Vale announced a partnership with Wabtec Corporation to advance the decarbonization of the company’s rail operations. The deal includes an order for three of Wabtec’s FLXdrive battery locomotives and a collaboration to test ammonia as a potential clean, alternative fuel to replace diesel.
The three 100pct battery powered FLXdrive locomotives will be used on the Carajas Railroad (EFC), which runs the world’s largest iron ore train consisting of 330 railcars transporting 45,000 tons.
Once delivered, the FLXdrives will join the diesel locomotives to form Brazil’s first hybrid consist pulling the train uphill for 140 kilometers in Acailandia, in the state of Maranhao, where fuel consumption is the highest. The FLXdrives will replace the two diesel locomotives, known as “dynamic helpers,” that are used to pull the train uphill at present.
Wabtec will build the FLXdrive locomotives at its plant in Contagem (state of Minas Gerais). The locomotives’ delivery is forecast for 2026.
Vale and Wabtec will work together on a study to use ammonia as a clean alternative fuel, which does not emit CO2. The study will initially be carried out as lab tests to validate performance, emission reductions, and feasibility. Among the advantages of ammonia is the fact that it allows the locomotive a longer range than other carbon-free fuels. In addition, ammonia has a high-octane rating and an established large-scale distribution infrastructure. The two companies will carry out the study in a laboratory over the next two years.
The FLXdrive locomotive’s energy management system recharges the batteries along the route as the train brakes. Vale introduced the Powershift Program to study alternative technologies to replace fossil fuels with clean sources in the company’s operations.
The FLXdrive locomotives are estimated to save 25 mln litres of diesel per year, considering the consumption of all the railway’s trains that use the dynamic helper. This savings would reduce carbon emissions by approximately 63,000 tons, the equivalent emissions of around 14,000 passenger cars per year.
