New propulsion and energy technology for heavy-haul rail and mine fleets, cutting total cost, lifting performance and resilience, and reducing diesel and emissions. The most public proof that the method works under real pressure, over more than six years.
“We brought Damien and his team in to help deliver two challenging fleet programs, shifting us from reactive maintenance to strategic asset management. The ‘Fleet Asset Management Program’ improved safety, risk, cost, fleet availability, and the delivery of the ‘IVMS Program’ has been recognised as industry leading, being awarded the 2023 AfMA Fleet Safety award. Damien combines strategy with execution, and I highly recommend him.”Chris Dhu, Former Head of Fleet, Essential Energy.
Spanning more than six years and still running, this is the program that set Aurizon's net-zero fleet direction: the first complete, costed zero-emission transition charted across an entire heavy-haul network of 600+ locomotives on standard and narrow gauge, with vast variation in haul length, terrain and energy demand. We have led the strategy and techno-economic analysis throughout. The work spans:
It identified battery-electric platforms as the lowest-cost path and defined the prototype program that followed across every corridor to 2050.
We led the concept development, energy modelling and detailed design behind Australia's first zero-emissions-capable freight locomotive: a Class 4000 heavy-haul unit converted with Progress Rail to a 4.1 MWh battery-electric platform with regenerative braking and a ~250 km range. The lead platform in the fleet's battery-electric transition, now in build for an on-track trial at South32's Worsley Alumina operations in Western Australia.
Coverage: Aurizon · project video
We led the concept development and energy modelling for a range-extending battery tender that couples to a diesel or battery-electric locomotive to carry additional onboard energy. Now being developed with Alta Technology and ARENA funding, the prototype will operate at an Alcoa site in Western Australia. Paired with a modified diesel electric locomotive, it opens low- or zero-emission haulage across the majority of the network.
Coverage: Aurizon & Alcoa agreement
We conceived the hydrogen-electric tender: a fuel-cell range extender for a BEL designed to carry additional onboard energy for the longest, highest-energy corridors. We originated the concept and developed it through to techno-economic feasibility, first with Anglo American and then with First Mode.
Coverage: Aurizon & Anglo American
We invented the Locomotive Regenerative Battery (LRB): a modular battery retrofitted onto existing diesel locomotives to capture braking energy and deliver double-digit diesel savings with no charging infrastructure. We originated the concept and developed it through to techno-economic feasibility, presented at Heavy Haul Rail 2025 in Perth.
We originated the concept of the Tender-Ready Hybrid (TRH): a new diesel-battery hybrid platform pairing a downsized diesel engine with a large battery that recovers all regenerative braking energy and eliminates idling. We conducted detailed energy modelling to determine its viability as a 1:1 replacement for diesel locomotives while significantly reducing diesel burn. The TRH can also plug into a Battery Electric Tender (BET) to further displace diesel traction — hence "tender-ready" — and is seen as the future platform for new-build locomotives.
We assessed the motive-power pathways and freight-operations integration for a major new freight corridor serving one of Australia's largest cities, delivered with a global engineering partner.
We helped a critical-minerals producer tackle the hardest part of its climate transition plan: Scope 1 emissions from its mining fleet and operations. We built and pressure-tested around 60 decarbonisation initiatives across heavy mobile equipment (trolley assist, regenerative retrofits, hybrid, battery-electric, hydrogen, LNG and renewable diesel) and mine-optimisation levers, modelled each on a consistent techno-economic basis (capex, opex, net present value, carbon and Safeguard costs) with multi-criteria ranking, and built a first-pass Scope 1 roadmap aligned to fleet renewal and the existing power strategy.
For a major global mining-services contractor with a large global fleet of mining equipment (drills, excavators, loaders, haul trucks, ancillaries), we turned a crowded field of competing technologies, OEMs and proposals into a prioritised, defensible portfolio. We designed a tailored Value-Ease framework and drew on our deep experience across decarbonisation technologies to strengthen the list of projects, then ran an intensive workshop with asset-management and decarbonisation leadership to score each on value (emissions, NPV, strategic fit) and ease (maturity, cost and operational change). Projects were categorised with recommendations on how to proceed (lead / fast-follow / monitor).
We helped a tier-one miner's low-emissions team decide where innovation investment would most cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions. We set an emissions-weighted order of priorities — diesel mining fleet first, then power, fugitive methane and process gas — and critically reviewed its external technology scouting, exposing missed breakthroughs and the first-principles analysis it lacked (for example, hydrogen's ~78% well-to-wheel energy loss against ~33% for batteries). We then authored an innovation operating model that scans broad technology fields against the real problems and runs expert-led sprints to value, prioritise and road-map the best options, proven end-to-end with a worked biotechnology platform.
The same method, a different problem: see how it travels to mining and mineral processing decisions.