The extreme working conditions within the mining industry place enormous demands on the hydraulic systems of mining equipment. However, the Oil Additives specialists from Evonik give mining operators a helping hand to boost productivity, save fuel and enhance safety.
Turkey has a wide variety of mineral resources. The country’s potential in terms of mining is very high, and it also has ample natural stone resources. Turkey’s mining and natural stone exports, which makes a huge contribution to the national economy, has grown by 24 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, and reached 4 billion 700 million dollars. Istanbul Mineral Exporters’ Association (IMIB) Chairman Aydın Dinçer says, “There are 90 types of minerals in the world. Turkey has 70 of them.” Turkey aims to achieve 15 billion dollars of export value until 2023, therefore it needs to increase its volume of exports by around 20-25 percent every year. To increase production, it stands out as a critical factor to decrease operation costs and increase efficiency.
However, a recent study indicates that a major part of mining operators are not aware of or underestimate the benefits of choosing the right lubricant and having effective lubrication. According to this study, only 41 percent of companies have the right lubrication procedures in place, and 40 percent of them admit incurring costs of over 250,000 USD from unplanned downtime. While 60 percent of companies recognize they could reduce costs by 5 percent or more, fewer than 10 percent realize that the impact of lubricants could be up to six times greater.
According to this extensive industry survey, which was conducted among 181 mining sector staff who purchase, influence the purchase or use lubricants / greases as part of their job across 8 countries (Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Russia, the UK, and the US), 96 percent of mining companies report experiencing unplanned equipment shutdowns in the last three years, with over half (56 percent) acknowledging this is due to their incorrect selection or management of lubricants.
Therefore, in order to achieve higher competitive advantage under harsh and challenging conditions of the mining industry, it is of critical important to focus on the equipment’s design characteristics, operational parameters and the environment as a whole, and to have a hydraulic fluid formulated according to these aspects. The Oil Additives business line of Evonik Industries has been working to offer fuel efficiency and machine productivity with its registered and patented DYNAVIS® technology.
It has been proven in many comprehensive studies and field applications that simply changing the hydraulic fluid to one formulated with DYNAVIS® technology allows nearly any hydraulically powered machine to operate more efficiently, dynamically, and accurately. Besides, the use of hydraulic fluids formulated with DYNAVIS® technology pays for itself in just a short time, most notably in extremely demanding applications, while also ensuring higher returns with lower energy consumption and reduced emissions.
One of the great examples is the gold mine in California. The gold mine was able to generate estimated annual savings of 1.1 million USD by switching to a high performing multigrade fluid in only two of its 250 t excavators. Choosing a high performing hydraulic fluid can play an even more significant role in managing operating costs at remote mine sites.
Another impressive example is the coal mine in India. In a comprehensive performance demonstration conducted under extreme heat in a coal mine in Ranchi/India, the application of DYNAVIS® formulated fluid showed promising results with respect to increased overall machine productivity. While trips with the reference fluid measured an average of 10.8 t/l, DYNAVIS® formulated fluid could move 12.2 t/l, an increase in efficiency of 12.4 percent. Besides, the excavator was able to work more agile, leading to a more efficient and rapid loading of the trucks and therefore enhancing the trip cycle of the trucks. The excavator using the DYNAVIS® formulated hydraulic fluid showed a ratio of 6.7 l/trip, while the excavator using the reference oil demonstrated an average ratio of 7.4 l/trip of fuel consumption, resulting in an improvement of 10.6 percent. Considering that the fuel used for on-site haulage in a mine site operation can exceed 50 percent of the total energy costs, there is potential for significant financial savings. Consequently, cutting down on up to 10 percent diesel consumption in remote mining sites can provide savings in the million-dollar range.
A boost in efficiency and agility and a significant saving in fuel consumption means not only a considerable decrease in energy costs but also in carbon dioxide emissions. Legislations of many countries around the world set mandatory emission reduction targets, and the government plans for reducing CO2 emissions get stricter every year, and in some countries carbon taxes are rising, which means greater tax expenses.
For instance, given that a 5,000 t ore producing open-pit mine consumes around 5,000 l diesel fuel per day for mining equipment, pumps, vehicles and electricity generation, and that one liter of burnt diesel emits around 2.7 kg CO2, one open-pit mine can produce 13.5t/d of CO2, which adds up to about 4,950 t/a of CO2. According to field test results with DYNAVIS® formulated hydraulic fluid on a single excavator over a drain interval of 4,000 h, a single excavator need 13,000 fewer liters of fuel. This translates to 33.3 t of reduced CO2 emissions per drain interval for a single excavator.
As a conclusion, DYNAVIS® technology offers fluids with constant viscosity, ensuring greater efficiency and less energy consumption of fuel as well offer environmental friendly operations by helping CO2 emissions. Benefit of this technology can be seen in construction and mining equipment like excavators, wheel loaders, skid steer loaders, dump trucks which work under severe conditions.
