Komatsu mining truck with emissions-busting tech

Komatsu has commissioned the first Tier 4 Final version of its 930E-5 ultra-class mining truck in Australia.

The emission control technology, which meets the most stringent North American and EU emissions regulations, has been adopted by Komatsu Australia to meet a client’s specific operational needs.

Komatsu’s Tier 4 Final compliant 930E-5 incorporates an on-board after-treatment system that significantly reduces the Scope 1 emissions produced during the haulage process at mines.

National product manager – mining Jason Arthur said these emissions were an unavoidable by-product of the high-temperature combustion process in the diesel engines that power most mining equipment.

“This emission reduction technology is an option that now can be incorporated into Komatsu’s class leading 930E-5 model,” he said.

“To achieve this, Komatsu worked with our large horsepower engine partner Cummins to provide a simple, low maintenance solution to meet Tier 4 Final emissions requirements.”

The Cummins-sourced engine treats particulate matter in the engine cylinders through an advanced high-pressure fuel injection control system to reduce PM 2.5 by 80 per cent (compared with Tier 2 engine levels).

In turn, the nitrogen oxide (NOx) greenhouse gas emissions are treated out of cylinder through a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) after-treatment process.

This modular SCR system consists of an airless diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) dosing system and features an integrated decomposition chamber with a maintenance strategy that aligns with the life of the engine.

These SCR units are contained within the truck’s rear-exiting exhaust system.

Quiet achiever

In addition to meeting the technology challenges in developing a Tier 4 Final compliant version of the 930E-5, the customer also requested Komatsu provide a truck with significantly lower noise emission levels.

“Our US-based Komatsu Engineering team became intimately involved and created a factory-engineered sound suppression solution that would meet our customer’s requirements,” Mr Arthur said.

“These factory-designed sound treatments more than halved the standard truck’s emitted sound power levels, resulting in a target sound power level of less than 113 dBA.

“Successfully achieving these sound levels was a very challenging undertaking for a large mining truck powered by an engine with an output of 2700 hp (2014 kW).”