Large manufacturers are rising to these new emissions compliance challenges and are already producing and designing engines to meet the US and international regulations. Engine manufacturers and suppliers are addressing the reduction of emissions through engine design, fuel and lubrication formulations, and exhaust aftertreatment. Though currently not required for mining applications, the use of low-sulfur diesel fuel is one strategy designed to reduce emissions both directly and by enabling exhaust aftertreatment. New lubricants that reduce friction thereby lowering emissions are another technique. Exhaust aftertreatment consists of using catalytic converters and particulate traps to control emissions after the combustion process.
Mining presents some unique situations for use of diesels.
A project to investigate the use of particulate traps is currently underway at Noranda Inc. - Brunswick Mine in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. The purpose is to demonstrate the efficiency and overall effectiveness of these new systems in an underground mining production environment. The project has been planned for an on vehicle test period of 18 months. Four heavy production vehicles will be equipped with the traps along with monitoring instrumentation. There are really no alternatives to very large size diesel engines used in the materials handling applications of the mining ore, at least none that have similar benefits of reliability, durability, fuel efficiency and the mobility of diesels.