I work in hydrogen and I have semi-solid information* that there is a real economic case for hydrogen as a fuel for large mining equipment. The story as I heard it: the overall output of a mine is often bottlenecked by air quality permits, which effectively limit the amount of diesel/gas/etc that can be burned. How can you run giant mining vehicles in the middle of nowhere without fossil fuels? You can truck in hydrogen or you can truck in batteries, and apparently, hydrogen is the cheaper answer. Hydrogen is not cheaper than burning diesel, but I can believe it's cheaper than shutting down a mine or trucking around lots of batteries.* This information came from an employee of a technology company working on fuel cell mining equipment, on contract from a major US mining company. We were talking shop and it was an offhanded conversation that I haven't researched since.
No comments yet.