Procedure for Haul Truck On-Board LNG Fuel Systems Performance Evaluation

The state-of-the-art of the advantages of using liquefied natural gas as a motor fuel for haul trucks instead of oil motor fuel is considered. It is noted that the energy intensity of the process of rock mass hauling by dual-fuel (gas-diesel) haul trucks is less than that of haul trucks running on diesel only. It is argued that the most promising in relation to heavy-duty mining trucks, is the conversion of diesel engines to gas-diesel operation. The universal integrated procedure for evaluating currently used haul truck on-board cryogenic fuel systems performance is presented. The method of evaluating the “rate of replacement” of diesel fuel with liquefied natural gas, when operating haul trucks equipped with on-board cryogenic fuel systems, is described in detail. The possible sequence of per-cycle, per-ingle-shift and per-day monitoring of the rate of diesel fuel replacement with liquefied natural gas is presented. The method for evaluating the economic efficiency of the operation of high-payload-capacity haul trucks conversed to gas-diesel operation is given, which allows, among other things, determining the actual service life of on-board cryogenic fuel systems and their time to failure.