HIGH PROFILE
IM : Have you been surprised by the industry take-up of these new solutions since joining MacLean ? What trends have supported this acceleration in demand ? MvK : That ’ s an interesting question . Taking it back a little further , when I started off at Borden , I expected the industry adoption to be quite rapid – perhaps more so than it has been .
We were on a good track in 2019 , but the pandemic caused a brief interruption . I think a lot of operations took that time to re-evaluate certain choices or projects .
We were very busy with consultants on tradeoff studies in the early days of the pandemic – that never really stopped – and we ’ re starting to see these studies result in fleet orders .
The other thing that went under the radar with the pandemic is , in 2020 , all the big mining companies made massive commitments to carbon reductions . Part of that is now starting to trickle through with quotes and interest .
For companies that have aggressive targets for 2030 , this is impacting fleet decisions today . If you buy a machine now , it will most likely last for 15 years or more , so you are effectively deciding today about what machines you will be operating in 2037 .
IM : MacLean initially announced an equipment electrification plan all the way back in September 2016 at MINExpo , selling your first EV Series machine that year . Since then , you have accrued in excess of 100,000 operating hours on these machines . When evaluating this data , what has surprised you in terms of operating performance , industry acceptance , cost outcomes , etc ? MvK : We have a lot of experience with all our BEV equipment , which is spread out across the offering . We have , through this experience , confirmed operating performance and proven the increased speed of these machines going upramp . For instance , with the new batteries we are using on 17 % ramps , providing the road conditions are OK , you can drive up that ramp at 15 km / h with an empty battery-electric boom truck . You are looking at 8 km / h with a dieselpowered boom truck , so the speed difference is quite significant .
We have also carried out some very targeted trials , one of which was with a customer in British Columbia , Canada , last summer , where we captured those carbon savings with a bit more detail .
In that trial , we recorded 315 hours on the machine over the course of three months . If you had used a diesel machine over those hours , it would have consumed about 5,000 litres of diesel , generating about 18 t of carbon . With the grid being as clean as it is in BC , the carbon emissions from powering up the machine were about 100 times lower than pure diesel – about 130 kg in total . Even when we do the back calculation using conventional diesel generation to power up these electric machines , it is still three times cleaner than a machine with a diesel engine .
The one thing we still need to do at our test facility in Sudbury is to confirm what heat savings we can achieve when using BEVs compared with diesel vehicles . We know from other work in the industry that we should see an order of magnitude lower heat emissions , and we are looking at building on our own in-house simulations with real-world test data .
IM : Has this data and feedback influenced your EV Series product line developments over this timeframe ? What new products / concepts have come to light on the back of analysing this data ? MvK : Absolutely . Our on-board chargers , for instance , now come from a different supplier that offers better performance , a lower price point and an improved tolerance to less-than-ideal power infrastructure . If you have more robust electronics on these batteries , it is always likely to be better suited to more underground mines .
We have also been able to simplify the drivetrain by removing the transfer case for some of our lighter machines such as the shotcrete sprayer .
As well , we have some exciting changes coming up with the offering of a CCS-2-type off-board charger receptacle . For all-electric mines where off-board chargers are required to power other equipment , such as trucks and loaders , we figured it would make sense for our equipment to be compatible . This means we can charge machines with up to 250 kW of power , provided the off-board charger can push that kind of energy . As for on-board charging , we hit a practical limit to our maximum 100 kW charging capacity . Most mine grids have a limit of about 150 kW on their 400-1,000 V AC mine grids to accommodate jumbos , so we have to stay within that limit . Depending on customer needs , we can configure the charging solution to what makes sense for their project or operation .
MacLean , on the charging front , is also working with the BluVein consortium out of Australia to explore overhead battery charging . While primarily focused on haul trucks , this type of charging solution could be a good fit for our battery-electric grader . Graders typically work on ramps – where this charging infrastructure would be located – and , out of all the machines in our portfolio , a grader is the one machine that should not stop moving in ideal circumstances . The overhead charger matches the application in that regard .
We don ’ t blanket everything with one solution at MacLean – there is a niche for every solution when it comes to batteries and charging . Yet ,
knowing and understanding what the application is provides us the opportunity to configure a better product for the customer . That type of Application Intelligence is at our core .
Where this ties back to our battery-electric vehicle experience is in the importance of the ramp quality in these types of operations . In every haulage operation , you know the smoother the ramp , the faster you can tram and the more efficient it is for the overall mine . Yet , the added benefit that comes with battery-electric machines is the regeneration opportunities presented with a smoother ramp . That is why we felt it was necessary to come up with a product like this .
IM : On-board , opportunity charging with a standardised battery capacity has been the order of day for the majority of machines you have deployed in mining to this point . Is this blueprint changing for the next generation EV Series in line with the different applications ? MvK : We ’ re open to evaluating just about everything , but the one thing we are married to is the idea of the battery staying on our vehicle . This makes sense for the type of equipment we make and the applications we serve . Outside of that , we ’ re pretty flexible .
On top of the CCS 2-type charger coming out in 2022 , we have a chiller for active cooling available to allow BEVs to work at higher ambient temperatures . That is currently on a boom truck in South Africa . As you can imagine , it is easier to test a chiller in a South African summer than a Canadian winter . We think we can operate those machines effectively up to 50 ° C ambient temperature and possibly more .
The battery supplier change is very big for us and we now have a roadmap to improve performance where we can more easily switch between battery products with that one supplier , taking advantage of future improvements .
It is interesting times as that whole batteryelectric vehicle component field is changing so much with the world going greener in general terms . The more components we can pick from that are meant for mobile industrial uses , the better we can configure our machines . The one thing I don ’ t think people realise is that mining equipment manufacturers are way too small to mandate customised components on a machine . We are at the mercy of what components are available on the market .
Those technology improvements will also hopefully put some downward pressure on costs when all the supply chain interruptions settle down .
IM : Where is the industry ’ s level of maturity with battery-electric solutions ? Have many of the initial barriers to entry ( upfront cost , worries over range , etc ) been overcome ? MvK : I think there is still a bit of a ‘ sticker shock ’
64 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2022