Establishing and maintaining a high-performing Fuel Management System (FMS) requires careful consideration. While numerous technology options are available and various ways to measure and manage fuel usage, it’s essential to ensure you are investing in a solution that will deliver the best possible productivity and fuel savings.
When selecting a Fuel Management System, it’s essential to focus on three key principles:
Integration: Does your FMS provide seamless integration between its hardware and software components to ensure you receive data reliably?
Scalability and adaptability: Can your Fuel Management System adapt and scale to suit your needs and the size of your mine site(s)? Does it efficiently manage multiple remote sites?
Built for purpose: Is your FMS equipment specifically designed for the rugged nature of mine sites to ensure value and longevity?
Integration
An effective FMS (a Hydrocarbon Management System) monitors fuels, lubricants, coolants, grease, or any other liquid that must be monitored and controlled. As such, adequate fuel or hydrocarbon management requires seamless integration between its various hardware and software components, as shown in Figure 1 below. The elements of a Fuel Management System for mines typically include:
Field instrumentation, including diesel fuel level gauges and flow meters, is designed to monitor current inventory levels and inventory flow in and out of fuel storage tanks.
Vehicle identification devices (VID) are fitted to heavy equipment and vehicles to enable automatic vehicle identification at refueling. Enhanced tags monitor equipment operating conditions to identify potential downtime issues. When refueling, equipment Identification data is transmitted to the host application to confirm dispense authorisations and track fuel consumption across equipment.
HMI/controllers provide a user interface for field operators to deliver, transfer, and dispense fuel and lubricants. The controller also executes business logic such as authorisation rules based on equipment and user credentials, and aggregates and buffers data before synchronisation with a centralised application.
Mine site office or enterprise application software allows data analytics and reporting while administrating fueling permissions, authorizations, and reconciliation. If the centralised application is web-enabled or operates as a SaaS solution, external parties such as suppliers can also use it for vendor-managed inventory (VMI). This ensures consistency in corporate fueling policy across mine sites in all geographic regions.
Scalability and adaptability
To deliver unique and relevant insights, an effective FMS must be scalable and adapt to suit your particular mine site operating conditions and supply chain constraints.
Your Fuel Management System may monitor several discrete fixed tanks and dispensing points. Or, it might manage a complete supply chain spanning bulk fuel deliveries from ships to large terminals, the scheduling and monitoring of fuel distribution via road or rail to sites, transfers within sites, and the ultimate distribution to fuel-consuming equipment from fixed locations or service trucks. Suppose you operate a large, global mining or railroad enterprise. In that case, your FMS may need to cover multiple sites and monitor your fuel use across a particular country, continent, or the globe. Whether managing isolated mine sites in Africa’s remote terrains or large-scale operations across South America, your FMS must scale to local logistics and environmental demands.
To achieve maximum scalability and adaptability, your FMS should:
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Provide comprehensive fuel, lubricants, and oil management by monitoring and controlling deliveries, distribution, dispensing, transfers, and storage from a central application.
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Utilise field measurement instruments and control hardware to capture transaction and inventory level data and push this to a central software application.
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Only dispense fuel and oils to authorised equipment items identified by a PIN or RFID tag (an additional layer of accountability could be added by requiring user authorisation at the dispensing or delivery point, which is reported as part of the transaction record).
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Utilise a fuel management controller to authorise and record transactions as products are delivered to storage tanks and dispensed to mining equipment. The controller should identify and authorise the equipment and may also capture engine hours or kilometres. It should be able to manage multiple meters from which volume data is received and perform various simultaneous delivery and dispensing transactions. The controller should also be able to interface with fuel level gauges to provide tank volume and level data in the field and capture, transmit, and record fuel dispensing data.
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Be capable of monitoring lubricants and coolant products, which can provide equipment maintenance and performance insights when effectively and accurately monitored. This information helps increase earth-moving equipment and vehicle uptimes and productivity, ensuring mines are as productive as possible.
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Support several delivery/dispensing points across a mine site (note: a controller and a collection of meters connected to tanks is called a delivery/dispensing point). Service (or lube) trucks are both tanks and dispensing points, with their controller monitoring all meters on the delivery truck. All transactions should be sent to the enterprise software and monitoring application, which can collect, aggregate, export, and display the data in various ways to the user and provide alerts and alarms as required.
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Provide all of this information via an interface for operators in the field, including delivery drivers, operators, or service technicians. This interface should support workflows and procedures that ensure safety, sound environmental stewardship, and accurate data collection. It should also provide the correct products to the equipment, load plan, and deliveries as scheduled, with minimal errors and omissions.
Built for purpose
Regretfully, too many mines have implemented a fuel management system designed for other industries, such as air transport, only to find that the equipment has a very short life in harsh mine site conditions. Ensuring all hardware deployed is fit for mining purposes is essential to ensure value and longevity. It’s important to remember that producing hardware rugged enough for the mining industry adds additional upfront costs. However, it also means reduced servicing and downtime, resulting in considerable savings over time. If your equipment is offline, you will be losing valuable data, and the effectiveness of your FMS could be compromised. Mil-spec hardware is recommended for harsh and remote applications on many mine sites.
Extreme weather in Canadian winters, dust-heavy African sites, off-grid zones in South America, and hot, arid Australian mines all demand rugged and application-appropriate Fuel Management System hardware.
Considerations for suitable hardware include:
Temperature: To operate effectively, your FMS should have an operating temperature range of -40 to +70 degrees Celsius. Be mindful that, in many cases, the conditions the internal components will be subjected to will be far higher than ambient.
Water: Water ingress is a risk, particularly on controllers mounted on service trucks. Look for devices that exceed IP66, which tests with strong water jets. Note that a higher IP rating does not necessarily mean better protection. For example, IP67 tests for submersion can sometimes be less relevant than water jet tests, and not as applicable in the mining and rail environments as IP66.
Vibration and shock resistance: Service trucks can be subject to high vibration levels, particularly as they may travel on mine haul roads far harsher than the highway conditions some controllers are designed for. Additionally, there are often additional pumps and vibration sources on the equipment, which can contribute to the challenge. Look for MIL spec 810G or similar.
Power: Electrical robustness can be notoriously difficult on vehicle installations. Ensure the hardware you choose is specifically designed to allow for this. Challenges can also exist in fixed locations with unreliable power, generators, and solar systems. Is your controller designed for these conditions, or would it be better suited to a service station environment? Do you have adequate backup power to ensure data validity and safety?
Usability: New controllers are coming to market with touchscreens to take advantage of the more sophisticated user interface that can be provided. Many are not rugged enough for the mining environment. For example, resistive touchscreens can be damaged easily, many touch screens are not damage-resistant, and screens are commonly not bright enough for effective daylight use. A screen should have 1000 nits of brightness, yet 350-400 nits is typical amongst poorer-quality equipment. Look for rugged touch screens that can withstand impacts.
Serviceability: Failures can occur, resulting in the loss of environmental compliance mining information. Whether in the USA, Canada, South America, Australia, or Africa, accurate compliance data is important, and getting back online quickly is critical. An effective FMS will have a modular design that allows speedy rectification and replacement when faults are identified.
Whether operating in North America, managing harsh environments in Australia and Africa, or improving uptime across South American mine sites, a scalable, purpose-built fuel management system is your most valuable asset.
Multiple meters from which volume data is received, perform various simultaneous delivery and dispensing transactions. The controller should also be able to interface with level gauges to provide tank volume and level data in the field and capture and record data.
With Veridapt’s advanced fuel management solutions, you gain the visibility, control, and efficiency to operate seamlessly across diverse conditions and locations. Our mine site fuel management technology empowers regional and multinational mines to reduce fuel theft, enhance mining equipment uptime, and maximize mine site productivity, no matter where you are.
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