Van Oord, Caterpillar, Pon: Reducing emissions on construction site

Van Oord, Caterpillar and Pon are joining forces to explore the development of zero exhaust-emission heavy duty equipment.

Electrification of heavy-duty earthmoving equipment brings challenges, the companies said. Facing these challenges calls for front running companies to work together.

To gather knowledge, gain experience and enable digitalisation and innovation, Van Oord, Caterpillar and Pon yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on learning and improving techniques to operate electric or alternative lower exhaust emissions machines, mobile charging equipment and manage energy on a construction site with an objective to reduce emissions.

This collaboration supports Van Oord with the Tiel-Waardenburg dyke reinforcement project.

This is the largest off-grid, zero-exhaust emissions project in the world with heavy duty earthmoving equipment.

In 2020, Pon-Cat delivered the first 20-tonne fully electric excavator in the Netherlands to Van Oord, followed by a second one the following year.

The success of these machines has led Van Oord to invest in four more electric excavators.

The new 35.5-tonne Pon-Cat 330 LRE Z-line excavators are an entirely new model with a net battery capacity of 422 kWh not yet available anywhere else.

They will be also delivered this year and deployed on the Tiel-Waardenburg project.