Melbourne-headquartered resources giant BHP will begin trials at their mine sites of a dynamic energy transfer system developed by United States-headquartered equipment manufacturer Caterpillar.
The Cat Dynamic Energy Transfer (DET) system will be trialled on BHP’s battery electric and diesel electric mining trucks and comes after two years of close collaboration to find sustainable and viable energy transfer solutions.
The trials include validating the solution in BHP iron ore and copper businesses, including CAT 793 fleet at Jimblebar, 1,200 kilometres northeast of Perth. BHP also intends to trial Cat DET as an integrated system with Cat autonomous solutions.
The Cat DET can also charge a machine’s batteries while operating with increased speed on grade, improving operational efficiency and machine uptime.
BHP’s Chief Commercial Officer Ragnar Udd said the trial is a welcome addition in their plans to enable zero-emissions mining truck deployment at BHP.
“Innovation and technology will play a crucial role as we work towards BHP’s goal of net zero operational emissions by 2050, and we are determined to keep building partnerships like this to achieve this objective,” Udd said.
The Cat DET is comprised of a series of integrated elements, including a power module that converts energy from a mine site’s power source, an electrified rail system to transmit the energy and a machine system to transfer the energy to the truck’s powertrain.
The rail system is a highly deployable, mobile solution that can be customised to customers’ specific site layouts, including high-speed and curved haul roads, enabling higher productivity.
Cat DET will integrate with the Cat MineStar Command for hauling solution, merging autonomy and electrification technologies to provide a holistic site solution.
Caterpillar Group President Denise Johnson said BHP has been part of their Early Learner program providing valuable feedback.
“We look forward to continuing that collaboration as we work together to trial the Cat DET system on both diesel electric and battery electric trucks at BHP’s sites,” Johnson said.
“This is an important next step to validate the crucial energy management solutions needed to support not only BHP and Caterpillar, but also the broader mining industry.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.