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Equipment supplier offers ultralow emission diesel engines

25th March 2016

  

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Multinational equipment supplier Sandvik Mining plans to offer its entire range of underground load and haul fleet models with ultralow-emission diesel engine options – either Stage IV/Tier 4 or Stage II/Tier 2 – by mid-2016. The Gauteng-based Southern African division notes that these options will be made available in its region as well.

Diversified Swedish miner Boliden’s Tara mine – which is located in Ireland – has explored numerous ways of improving ventilation, including vehicle tagging and adjusting ventilation volumes based on where equipment is located at any given time. The mine commissioned a new Sandvik LH517 equipped with a Stage IV/Tier 4 engine and AutoMine Lite loading systems late last year.

Growing awareness about the potential health impacts of diesel particulate matter (DPM) and other engine emissions has led the Tara mine – Europe’s largest zinc mine – to pioneer an industrywide migration to ultralow-emissions diesel engine technology in its underground mobile fleet.

Ventilating an underground operation as big and complex as Tara, one of the ten largest zinc mines in the world, is no easy task. Today, Boliden mines at depths of more than 1 000 m where large, powerful diesel equipment navigating tunnels around the clock has increased airflow requirements.

“We have 300-odd pieces of equipment down there, but I’d guess 20 or 30 of those machines are burning 80% of the fuel,” says Tara mobile equipment department head Brendan Anderson. “Land Cruisers burn a little bit of fuel, [while] drills drive in at the start of a shift, but then they’re parked. The big trucks and loaders are always moving. They’re the ones really producing the emissions.”

Boliden has made large capital investments to improve the volume of air passing through Tara’s workings. The mine’s ventilation system boasts a maximum capacity of more than 1 000 m3/s and the company has continued to sink shafts, some as wide as 4.5 m, to depths exceeding 800 m to improve ventilation in the mine’s complex system of drifts and tunnels. However, capital investments to improve air volume in the mine only go so far towards helping Tara achieve its goals.

“We have to do everything we can to improve the underground atmosphere,” says Tara senior ventilation engineer Pat Hanratty. He notes that the more Boliden can reduce mobile equipment emissions in the mine, the less it needs to increase its ventilation requirements. “Equipment that is able to [enhance] the working conditions, notwithstanding airflow constraints in a particular area, is a brilliant thing to have.”

Cleaner Energy Technology
To complement ventilation investments and further improve conditions underground for its 600-plus employees, Tara sought out ultralow-emission diesel engine technology providers.

“Our trucks and loaders are big and we need to have the best available technology [in place] to keep our people safe and healthy while complying with the very stringent European regulations,” Hanratty says, adding that Tara needed a partner that could provide equipment with engines that would reduce the emissions level and this led the company to Sandvik.

Last year, Tara became the first mine in Ireland to adopt ultralow-sulphur diesel (ULSD), which allowed it to employ Stage IV/Tier 4 engines with selective catalytic reduction technology, enabling the mine to reduce DPM and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission levels without using diesel particulate filter regeneration and its associated increased maintenance.

Tara replaced an interim engine in a Sandvik TH550 truck with a Tier 4 Final engine in mid-2014. A Sandvik LH517 loader has also been equipped with a Tier 4 Final engine.

Anderson comments that the European Commission and other governments have pushed to lower emission levels, which has driven engine manufacturers to invest in new technology and develop cleaner engines. “It’s up to us as operators to push our [original- equipment manufacturers] to get those engines into their mobile equipment and Sandvik has been at the forefront.”

Sandvik Mining has partnered with engine supplier Volvo Penta for several years to help mine operators achieve major reductions in NOx and DPM emissions for Sandvik underground loaders and haul trucks.

The Sandvik Solution
Sandvik Mining and Volvo Penta have led the way in the rapid introduction of the latest ultralow-emission diesel engine technology, collectively referred to as Stage IV/Tier 4 engines.

Emissions from an equivalent output Stage I/Tier 1 engine, in accordance with standards from the mid 1990s, are around 25 times higher than those of the latest Stage IV/Tier 4 engines. The latest engines emit “very” low levels of harmful NOx and DPM.

For large underground mines, these significantly lower emissions can potentially translate into savings of tens of thousands of dollars in diesel emission filtration per unit a year and reduce fuel consumption by as much as 10%, compared with Stage III/Tier 3 engines.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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