The organisers of the Charge On Innovation Challenge, a global, cross-industry initiative that aims to identify emerging technologies that could power large electric haul trucks, have revealed eight winning projects that it intends to support.
BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale launched the challenge in 2021 to accelerate the commercialisation of electric haul trucks and demonstrate their viability.
The judging panel has chosen entries by ABB, Ampcontrol and Tritium (Australia), BluVeinXL, DB Engineering & Consulting with Echion Technologies, Hitachi, Shell Consortium, Siemens Off-board power supply, and 3ME Technology.
"The truly global nature of the final eight technology innovators selected, from across industries, demonstrates the level of interest that exists to work closely with the mining industry in seeking solutions to decarbonise mining fleets," said BHP's Group Procurement Officer, James Agar.
The Charge On Innovation Challenge is a great example of the current collaborative work being done to reimagine traditional models and relationships, which will enable innovative solutions to be designed, tested and implemented, fast-tracking the adoption of new technology."
Rio Tinto Chief Technical Officer Mark Davies said, "With this group of innovators, we're taking another step in the right direction towards changing the way haul truck systems operate in the mining sector. Through collaborations like this, where we all come together to create change, we can drive long-term benefits for our industry and the environment.
"We know we have a role to play in helping solve the global climate challenge. We're looking at how we can make changes across our business to reduce our carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030. Initiatives like the Charge On Innovation Challenge can help us reach our targets."
ABB's Ability eMine system is a dual charging system solution for stationary and in-motion charging.
"This is to optimize the electric mine hauling operation with high power, the shortest charging initiation time and limited truck design impacts by leveraging standardised infrastructure and onboard systems and components", said the company.
The Ampcontrol and Tritium mining haul truck battery swap solution is an end-to-end ultra-fast modular recharging station that is fully automated, relocatable, scalable and cell agnostic. Drive-in/drive-out, an autonomous transfer robot swap batteries in 90 seconds, significantly reducing safety risks and increasing productivity by excluding personnel from the swap process.
BluVeinXL is a dynamic charging technology solution for heavy battery electric vehicles in open-pit mining and safely enables the full electrification of heavy mining fleets. It enables the ability for grid power to be used to power the electric drive motors and charge the onboard vehicle battery simultaneously.
DB Engineering & Consulting (DB E&C) and Echion Technologies have come together to develop a solution for the electrification of mining trucks. Its Catenary and Advanced Battery Technology system combines proven rail industry technology with cutting edge XNO battery chemistry to deliver an unrivalled electric solution
Hitachi Energy is proposing an innovative haul truck electrification solution which addresses the sustainability needs of the mining industry without compromising the productivity of the mine. Using Grid-eMotion Flash - a technology for sustainable e-mobility - the proposed solution will rapidly and safely charge the haul trucks' batteries. A holistic and detailed monitoring and control solution for the charging process and the grid connection system is provided by the innovative e-mesh digital solutions for e-mobility.
For mobile equipment on a mine site, Shell helps to enable a decarbonised, cost neutral end-to-end interoperable electrification system while minimising operational impact. It combines an innovative, high-powered battery solution, with ultrafast charging and a standardised micro-grid energy system.
Siemens patented Zero-Emission, Battery electric Haul Truck solution combines a proven off-board energy source (trolley substation and overhead catenary) with on-board energy storage (LTO batteries) capable of dynamic 6C and >400kWh in-cycle charging while simultaneously providing increased power to the wheels to decrease overall cycle time and increase productivity.
3ME Technology is a battery and electric vehicle technology company that develops and manufactures safe, scalable, remotely monitored, and reliable battery systems to power heavy-duty mining equipment. 3ME Technology is providing the Charge On Innovation Challenge with a purpose-refined version of its novel Bladevolt Battery System to fit the requirements of haul truck operations. The haul truck-specific Bladevolt XL system will be scalable to fit varied truck sizes, composed of the optimum chemistry, cost-effective and compliant with the proposed charging infrastructure, as well as enabled to capture and analyse critical data that will help improve operations going forward.
