In a big push to reduce its carbon footprint, national miner Coal India (CIL) has initiated the process of retrofitting liquefied natural gas (LNG) kits in its dumpers — the big trucks engaged in transportation of coal in mines.
The company, in association with GAIL (India) and BEML, has taken up a pilot project for retrofitting LNG kits in its two 100 tonne dumpers working at the subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL).
CIL has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GAIL (India) and BEML to get this pilot project executed. Once the LNG kit is successfully retrofitted and tested, these dumpers will be able to run on dual fuel system — both on LNG and diesel and their operations will be significantly cheaper and cleaner with the use of LNG.
The company has over 2,500 dumpers running in its opencast coal mines. The dumper fleet consumes 65-75 percent of total diesel consumed by the company.
LNG will replace the use of diesel by 30 percent to 40 percent and reduce the fuel cost by about 15 percent. The move will reduce carbon emission significantly and save around Rs 500 crore annually if all existing heavy earth moving machines (HEMMs) including dumpers are retrofitted with LNG kit.
The main goal of the pilot project is to monitor the replacement rate of diesel with LNG in different load and operating conditions and to capture the details of any change in characteristics of the dumper, including cycle time and engine performance parameters.
The trial run of dumpers in dual fuel (LNG-diesel) system will be conducted for 90 days in different load and operating conditions.