Replacing combustion engines with hydrogen fuel cells to power mining haul trucks: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

With the proven advantage of higher energy density in hydrogen fuel cells over batteries, there is potential to apply fuel cells to power mining haul trucks. This study aims to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of hydrogen fuel cell electric mine trucks as an alternative to current mine haul trucks. Specifically, the project: (1) developed an economic framework for evaluating the integration of renewable energy powered haul trucks into mining; and (2) applied vehicle drivetrain and energy simulation in Matlab/Simulink to elucidate the challenges and opportunities of incorporating hydrogen fuel cell technology into the current form factors of mine haul trucks. First, the study uses an optimization model to characterize the impact of production, market and policy parameters on a mining firm’s decision of what types of trucks (with or without renewable technology) to deploy to minimize its overall costs, including costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Second, is an investigation of the significant technical challenges and opportunities associated with integrating hydrogen fuel cells in mining haul trucks using the vehicle drivetrain model and simulation experiments. The results show that even with green energy government incentives and levies for greenhouse gas emission, the cost of operating green energy trucks needs to be competitive to ensure they minimize a mining firm’s cost. However, to utilize a hydrogen fuel cell truck in the mine, a new vehicle frame is likely required to support the integration of the technology. This would require financial and technical investments by original equipment manufacturers and mining firms to make the transition --Abstract, page iii