Fuelcell Coalmine Vehicle Demonstration Project

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Vehicle Projects Inc
• Description:
  Coalmining is a highly regulated industry in the U.S. and continues to look for innovative solutions that improve worker health and production performance in parallel. The coalmine industry has an opportunity through the use of fuelcells to enhance the health and safety of underground traction power. Conventional power technologies - tethered, diesel, and battery - are not simultaneously clean, safe, and productive. Tethered vehicles are power-dense and clean, but the tether has safety risks inherent to a trailing cable, which also interferes with mobility and productivity. Battery vehicles are clean and mobile but take eight hours to recharge and have to be towed when batteries are exhausted. Diesel vehicles are more mobile and theoretically more productive, but their compliance with government-mandated emissions controls reduces actual productivity, and their abated emissions continue to present a hazard to miners' health. A fuelcell-powered coalmine vehicle will incorporate the best advantages of electric and diesel-powered vehicles while avoiding their disadvantages: It combines the workplace environmental benefits of a battery vehicle with the energy density and mobility of a diesel. The proposed vehicle will be fueled by hydrogen, derived from coal-bed methane, stored onboard safely and compactly as a reversible metal hydride. The Coalmine fuelcell vehicle technology defined in this phase1 project is a significant advancement for coalmining worker safety, mine disaster mitigation, onsite energy generation and mine environment improvement resulting in lower operating costs for mine operators. The United Mine Workers of America and Vehicle Projects Inc have combined experience in mining operations, mine safety procedure development, vehicle fuelcell integration, onsite hydrogen generation, mobile emergency oxygen source, advanced on-board hydrogen storage, and effective vehicle takeoff power for underground tool operations. The United Mine Workers of America work closely with mine operators and working American miners to advance worker safety, mine working environment and worker productivity in coalmining operations. The knowledge and experience of the UMWA was important in determining vehicle choice, project location and demonstration specifics in a real world operating coalmine. Vehicle Projects Inc has extensive experience in fuelcell technology and is a recognized leader in fuelcell vehicle integration and zero-emissions system development. Vehicle Projects successfully designed, built, and demonstrated a mining locomotive for metal mine operations and a fuelcell switch locomotive for commercial rail yard operations. (Figure 1, below) Although fuelcells are manufactured commercially they need to be integrated into existing vehicle platforms replacing diesel-powered equipment or less mobile battery powered and tethered technologies in coalmine operations. The balance of power systems are engineered and integrated into the coalmine vehicle by Vehicle Project professional staff and coalmine professional staff onsite at a Pennsylvania coalmine location. This project to develop and demonstrate a fuelcell coalmine vehicle can strongly benefit both labor and industry. The vehicle will provide a health benefit to miners by replacing diesel-powered equipment with emissions-free, quiet fuelcell power. The fuelcell-battery hybrid will provide the safety benefit of being able to produce oxygen from water and thus serve as a mobile emergency oxygen source underground. While benefiting both the health and safety of miners, it will equal or exceed the productivity of a diesel vehicle. Hydrogen fuel, stored safely onboard the vehicle as a solid, will be produced aboveground from coal bed methane. With the current high price of diesel fuel, production of fuel from a byproduct of mining would afford a significant cost savings to the coalmine industry. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Automobiles Coal Coal Mining Fuel Oils Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Automotive Emissions Coal Mines Coal Mining Equipment Design Fuels Mining Equipment Mining Industry Motor Vehicles Underground Mining
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-20
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060110
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2021-100165
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R01-OH-009613, 2009 Dec; :1-20
• Contact Point Address:
  Dennis O'Dell, Administration of Occupational Health, United Mine Workers of America, 8315 Lee Highway, Fairfax, VA 22031-2215
• Email:
  dodell@umwa.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Performing Organization:
  United Mine Workers of America, Fairfax, Virginia
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20080901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20090831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:196b670097ea493bce744ab342058fdeb398dd1805c7ba190ab3feeaf76df1f8a2211ad2b7ff1a0e8e8cd646e0b39156dac0bd74e973553e477a0990d118550d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218993/cdc_218993_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 990.19 KB ]