Machine Rebuild is Ideal Time for Emission Upgrades

Miners rely on rebuilding as a way to get more life out of their equipment investment. But beyond being a cost-effective solution, it’s also a sustainable one. Rebuilding minimizes environmental impact by reducing waste and keeping non-renewable resources in circulation for multiple lifetimes.

The Caterpillar underground mining team also points out that rebuilding is the perfect opportunity to incorporate updated emission controls and take new steps toward improving air quality inside the mine.

Caterpillar offers several emission-control options that can reduce machine emission levels to below EU Stage V compliance.
 

Cat® Ventilation Reduction (VR) engines

Ventilation in the underground environment makes up a large percentage of a mine’s operating cost. The level of diesel particulate matter (DPM) in the underground environment is always carefully managed by miners in order to meet regional regulatory standards and make the underground environment safer for workers.

Cat Ventilation Reduction (VR) engines reduce DPM at the source. They utilize selective engine hardware and software to lower DPM while maintaining low overall emission levels during the engine combustion process.

Upgrading an existing engine offers multiple performance improvements and cost-saving incentives. Key advantages include:

• Significant Ventilation Rate reduction
• Significant DPM reduction
• Improved fuel economy
• Maintained or improved machine performance
• Fuel quality flexibility (ability to use higher sulfur fuels – non DPF only)
• Compatibility with DPF aftertreatment systems 

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Diesel Particulate Filters

Optional diesel particulate filters (DPFs) help further reduce DPM. Flow-through filters and wall flow filters are designed to work with VR engine packages on Cat underground LHDs and trucks to effectively minimize the DPM level. These systems are low maintenance and do not impact the production capability of the machine. For mines that are not looking to replace the engine or that already have a VR engine, a DPF-only solution is possible.

DPFs are the preferred DPM reduction technology for the most demanding underground machine applications. Caterpillar has developed two types of specifically tuned DPFs that can be fitted to Cat VR engines to further reduce diesel particulate matter output without any impact on machine performance.

• A Flow Through DPF delivers a greater than 50 percent DPM reduction in the exhaust and it does not accumulate particulates or ash. The Flow Through DPF requires no maintenance or backpressure monitor.
• A Wall Flow DPF is offered for those operations wanting additional DPM reduction over the Flow Through Filter. These filters can reduce particulates more than 98%.

These filters are available as retrofit kits and are integrated with the machine’s health monitoring systems. 

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