Press release

At this year's InnoTrans, a new technology for reducing respirable particulate matter on railway construction sites will be presented to an international trade audience for the first time. HYPERION’s DURFOG will be used, in collaboration with Plasser & Theurer, on new track construction and maintenance machines in future. However, it is also available for retrofitting existing machines in the form of retrofit kits.

In future, this will ensure compliance with regulatory requirements for particulate matter limits as well as occupational health and safety regulations for track construction and maintenance machines. This allows construction companies to fulfil their ecological and social responsibilities, remain competitive in the long term, and prevent particulate-pollution hazards to staff and the environment.

The challenge

Hazardous respirable particulates are created by track settlements and displacements of the ballast during railway operation, maintenance, or superstructure work. Particulate matter is also emitted on ballastless tracks during formation rehabilitation.

As long as ballast is transported, tamped, profiled, and exchanged in a conventional way, particulate-reduction solutions are required for occupational safety in tunnels, in cuttings, in the city, and on open track. Machine operating companies must take precautions for occupational health and safety and comply with the required limits, otherwise construction sites may be shut down.

The solution

DURFOG, an international patent-pending particulate-reduction technology developed by HYPERION for track-guided transport, reliably proves compliance with applicable limits. There is no additional particulate extraction, and the water is free of additives. Less water is used to achieve a greater reduction in particulate matter. The track construction and maintenance machine is equipped with injectors at critical points (excavating chain, conveyor, ballasting unit, tamping unit). They generate a permanent fine water mist, which has a defined width and length. The dust and particulates that develop as a result of ballast movement absorb the moisture from the DURFOG water mist, bind, and sink to the ground. There, the bound particulates are removed, for example, by collecting chains and belts.

The comparison

In addition to reducing the consumption of water, a precious resource, immediately binding particulate matter eliminates the need for equipment on the machine which extracts and then disposes of waste, thereby lowering costs and requiring less installation space. In tunnels and on urban routes, the DURFOG system potentially offers additional advantages: there is no need for more power-intensive heat-producing extraction units; tunnels heat up less and fossil fuel requirements go down; logistics chains become more streamlined, which reduces track possessions and unloads tunnel drainage; there is less particulate pollution for infrastructure, accompanying work, passengers, and residents.

The collaboration with HYPERION applies to every machine in Plasser & Theurer’s portfolio. Both companies will work together to focus on reducing particulate emissions in track-guided transport and developing solutions.