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In a big push to reduce its carbon footprint, national miner Coal India Ltd (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.
This is significant as the world’s largest coal miner uses over four-lakh kilolitres of diesel per annum with an annual expense of over ₹3,500 crore, the company said in a statement.
The company, in association with GAIL (India) Limited and BEML Limited, has taken up a pilot project for retrofitting LNG kits in its two 100-tonne dumpers working at the subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL).
Dual fuel system
CIL has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GAIL 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, it said.
CIL clocks net sales of nearly ₹4,700 crore through e-auctions in Q1FY22.
“The company has over 2,500 dumpers running in its opencast coal mines. The dumper fleet consumes 65-75 per cent of total diesel consumed by the company. LNG will replace the use of diesel by 30 per cent to 40 per cent and reduce the fuel cost by about 15 per cent. The move will reduce carbon emission significantly and also save around ₹500 crore annually if all existing heavy earth moving machines (HEMMs) including dumpers are retrofitted with LNG kit. Getting rid of diesel pilferages and adulteration are other added advantages,” said a senior CIL executive.
Coal India ramps up supplies to meet rise in demand since July
The main goal of the pilot project is to monitor the replacement rate of diesel with LNG in different load and operating conditions and also to capture the details of any change in characteristics of the dumper, including cycle time and engine performance parameters, the executive added.
The trial run of dumpers in dual fuel (LNG-diesel) system will be conducted for 90 days in different load and operating conditions, the company added.
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