Investigating the Use of Methane as Diesel Fuel in Off-Road Haul Road Truck Operations

A scope study is conducted to investigate the technical and commercial feasibility of converting existing mine haul truck engines to a fuel regime of methane and diesel. A dual fuel engine with two technology options of homogeneous gas charge and high pressure direct injection are considered. The results of this study show that cost reduction is only possible when methane is available at a cost saving that compensates for the expense of building a new fuel infrastructure, and a clean combustion is expected. In contrast to diesel-only engines, particulate emissions in dual fuel engines are less. However, unburned methane in the exhaust gases or significant methane leakage must be seriously taken into consideration for replacing diesel with methane. This scope study argues that the dual fuel operation with HGC/CNG technology is expected to be feasible even at a relatively small truck fleet size.