Digitalisation and technological Innovations Towards Energy-Efficient Quarries

Paper in proceeding, 2024

As an energy-intensive industry, energy efficiency has been a long-standing concern for mining companies. It not only represents a substantial share of the operating expenditures (OPEX) but also contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing this issue is a transversal challenge in the industry, especially for the aggregate sector, as it represents the largest share of minerals used globally (OECD, 2019). Accordingly, enhancing the energy efficiency of quarries is one of the main goals of the DigiEcoQuarry (DEQ) project, a collaboration initiative between industry and academia under
the umbrella of the EU Horizon 2020 programme. The project targets digitalising quarries in Europe to leverage their profitability, monitor and mitigate their environmental impact, improve safety conditions, and facilitate social understanding with the community. In this context, this paper presents the current progress of the project regarding energy efficiency. It includes (i) an overview of the energy consumption at the pilot sites of the project, (ii) an analysis of renewable energy (RE) consumption and generation in the aggregate sector, (iii) an overview of the technologies and systems implemented, and (iv) the assessment of the overall impact of these solutions.