INDUSTRY NEWS
BY IAN CAMERON
The dual fuel-powered gen-sets at the Osborne Mine site in Queensland, Australia.
Fuel Conversion Strikes Gold
Czech-based ComAp has completed a major dual-fuel conversion project at the Osborne Mine site. The
underground copper and gold mine is
located in Queensland, Australia, 195
km southeast of the inland town of
Mount Isa.
The site has five Wärtsilä 12-cylinder,
12V32E-powered, 3.85 MW gen-sets,
which operated solely on diesel fuel oil
and provided all of the power for the
mine’s operations before the conversion.
ComAp was contracted to convert
the engines to dual-fuel operation,
replacing large percentages of the
engines’ diesel use with natural gas,
enabling the power plants to run on
two fuels simultaneously. The compa-
ny installed individual gas valve and
dual-fuel control technology with
advanced frequency-based knocking
detection systems. According to
ComAp, the conversion has “achieved
outstanding engine performance with
high gas replacement ratios.”
By simply replacing large percent-
ages of the engines’ diesel use with
lower costing, readily available nat-
ural gas on-site, the Osborne Mine
now benefits from significant finan-
cial savings.
ComAp, in conjunction with Green-bird Technology Pty, the ComAp exclusive distributor in Australia, said
the add-on solution was fitted to the
engine without engineers needing to
carry out any major engine modifications or the mine losing power or suffering any downtime — a critical
aspect of the project.
The engines can now be run in dual-fuel mode or be switched back to the
original diesel mode at any time, even
under current loading.
Other benefits for the mine owners
following the conversion include particle pollution reduction and maintenance savings due to dual-fuel operation. This project has yielded a favorable
return on investment over a relatively
short period of time. A
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