washington business
Heavy-Duty Hydrogen
Seattle firm aims to decarbonize heavy-duty mining through its new hydrogen fuel cell engine .
Brian Mittge
Fresh with a $ 200 million capital infusion from a British global mining giant , Seattle-based First Mode is ramping up production of a zero-emission hydrogen engine for the world ’ s biggest trucks . Their R & D facility in SoDo aims to power a new phase of the green energy revolution .
At A Glance
First Mode built a hydrogen fuel cell and battery power plant the size of a small school bus to power the world ’ s largest zero-emission vehicle , a three-story-tall mining truck that began a demonstration run in South Africa in May 2022 .
The president of South Africa took a ride in the vehicle . That pilot project , intended to run for three months , is still going strong a year later .
Converting this ultra-class haul truck from burning diesel to running on green hydrogen will keep the equivalent of 700 cars ’ worth of carbon dioxide out of Earth ’ s atmosphere annually — and this proof-of-concept truck is only the first of hundreds that First Mode ’ s partner , Anglo American , plans to apply the technology to in hopes of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 .
Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani told International Mining ’ s Paul Moore that the use of green hydrogen “ could displace 650,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year … the equivalent of removing 150,000 cars from the road .”
First Mode : www . firstmode . com
From Seattle to South Africa , creative engineering company First Mode has already made a world of progress over its first five years on its founding goal : to build the barely possible .
“ Everybody said , ‘ This will happen one day .’ We said , ‘ We ’ ll do it now .’”
— First Mode Chief Growth and Sustainability Officer Rhae Adams
Their first prototype hydrogen-powered mining truck engine , designed to easily bolt in to replace a stock diesel engine , has been running for the past year at a platinum mine in South Africa .
They ’ re expanding their design-build-revise abilities this year by opening an extensive testing ground at a former coal mine outside Centralia .
In 2020 they moved into their current prototyping and small-scale production facility in Seattle , which has since doubled in size .
This summer they plan to open a full-scale 40,000-square-foot production facility a few blocks away in the SoDo district .
And over the winter they finalized a $ 200 million investment from global mining giant Anglo American , which will help fund their rapid expansion into commercial production for the first carbon-free mining vehicles on the planet .
“ Everybody said , ‘ This will happen one day ,’” First Mode Chief Growth and Sustainability Officer Rhae Adams told Washington Business . “ We said , ‘ We ’ ll do it now .’”
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