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If you’re not feeling up to the short journey from your hotel to the university campus in Emden, you could always call a taxi and rely on the driver’s navigation. “Hyperloop? Oh, you want to go see our tube, why didn’t you just say that!” The goTube test tube is located close to the university and has solar panels on top to provide additional energy when transport capsules, known as pods, race through the vacuum inside the tube at speeds of up to 750 km/h. However, the test facility was not designed for such speeds; during a test run, 45 km/h was reached – but it’s moving in the right direction.
Measuring 27 metres in length and just 1.6 metres in diameter, Emden’s ‘tube’ is the longest Hyperloop track in Germany and is expected to be a great success. “Environmentally friendly and energy-efficient high-speed mobility – at the Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences, this vision is becoming a reality,” is the message associated with the goTube test tube by industry and science.
Hyperloop is set to launch in Europe in 2030
The Hyperloop team at Emden University is part of a European network. Emden scientists have joined forces with Hyperloop developers, railway operators, engineering firms, and research institutions from 13 countries to establish the ‘Hyper4Rail’ project. The consortium’s goal is to industrialise Hyperloop technology by 2030 and deploy it on a large scale across Europe.
“In the first stage of development, what we have in Emden is a wheel-rail concept,” explain project initiators, professors Dr Walter Neu and Dr Thomas Schüning. “The most important element is the tube, in which a negative pressure of around one per cent of atmospheric pressure is generated, which is between one and ten millibars. This reduces air resistance, which causes the greatest energy loss at high speeds. This enables us to travel at speeds of 500 to 800 km/h using minimal energy.” The Hyperloop will also be climate-neutral in its largest expansion stage, as it will cover its energy requirements using solar panels attached to the outside of the tube.
“The two of us have been working on this for ten years,” the professors report. They are familiar with the Hyperloop’s turbulent history: “The concept of the vacuum tube was first presented by a Brit more than 100 years ago and the concept of the maglev train by a German in the 1930s. Elon Musk took up the idea in 2013, but quickly lost interest. Through our current research and development alliance, we are bringing the idea back to Europe,” says Walter Neu. “It no longer has anything to do with Elon Musk. However, we are still benefiting from the worldwide popularity that he brought to the project,” says Thomas Schüning.
A climate-friendly alternative to train and long-distance transport - Hyperloop test facility at Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences. Interview with Prof Dr Walter Neu and Prof Dr Thomas Schüning (from left), head of Hyperloop research.
The Hyperloop belongs to everyone
Back in 2013, Elon Musk released the idea for the Hyperloop as an open-source concept, and 700 development teams from around the world registered within the first week. An unprecedented race then ensued between projects in the United States, China, South Korea, and Western, Eastern and Northern European countries – and the hype continues to this day. And while Musk’s withdrawal meant a decrease in financial investment, it did not dampen anyone's spirits.
Although critical objections persist – the construction is too expensive, vacuum technology is not as simple as presented, braking distances are too long, safety problems remain, and there is no concept for toilets – and despite the fact that all of the hard work in recent years has not led to any great breakthroughs but rather a whole series of cancelled projects, the fascination with the Hyperloop continues and is being transferred to new generations of developers. How come?
European co-operation like Airbus
“For us engineers, the Hyperloop is the only way to create high-speed, climate-neutral transport for the masses that can connect European cities at speeds comparable to air travel,” say Neu and Schüning, who are unwavering in their conviction and spurred on by current climate developments. “We’re not fooling ourselves. We are in a global competition for climate-friendly mobility solutions. China and India, for example, urgently need modern mobility concepts given their large populations and vast land areas. China is experimenting with magnetic levitation technology, high-temperature superconductors and composite materials for the tube. Here in Europe we also want to develop optimum levitation and control technology based on what we already have.”
“We want to combine the Hyperloop with other modes of transport. It will never be a competition, but a complement.”
It is the inter-European cooperation that is the decisive factor in today’s ‘Hyper4Rail’ project. “We are not competing; we are complementing each other. All the test tracks that are now being built are necessary because they address different technical aspects. What happens to the materials? How durable are they? How can we develop switch technology that allows high speeds? It’s similar to the way Airbus operates: development takes place at various locations and a system emerges at the end.” Lathen, in the Emsland region of Lower Saxony, where the Transrapid was developed and where the track is still located, would make a suitable location for a joint European development and certification centre.
Rail or hover technology?
The Hyperloop is neither a finalised technology nor an off-the-shelf product. It is an open development concept, and its applications and specifications must still be developed in detail and adapted to regional requirements or integrated with existing solutions. “The core of the Hyperloop is the tube. The vacuum, which can be maintained at low cost, offers the greatest efficiency gains. Passengers can then travel by rail or by hovering technology – it all depends on what makes sense.” However, speed is not an absolute goal. After all, what is the point of travelling at 750 km/h if this increases the distance between stops and reduces efficiency?
The Emden professors remain calm in the face of the cost argument: “The cost per kilometre on this route is slightly higher than on a high-speed ICE route. However, these additional costs make up for themselves extremely quickly thanks to the low operating costs.” In addition to being energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, the low space requirement is another cost and infrastructure advantage. Unlike railway lines, maintenance areas are not needed on both sides of the tubes, which also act as a safety enclosure, and so agriculture can huddle up very close. One possibility would be to use the vacant central reservations on motorways for elevated Hyperloop tubes.
Solutions for transporting cargo and passengers
In terms of applications, the Emden-based company is initially focusing on freight transport. As part of the EU project ‘ePIcenter’, the feasibility of supplying two industrial sites with Hyperloop technology in terms of capacity and engineering was investigated. “It was demonstrated that industrial areas within cities can be completely freed from delivery traffic with Hyperloop,” report Neu and Schüning. “If we develop a speed of 200 to 300 km/h for cargo with a wheel-rail system, we will be faster and more climate-neutral than any lorry. Such a solution for certain routes is already completely realistic today.”
“We have the greatest potential in passenger transport. It can be used as an alternative to European air transport or the ICE in Germany for medium and long distances,” they say in Emden. “If we use the Hyperloop to transport people, we can free up capacity for freight transport. We could definitely transfer freight transport from road to rail with the Hyperloop. Investing in the Hyperloop would be a more efficient and sustainable solution than building more roads.”
A vision for how to live and work in Europe
The optimistic professors in Germany are feeling encouraged because a Hyperloop reference route has been included in the new German government’s coalition agreement as an important infrastructure project. And Hamburg has offered itself as the site.
Now it’s up to the EU. The Emden team has a clear idea of which projects it can link to this. “The individual member states should be interested in considering the Hyperloop network at a European level because then the centres in Europe could be connected to each other,” say Neu and Schüning. “At the speeds we are talking about now – around 500 km/h – remote areas could be linked to urban areas. People could live wherever they want and reach their workplace and travel home again in a very short time. Combined with teleworking, this results in a new concept of living and working for all of Europe.”
