Fortescue Unveils ‘Infinity Train’: Zero-Emission Locomotive Powers Itself
The Australian mining company Fortescue has completed the first prototype of its “Infinity Train”. The special feature: The electrical train should permanently do without external charging or fuel through clever energy recovery.
Heavy -load transport was retained
Great progress is currently being made in the area of electromobility. A lot is happening especially for batteries-from sodium-ion-EV batteries to solid batteries that last over 1,000 kilometers. But there are sustainable developments not only on cars, but also with trains. The Australian mining company Fortescue has now reached an important milestone on the way to its zero emission goal. The prototype of an electrical locomotive, part of the ambitious “Infinity Train” project, recently successfully completed its first trip from Perth to the Pilbara region.
The special thing about the train: in the future it should be completely without external charging or refueling. The concept provides to send fully loaded trains downhill from the mines to the port, with the batteries being recharged during the journey by recovering brake energy. Then the empty trains can return uphill to the mines with this energy.
Like on LinkedIn the prototype will complete a number of tests by Fortuncue Zero. “In the coming months, he will be subjected to rigorous tests to evaluate his performance before he will be used later this year on the main route in Pilbara,” said Ellie Coates, CEO from Fortuncue Zero.
Innovative use of gravity
Fortescue Mining has found that their archipelcated trains can generate more energy due to the topography along the route than they need to be empty for returning. No physical laws are broken – everything is thanks to gravity. The concept is not new, because in the nature of an electric motor it is also to act as a generator. Regenerative brakes are a feature of almost all electric vehicles, but they do not operate on the same scale as a train.
The FortuneCue Infinity Train uses the energy that is generated when the loaded train brakes on the slope of the 620 kilometer long, company-owned heavy load rail network to recharge its battery systems. This energy is sufficient to bring the unpopular train back to the mine and makes external charging infrastructure or additional renewable energy sources superfluous.
Huge potential savings
Fortescues Eisenerz rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia is currently operated by a fleet of 54 diesel locomotives. These pull 16 train associations with 244 wagons each, which are 2.8 kilometers long and have a capacity of 34,404 tons of ore per trip. Railway operations consumed 82 million liters of diesel in the 2021 liters of 2021.
Fortescue states that the use of the infinity train concept in its mines will save the complete diesel fuel in the future, which corresponds to around 235,200 tons of CO₂ emissions. All four Pilbara routes are to be equipped with regenerative trains by 2030. Excess electricity is submitted to support other regional companies.
