MTI tests Hy-Drive models.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: MINING

A new product which greatly reduces exhaust emissions and improves fuel efficiency in diesel-powered mining equipment has recently undergone a series of tests in the Sudbury area, and results so far have been nothing but positive.

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"During our testing of the prototype, we monitored the emissions and found tremendous improvements," says Robert Lipic, President and CEO of Mining Technologies International Inc. (MTI).

"Being an equipment supplier to the industry, I think it's a very important technology, as it eliminates the particulate matter to 0.02 per cent, and lowers the nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide substiantially, to almost zero. What's more, testing has shown 20 per cent fuel-saving levels. Overall, this is a big plus for people's health underground and in time, we will get to learn what it can do in terms of air requirements."

Having already seen some in-the-field action in an open pit quarry in the Sudbury area, the unit is also being subjected to other testing efforts currently underway in a gold mine in Kirkland Lake as well as various diesel generators in the United States. Real-time testing is still required in order to determine what modifications need to be made to render the unit fully capable of handling the rigours of underground mining environments. These tests are likely to include a number of as-yet-unnamed local mines, and exact details are still under discussion.

In late August, the Sudbury-based company officially entered into a marketing, distribution and manufacturing agreement regarding a mining-specific version of Mississauga-based Hy-Drive Technologies Ltd.'s patented Hydrogen Generating System (HGS). This move creates 10 jobs in the North and gives MTI exclusive North American rights to this version, with potential for penetration into global markets.

The new HGS unit, tentatively known as the M3, will be able to attach directly to the engines of existing mining equipment and vehicles. Water is fed into the unit, which then extracts the hydrogen and pumps it into the engine, where it reacts with the carbon in the diesel fuel to...