The Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle , developed by the London-based company Anglo American , is set to become the world’s largest electric vehicle and will begin testing in South Africa in late 2020.
It is currently in the development phase, specifically testing will be carried out at the Mogalakwena metal mine, before being used elsewhere.
The vehicle is not completely electric, but rather a hybrid that will be powered by both electric power and hydrogen: not surprisingly, this mining truck has a total mass of 290 tons . Thus, Anglo American not only wants to reduce the consumption of the vehicle and also make it cheaper to maintain, but also to make it less noisy than its diesel-powered counterpart.
Several times heavier than the previous one
The Fuel Cell will be considerably larger in size than the previous electric vehicle considered to be the largest in the world, the eDumper , which ‘only’ had a mass of 45 tons, and which was a development of the Swiss company Kuhn Schweiz AG in collaboration with researchers from the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the NTB Interstate University of Technology in Buchs.
Whereas the eDumper is a mining truck used to transport marl (a type of sedimentary rock composed mainly of calcite and clays, predominantly calcite) from the slopes of the mountains in Switzerland, and it is based entirely In pure and physical electricity for power, the Anglo American truck will be a hybrid using a lithium-ion battery and a hydrogen fuel cell.
According to Williams Advanced Engineering , the company behind the development of the Fuel Cell battery, the lithium-ion battery together with the hydrogen cell will provide the truck with energy storage of up to 1,000 kilowatt-hours, which It will allow you to work in the same ‘harsh environments’ as a diesel transport truck. The truck will also have regenerative braking, allowing the vehicle to conserve and recover energy while descending.
Hydrogen fuel, according to the US Department of Energy, is a clean fuel that produces only water as a by-product when consumed in a fuel cell. It is generally made from natural gas, nuclear energy, or renewable energy such as wind and solar. Supplementing the vehicle’s battery with hydrogen fuel cells will allow the truck to run for longer periods without recharging .
Anglo American Technical Director Tony O’Neill said in a statement that the Fuel Cell is part of the company’s 2030 goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Ultimately, the general purpose is to make mining more technological, digital and sustainable by changing its process of sourcing, extracting and selling products.
