A worldwide mining corporation and an Australian rail operator will try and construct greener freight solutions to provide services to one of the most resource-rich regions.
Aurizon has partnered with British mining corporation Anglo American to use hydrogen-powered trains instead of diesel trains in North West Minerals Province in Queensland.
The area is home to numerous mines and is globally renowned for its abundance of minerals such as copper, zinc, lead, silver, cobalt, nickel, and vanadium.
The mentioned organisations have released a feasibility study to look at using hydrogen technology on Aurizon’s Mount Isa rail hall, which operates among the North West Minerals Province and Townsville, in addition to the Moura rail hall among Anglo American’s Dawson mine and Gladstone.
Shifting to earth friendly freight
Rail freight generates 16 times much less carbon pollutions than road freight, according to Australasian Railway Association.
A 1% shift of freight from road to rail in Australia could lessen accident, emission, and health cost by $71.9 million each year, the association estimated.
“Hydrogen is a gas and it can be used as a fuel source. The neat thing about hydrogen is that you can make it from renewable energy, from renewable electricity,” – Andrew Harding, managing director and chief executive of Aurizon.
“That’s why it’s got so much attraction for use in projects that are designed to lower carbon emissions.”
“The date Australia has chosen for net zero is 2050 and Aurizon commits to that.”
“So, to make that happen we’ve got to now start implementing and testing quite a range of different technologies, and this is one of those.”
The chief of Anglo American in Australia, Tyler Mitchelson, believes the collaboration with Aurizon is an excellent instance of the power of partnerships to cope with the pressing difficulty of weather change
“Displacing our use of diesel is critical to eliminating emissions at our sites and along our value chain,” he said.
Starting from 0.
While hydrogen gas is being tested on haul vehicles in Anglo American’s South African coal mine, the company’s technology is yet to be implemented to freight trains.
“This is all new technology that’s not available off the shelf. So, you actually have to build your hydrogen fuel cell; you have to build the battery pack that would go with it,” – Andrew Harding.
Article inspired from abcnews.
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