MMK's motor transport department switches to environmentally friendly fuel

Avtotransportnoe upravlenie LLC is one of the largest transport companies in the South Urals. The company's fleet includes about 2000 units of equipment, about half of which are KAMAZ trucks. Since July of this year, ATU LLC has been testing a KAMAZ-65115 LNG-powered dump truck. The results of trial use have shown that the LNG-fueled vehicle does not differ in its operational characteristics from similar models using conventional fuel. As a result, the company decided to increase the fleet of KAMAZ trucks running on LNG up to 20 units in 2021. “The key advantages of vehicles running on LNG are the cost of fuel is two times lower than that of a diesel analogue and a significant reduction in harmful emissions into the atmosphere,” said the director "Vladimir Tseitin. “Therefore, we plan to significantly update our vehicle fleet with LNG vehicles over the next few years.” Also, ATU LLC is implementing a project to equip BELAZ trucks with equipment that allows to transfer existing diesel mining equipment to work in a “bi-fuel mode” without purchasing new engines. This mode assumes that in addition to diesel fuel and air, LNG is supplied to the combustion chamber of a BELAZ vehicle. This makes it possible to replace up to 40% of the burnt diesel fuel with LNG without deteriorating technical characteristics. Thus, the economic effect and reduction of harmful emissions is about 20%. In January 2021, the delivery of a new model of the cryo tank for LNG is expected, and after testing, it is planned to purchase such equipment for 25 BELAZ vehicles. The technology of using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a vehicle fuel has become popular recently. Liquefied natural gas is colorless, odorless, non-flammable, non-toxic, non-explosive, non-flammable, non-corrosive. The density of LNG is half that of water, which allows it to remain on the surface in the event of a spill and quickly return to a vapor state. A significant decrease in the volume of LNG increases the convenience of its storage and transportation. Information and Public Relations Department of PJSC MMK