GM, Komatsu partner to build hydrogen-powered monster mining truck Automaker General Motors and construction equipment manufacturer Komatsu have partnered to turn one of the world's largest trucks into an emissions-free, hydrogen-powered behemoth. Komatsu's 930E – able to haul a whopping 320 short tons (290 metric tons) – currently ships with a diesel-fueled 3,500HP engine capable of reaching …
Most mines would have those trucks hauling something else something else like iron ore, bauxite, copper ore, gravel etc. Coal is a minority of mining these days, and shrinking every year.
Now obviously something has to produce that hydrogen, so unless they built a hydroelectric dam on the river next door or set up a giant array of solar panels on the land they've already mined I'm not sure why using fossil fuel to make hydrogen is better than having the truck burn the fossil fuel directly.
Though come to think of it, if it WAS a coal mine it might make sense burning coal to make hydrogen - that's got to be more efficient than bringing in tanker loads of diesel to run all the equipment...
oh yes i forgot how green flooding and basically destroying an eco system that spans hundreds of kms is
If you're mining you're already destroying the local ecosystem (though if they do mitigation by saving the topsoil and restoring everything it is less bad in the long run)
Mining that uses a lot of water, like gold mining, is already damming or diverting rivers to create settling ponds and so forth. If you're capturing power along with that activity it isn't making things actively worse, though if the topography doesn't allow for it you can't generate sufficient power so it probably isn't feasible for generating enough hydrogen except in limited circumstances. That (land area you control) is going to be your real limitation, since you can't flood land owned by adjacent claimholders or farmers or whatever.
"Coal is a minority of mining these days, and shrinking every year."
Coal has almost always been a (large) minority of mining simply because of the relationship with iron ore volumes. And demand is not shrinking - global demand for both thermal and metallurgical coal is higher in 2023 than in any prior year, and forecast by credible sources to keep growing as far as 2030.
Anybody hugging themselves, droollng over the BBC's coverage of COP28 and celebrating the death of coal simply isn't paying attention. Most of it is going to China who continue to commission roughly one new large coal power station a week, or to India, where plans are afoot to triple the output of locally deep mined coal.
Not an expert but I understand that H2 isn't an obvious fuel for combustion outside rocket engines: its reasonably high energy per mass is bugger all per volume once it's not liquefied. It burns hot so that air combustion is likely to produce NOx and it degrades some of the metals it comes into contact with.
“ a diesel ICE cannot run on hydrogen alone. Diesel ICEs operate on a compression-ignition cycle, and thus, feature no spark plugs. Whereas, hydrogen ICEs operate on a spark-ignition, and as such, require spark plugs to ignite fuel. ”
[ https://www.cummins.com/news/2023/06/09/can-engine-run-hydrogen#:~:text=No.,spark%20plugs%20to%20ignite%20fuel. ]
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