenburg, and Pretoria make up the
second hub, and the third is around Durban and Richards Bay.
Hydrogen demand in the Mogalakwena hub, where 119 MW of solar
farms have already been installed, could reach around 40,000 mt by
2030, according to the study. About 90% of the
demand would come from mining trucks—in terms of cost of
ownership, hydrogen-powered trucks are expected to reach parity
with diesel-fueled ones as of 2030.
"With a combination of abundant renewable energy sources [in
solar and wind], and as the world's largest producer of platinum
group of metals, hydrogen is a strategic priority for South Africa
and presents a significant opportunity for economic development,"
said Natascha Viljoen, CEO of Anglo American Platinum.
Miners' decarbonization efforts
Anglo American was one of the 28 mining companies that committed
last October to net-zero operational GHG emissions by 2050, or
sooner.
In a 2020 report, McKinsey & Co. estimated miners were
responsible 4-7% of global GHG emissions, equivalent to 1.9
billion-5.1 billion mt of CO2e annually. Of them, 1% were from
mining operations, and the remaining were fugitive methane during
coal mining.
Aside from Anglo American, Rio Tinto has partnered with Komatsu and Caterpillar to develop
zero-emission trucks that could run on battery or hydrogen for
their mining operations. BHP is also studying
battery-powered large mining trucks with Caterpillar.
Separately, Fortescue Metals Group is testing on
hydrogen-powered trucks and has partnered with—and later
acquired—Williams Advanced Engineering (WAF) to develop
battery-powered ones.
The deal for WAF, an offshoot of the Williams Formula One team,
will "enable Fortescue to become a major player in the growing
global market for green industrial transportation equipment," the
miner's energy arm Fortescue Future Industries
said earlier this year.
Posted 06 May 2022 by Max Tingyao Lin, Principal Journalist, Climate and Sustainability
This article was published by S&P Global Commodity Insights and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.