Anglo American plans to add a hydrogen-powered haul truck to its existing fleet at the Mogalakwena Central Pit platinum mine. Courtesy of Anglo American
Ian Ewing
With regulations being written, trials underway and companies considering adoption strategies, hydrogen’s time may finally be here
Hydrogen power has long been hailed as the energy of the future – but always seemingly a few years away. Despite decades of research, development and incremental gains, the use of hydrogen energy is today still mainly limited to a handful of niche industrial applications. But the case for hydrogen has strengthened, and in the mining industry, the pieces are finally coming together.
Mining companies are trialling the technology, including, Anglo American, which is creating its own hydrogen-powered open-pit haul truck. Hydrogen technology companies are also interested in the mining market. DynaCERT (which produces a hydrogen-injection system for diesel engines), for instance, has partnered with Sudbury-based mining equipment supplier Total Equipment Services to create a Sparta-branded underground mining utility vehicle that is being tested at a currently unnamed northern Ontario mine. Also, in anticipation of hydrogen’s eventual use at operations, standards are being written to regulate safety and usage best practices and to give miners enough confidence in hydrogen to consider using it.
Marc Bétournay is one of the people writing those standards. As a principal research scientist at CanmetMINING, part of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), he has been working since 2000 to make hydrogen mainstream. Now, he thinks it is ready. “It’s entirely possible that within three years there will be hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the surface at mine sites,” he said. “That is where it’s going to begin.”
While the hydrogen-power researcher’s enthusiasm is understandable, he isn’t alone in seeing the potential of the fuel source.
“Hydrogen is the energy of the future,” said Dominique Beaudry, corporate director for innovation at Agnico-Eagle, explaining that hydrogen power is one way mining can respond to climate change. “We are very interested,” she said, but added that her company has only just started working on its case study for hydrogen.
Glencore Canada also sees a future with hydrogen. The company has trialled hydrogen at the Raglan mine, by using a hydrogen loop with electrolyser and fuel cells to store excess energy generated by a wind turbine for later use – and it is now exploring underground fuel cell vehicles as well.
The obstacles to uptake – expense, safety and technological readiness – are open questions. The operational changes required and incomplete or non-existent guiding standards and best practices make adoption intimidating. And where is the need?
On the surface
The potential energy savings are attractive enough to Anglo American that it is sidestepping the traditional mining OEMs by doing its own conversion of a 290-tonne diesel haul truck into what the company said is the world’s largest hydrogen-powered mining vehicle. Anglo American staffers (along with engineering support from U.K.-based Williams Advanced Engineering) developed the conversion processes and the miner turned to suppliers such as Vancouver’s Ballard Power Systems to provide components.
The truck’s diesel engine is being replaced by a hydrogen fuel cell module paired with a scalable high-power modular lithium-ion battery system, controlled by a high-voltage power distribution unit delivering in excess of 1,000 kWh of energy storage according to Williams Advanced Engineering.
Anglo American partnered with ENGIE, an energy services company, to provide on-site hydrogen generation capacity as well as storage and dispensing facilities at the open-pit Mogalakwena platinum mine in South Africa, where the haul truck will be used.
“Refuelling is a specific area we are focused on,” said Anglo American spokesperson Katie Ryall, “since it’s a major benefit of hydrogen, in that you can refuel much faster compared to charging a battery electric vehicle.”
“We can now generate our own fuel on site, eliminating our reliance on importing fuels and decoupling ourselves from the oil price,” she added. “The haul truck use case is very compelling, from an economic, environmental and technical perspective.”
Ryall said this project will help address the reliability and safety questions around this fuel source. She sees commercially ready solutions for mining three to five years away, with adoption in the open-pit environment first.
Ryall explained that the company has set out “ambitious” carbon and energy targets for 2030, and that hydrogen infrastructure will help enable a move to net zero carbon emissions. “To decarbonize our operations, developing a zero emission solution for materials movement is necessary. In the mobile application, hydrogen is well suited to the 24/7 activities at the site, where production is paramount and asset utilisation needs to be very high.”
Under the earth
The biggest single driver in the move to hydrogen underground may prove to be regulations surrounding diesel particulate matter (DPM) in underground environments. Since DPM in confined spaces was declared carcinogenic by the World Health Organization in 2012, regulatory agencies have implemented increasingly stringent limits. “There are limitations currently on the books for all the mining jurisdictions in North America, and elsewhere,” said Bétournay.
The options for mines are to increase ventilation, or to decrease the quantity of DPM they emit. The cost of ventilation can be breathtaking. Instead, by removing diesel from underground, an operation can save 25 to 50 per cent of its ventilation costs, said Bétournay. “You could be talking about hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per year per mine.”
Ryan Sookhoo, director of new initiatives at Hydrogenics, a hydrogen technologies company observed, “there are some natural synergies for a zero emission vehicle to be used in a mine. observed. The carbon footprint of a mining operation and the ventilation requirements [underground] are primarily driven by the emissions of the vehicles in the tunnels. And miners can pay a high price for the fuel and the vehicles, because they can be fairly remote.”
Hydrogen vs. electric
Some of the benefits of hydrogen – reducing the carbon footprint, cutting down on energy costs – are already being addressed by electrically powered vehicles, which have gained acceptance in underground mines. That acceptance is expected to grow over the coming years. According to the Hadapsar, India-based research company, MarketsandMarkets, ”electrical mining equipment is estimated to have a major stake post-2030, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the overall mining equipment market.” The company also predicts that “the electrification of mining equipment in Canada is estimated to be much faster than in the US and Australia.”
While some may question if hydrogen can find a niche for itself given the earlier adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) or if hydrogen is even needed, analysts Bernd Heid, Martin Linder, Anna Orthofer, and Markus Wilthaner at McKinsey & Co. make the case why there’s a role for it. In an article entitled “Hydrogen: The next wave for electric vehicles?” they outline the argument for hydrogen’s adoption.
“Hydrogen and batteries are often portrayed as competing technologies, and batteries have received a lot of attention in recent years (‘proton versus electron’). The relative strengths and weaknesses of these technologies, however, suggest that they should play complementary roles. Battery electric vehicles exhibit higher overall fuel efficiency as long as they are not too heavy due to large battery sizes, making them ideally suited for short-distance and light vehicles. Hydrogen can store more energy in less weight, making fuel cells suitable for vehicles with heavy payloads and long ranges. Faster refueling also benefits commercial fleets and other vehicles in near-continuous use. How the technologies relate will depend mostly on how battery technology will evolve and how quickly cost reductions from scaling fuel-cell production can be realized.”
There is another argument in favour of hydrogen: In remote locations where mines are forced to generate their own electricity, hydrogen-powered vehicles could be an attractive alternative to BEVs, especially if the mines rely on diesel or natural gas generators to produce electricity.
Hydrogen hybrids
Hydrogen proponents are anticipating that fuell cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) will eventually become the dominant mining vehicle architecture, rather than battery electric.
Hydrogen powered vehicles could offer similar use cases and physical and logistical infrastructures as diesel vehicles, with lower ventilation costs and none of the health risks. Modular fuel cells would allow full-shift endurance and similar power output as diesel engines. The vehicle architectures would be similar to battery electric vehicles currently in use or under development. “Usually the battery or electric drive train model is a precursor to the fuel cell,” noted Sookhoo. “A fuel cell vehicle is 90 per cent an electric vehicle.”
To achieve this vision, the vehicle OEMs will need to get on board. “The next step in the market is to basically have the OEMs who already supply vehicles in the mining industry come to the table,” said Sookhoo. Once work begins in earnest, he predicts it will take about five to seven years to produce a commercial-model fuel cell mining vehicle.
Setting standards for hydrogen usage
The primary document governing the use of hydrogen in Canada is the Canadian Hydrogen Installation Code (CHIC), the 2020 version of which is going to public review shortly. For the first time, the CHIC will contain a section on hydrogen in mining. “It’s sort of generic requirements and statements, just to make sure that this application is reflected,” explained Andrei Tchouvelev, a hydrogen standards and codes expert. But, he added, several provinces have formally adopted the CHIC into their regulatory process, and others are following.
Compared to other commercial and industrial uses of hydrogen, surface mines and vehicles can already use largely the same standards and design criteria. Underground, there are additional challenges to overcome. Confined spaces amplify the potential effects of any released gas, in terms of both ignition and suffocation risk. Adequate ventilation is needed to maintain the concentration below the lower flammability limit (LFL) of hydrogen in case of leaks or damage, particularly in an environment where ignition sources abound. The ventilation requirement is less than that for diesel, but may require careful design of refuelling or dispensing points to ensure adequate airflow in those areas.
“The next step is to be more practical, to look at the potential architecture of the vehicle and the configuration of a specific mine,” said Tchouvelev.
But he thinks the industry is well positioned to make that step. “The amount of safety knowledge that has been accumulated [to date] is significant,” he added, mentioning research that has been conducted into hydrogen dispersion behaviour underground, training and emergency response requirements, and sensor technologies for leak detection. In designing dispensing architectures, Tchouvelev said, “We can lean on the experience with conventional [above-ground] refueling stations. It’s not like people are starting from scratch.”
Part of that accumulated knowledge comes from the mining companies themselves, as Agnico Eagle, along with Glencore, Vale, Eldorado, and others, have been participating in hydrogen working groups led by NRCan, proving technologies and use cases, sharing research data, developing best practices, and identifying gaps in industry codes and standards for the use of hydrogen in the mining context.
Approaching the starting point
Perhaps all this means that hydrogen is right where it has always been: a few years away. But beyond mining hydrogen is already a US$120 billion industry, with over 65 million tonnes produced annually. Increasing adoption in other industries, including public transportation (buses and trains), warehousing (where hydrogen-powered forklifts are becoming common), and shipping (everything from UPS trucks to container ships) points to momentum that the mining industry might be wise to take advantage of.
“If you wait too long, you’re going to end up taking the fuel cell that was already designed for a train and having to adopt it to mining,” cautioned Sookhoo. “But if you get into the discussions now, maybe you can get a fuel cell that’s the perfect hybrid between a train engine and a mining engine, and leverage the volume and cost savings from that synergy.”
Bétournay thinks that work will begin soon. He said some battery electric equipment manufacturers have already been approached by mining companies looking for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. And at a roundtable discussion in December, he added, “the consensus on hydrogen ranged from ‘it’s an interesting option’ to ‘when can we start using it?’”
