addr es sed by electrically power ed vehicles which ha ve g ained ac c ept anc e in under gr ound mines T h at ac c ept anc e is expect ed t o gr ow over the coming y ears A c cor ding t o the Hadapsar Indiabased r esear ch compan y Mark et sandMar k e t s electrical mining equipment is estimat ed t o ha ve a major st ak e post 2030 ac counting f or mor e than 40 per c ent of the over all mining equipment mark et T he compan y also pr edict s that the electrif ication of mining equipment in Canada is estimat ed t o be much f ast er than in the US and Austr alia While some may question if h y dr og en can f ind a niche f o r it self given the earlier adoption of bat t ery electric vehicles BEV s or if h y dr og en is even needed analyst s Bernd Heid Mar tin Linder Anna Orthof er and Mark us W ilthaner at McKinsey Co mak e the case wh y ther e s a r ole f or it In an article entitled Hydr og en T he next w a ve f or electric vehicles they outline the ar gument f or h y dr og en s adoption Hydr og en and bat t eries ar e of t en portr ay ed as compet ing t echnologies and bat t eries ha ve r e c eived a lot of at t e n tion in r e c ent y ears pr ot on versus electr on T he r elative str engths and weaknes ses of these t echnologies however sug g est that they should play complement ary r oles Bat t ery electric vehicles exhibit higher over all fuel eff iciency as long as they ar e not t oo hea v y due t o lar g e bat t ery siz es making them ideally suit ed f or short dist anc e and light vehicles Hydr og en can st or e mor e ener gy in les s weight making fuel c ells suit able f or vehicles with hea v y payloads and long r ang es F ast er r e fueling also benef it s commer cial f leet s and other vehicles in near c ontinuous use How the t echnologies r elat e will depend mostly on how bat t ery t echnology will evolve and how quickly cost r eductions fr om scaling fuel c ell pr oduction can be r ealiz ed T her e is another ar gument in f a vour of h y dr og en In r emot e locations wher e mines ar e f o r c ed t o g ener at e their own electric ity h y dr og enpower ed vehicles could be an at tr active alt erna tive t o BEV s especially if the mines r e ly on diesel or natur al g a s g ener at ors t o pr oduc e electricity Hydr ogen hybrids Hydr og en pr oponent s ar e anticipating that fuell c ell electric vehicles FCEV s will ev entually become the dominant mining vehicle ar chit ectur e r a ther than bat t ery electric Hydr og en power ed vehicles could off er similar use cases and ph ysical and logistical infr astructur es as diesel vehicles with lower ventilation cost s and none of the health risks Modular fuel c ells would allow full shif t endur anc e and similar power output as diesel engines T he vehicle ar chit ectur es would be similar t o bat t ery electric vehicles curr ently in use or under development U sually the bat t ery or electric drive tr ain model is a pr ecursor t o the fuel c ell not ed Sookhoo A fuel c ell vehicle is 90 per c ent an electric vehicle T o achieve this vision the vehicle OEMs will need t o g et on boar d T he next st ep in the mark et is t o basically ha ve the OEMs who alr eady supply vehicles in the mining industry come t o the t able said Sookhoo Onc e work begins in earnest he pr edict s it will t a k e about f i ve t o seven y ears t o pr oduc e a commer cial model fuel c ell mining vehicle Setting standar ds for hydr ogen usage T he primary document g o verning the use of h y dr og en in Canada is the Canadian Hydr og en Inst allation Code CHIC the 20 20 version of which is g oing t o public r e view shortly F or the f i rst time the CHIC will cont ain a section on h y dr og en in mining It s sort of g eneric r equir ement s and st at ement s just t o mak e sur e that this application is r e f lect ed explained Andr ei T chou velev a h y dr og en st andar ds and codes expert But he added sever al pr ovinc es ha ve f ormally adopt ed the CHIC int o their r e gu lat o ry pr oc es s and others ar e f ollowing Compar ed t o other commer cial and industrial uses of h y dr o g en surf a c e mines and vehicles can alr eady use lar g e ly the same st andar ds and design crit eria U nder gr ound ther e ar e addi tional challeng es t o over come Conf ined spac es amplify the pot ential eff ect s of an y r eleased g a s in t erms of both ignition and suff ocation risk A dequat e ventilation is needed t o maint ain the conc entr ation below the lower f lammability limit LFL of h y dr og en in case of leaks or damag e particularly in an en vir on ment wher e ignition sour c es abound T he ventilation r equir e ment is les s than that f or diesel but may r equir e car e ful design of r e fuelling or dispensing point s t o ensur e adequat e airf l ow in those ar eas T he next st ep is t o be mor e pr actical t o look at the pot ential ar chit ectur e of the vehicle and the conf igur ation of a specif ic mine said T chou velev But he thinks the industry is well positioned t o mak e that st ep T he amount of saf ety knowledg e that has been ac cumu lat ed t o dat e is signif icant he added mentioning r esear ch that has been conduct ed int o h y dr og en dispersion beha viour under gr ound tr aining and emer g ency r esponse r equir ement s and sensor t echnologies f or leak det ection In designing dis pensing ar chit ectur es T chou velev said W e can lean on the experienc e with con v entional above gr ound r e fueling st a tions It s not lik e people ar e st arting fr om scr at ch Part of that ac cumulat ed knowledg e comes fr om the mining companies themselves as Agnico Eagle along with Glencor e V ale Eldor ado and others ha ve been participating in h y dr og en working gr oups led by NR Can pr oving t echnologies and use cases sharing r esear ch dat a developing best pr actic es and identifying g aps in industry codes and st andar ds f or the use of h y dr og en in the mining cont ext Appr oaching the starting point Perhaps all this means that h y dr og en is right wher e it has alw ays been a f e w y ears aw ay But bey ond mining h y dr og en is alr eady a US120 billion industry with over 65 million t onnes pr oduc ed annually Incr e asing adoption in other industries including public tr ansport a tion buses and tr ains w a r ehousing wher e h y dr og enpower ed f orklif t s ar e becoming common and shipping every thing fr om UPS trucks t o cont ainer ships point s t o momentum that the mining industry might be wise t o t a k e adv ant ag e of If y ou w ait t oo long y o u r e g oing t o end up t aking the fuel c ell that w as alr eady designed f or a tr ain and ha ving t o adopt it t o mining cautioned Sookhoo But if y ou g et int o the discus sions now maybe y ou can g et a fuel c ell that s the perf ect h ybrid between a tr ain engine and a mining engine and lever a g e the volume and cost sa ving s fr om that s yner gy Bet ournay thinks that work will begin soon He said some bat t ery electric equipment manuf actur ers ha ve alr eady been appr oached by mining companies looking f or h y dr og en fuel c ell vehicles And at a r oundt able discus sion in Dec ember he added the consensus on h y dr og en r ang ed fr om it s an int er esting option t o when can we st art using it CIM 34 CIM Magazine V ol 15 No 3