ELMAR – Electromobility in raw materials extraction

“ELMAR” is a first step towards the future of electric mobility in raw materials extraction. The aim of the project is to advance the electrification of raw material extraction operations through holistic deployment and thus make an important contribution to achieving Germany’s targeted climate goals.

Initial situation

Raw material extraction is a very energy-intensive and highly CO2-intensive mass infrastructure, with transport masses ranging from a thousand to several tens of thousands of tonnes per day. Up to now, the processes there have been almost exclusively based on diesel-powered machines. The “ELMAR” consortium wants to tap the potential of electric mobility within raw material extraction as an important building block for achieving climate goals.

Project goals

The immediate goal of the project is to electrify the heavy-duty transport used for raw material extraction and thus both save CO2 and reduce diesel engine emissions. This should indirectly make the extraction of indispensable raw materials for domestic industry more sustainable and socially acceptable. This in turn strengthens the competitiveness of domestic raw material extraction.

The result is the demonstration of redesigned raw material extraction operations designed for electric mobile heavy-duty transport machines on the basis of three use cases, which are data- and model-driven and coupled to local energy production storage systems and the power grid.

In “ELMAR”, the basics:

• for the use of electrical mobile heavy-duty transport machines to maintain process reliability in production
• for ensuring the security of electrical supply
• for coupling to renewable energy sources

are created, implemented and demonstrated.

Use cases/model companies

The selected model companies in the field of sand, gravel and solid rock extraction as well as gypsum extraction cover an extremely representative part of domestic raw material extraction. The project results can therefore be excellently transferred to the majority of domestic extraction operations.

Project implementation

First of all, operational and process analyses are carried out within the framework of “ELMAR” in order to determine operating conditions, machine data and material flows in the raw material extraction companies. The subsequent processing and integration of the analysis results is a prerequisite for the modelling of all relevant system and operational parts.

At the same time, the energetic framework conditions of raw material extraction plants are also to be determined on the supply side, with subsequent processing and integration of the results. These can then also be used in the modelling process.

The modelling of the demand and supply side will be carried out by developing a digital twin and using it on a cloud-based platform.

Task of TITUS Research GmbH

The task of TITUS Research will be, on the one hand, to use a drone to check the paths in the quarry for possible obstacles or dangerous situations, so that smooth operation of the autonomous transport machines can be ensured at all times. In addition, TITUS Research will be responsible for inspecting the electrical supply infrastructure and other relevant operating facilities, also using a highly automated drone. Last but not least, drone images will be used to document changes over time in the mining area.