About 18 months ago, Virgin Hyperloop became the first company to transport people via hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system that involves propelling floating pods through low-pressure tubes at proposed speeds of up to 760mph.

But the American company’s passenger transport business seems to have reached its final stage. In February, it was announced that almost half of Virgin Hyperloop’s workforce had been laid off as the company was to refocus on delivering a cargo version of its experimental transport system.

Respond to freight demand

Addressing the FinancialTimesVirgin Hyperloop said the pivot was due to “global supply chain issues” caused by the pandemic, and it was responding to strong demand for freight services.

With overburdened global freight systems and demand only set to increase, this new mode of transport promises increased speed and efficiency that could help ease the burden, and at lower costs than air or sea transport. According to digital shipping platform Eurosender, hyperloop freight could be eight times more profitable than transporting goods by air.

Clearly, Virgin Hyperloop’s decision makes sense. However, the feasibility of passenger transport is also likely to have played a role.

“There are significant issues with putting a person in a capsule, inside a vacuum environment, and traveling at very high speeds, which affects the commercial viability of these systems,” said Dr Gavin Bailey. , principal consultant and head of sustainable transport for the independent consulting firm. Eunomia, said.

Operators must consider the comfort and safety of their passengers, for example. Elon Musk’s proposed hyperloop line between Los Angeles and San Francisco proposed a limit of no more than 0.5 g-forces (gs), despite tests having found nausea occurs if 0.2 g is exceeded.

Even at 0.5gs, a previous study by the Transportation Research Laboratory established that hyperloop pods traveling at 760mph with a maximum deceleration of 0.5g would require around 80 seconds between pods, allowing 45 departures per hour or up to 1,800 passengers – putting the capacity at far less than the train at high-speed offered in California.

But proving the commercial viability of hyperloop technology will first require overcoming a variety of engineering challenges, such as tube depressurization, bends, and maintaining vacuum — even small accidents can spell disaster.

“With new technologies, there will inevitably be accidents. Sure, the cargo is damaged but no one is hurt,” said Richard Geddes, founding professor and director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy for Cornell University.

“I think the way of thinking in the hyperloop space has evolved is to first get the systems operational for freight, work on those engineering challenges, and make sure those systems are safe before to start with the challenges of human transport.”

High Speed ​​Freight Challenges

Cargo presents an easier challenge than passenger services, but there are still possible limitations that companies need to consider.

Pneumatic tube systems, which propel containers through a network of tubes using compressed air or vacuum, are commonplace in healthcare facilities. These systems move objects at relatively slow speeds, but the forces present have been determined to compromise the integrity of blood samples. Moving at higher speeds, the hyperloop could face a similar problem.

“In the context of freight, you need to consider limiting the speed at which you can accelerate, decelerate, and make turns when transporting inanimate objects, as their chemical composition can change if the forces are too high,” explains Bailey.

But again, before these challenges arise, a working hyperloop system is needed first. Aside from the engineering challenges, there is also the obstacle of urban planning.

“It’s very expensive to acquire the right-of-way in the United States and there will be a lot of clearance issues,” says Geddes. “If you’re dealing in multiple jurisdictions, establishing a hyperloop route becomes even more complicated.”

With the challenges posed by bends, hyperloop systems are likely to require relatively straight and flat paths, which could limit potential routes in densely populated places like the UK. Placing underground routes using tunnels would likely be less of a political problem, but could increase costs significantly.

Of course, these challenges will differ from market to market. Virgin Hyperloop, whose only contract with the Saudi government aims to link the western port city of Jeddah with the capital Riyadh, may have a better chance of success than projects based in the UK or the US, for example.

According to Geddes, hyperloop technology is much more suited to a place like the Middle East – which offers relatively flat terrain, an abundance of solar power and relative ease of gaining a foothold.

Cost of sustainability

Hyperloop is often offered as an ecological and carbon-free mode of transport. Virgin Hyperloop, for example, says its systems will have a lower lifetime environmental impact than other alternatives, by using 100% electrical energy that can be drawn from the solar panels covering its tubes.

However, Bailey wonders, if it is possible to draw sustainable energy to power a hyperloop, why can’t we ensure that electric trains draw their energy from a sustainable source instead?

“The question we have with the hyperloop is how much energy is needed to create and maintain a vacuum versus the energy needed to push that same object through the air without a vacuum,” Bailey explains.

US Department of Energy analysis concluded that hyperloop freight transportation would be less energy efficient per ton-mile than all modes of freight transportation, excluding air. For heavier freight, the analysis estimates that the hyperloop would be at least 8 times less energy efficient than rail transport.

Then there is the environmental impact of building hyperloop infrastructure. This would require a significant amount of concrete and steel, which are high in embodied carbon, as well as large amounts of tunneling.

In 2018, Elon Musk’s The Boring Company was forced to scrap plans for a tunnel in Los Angeles due to its potential impact on the environment. Similarly, the British HS2 project has been delayed by a constant stream of challenges for environmental reasons, offering a glimpse of the pressure hyperloop projects are likely to face just to get started.

“You’re talking about an infrastructure project that’s bigger than HS2,” Bailey says. “A hyperloop would have to go underground because the UK is incredibly hilly and also very densely populated, so the environmental impacts of building one of these systems will be far greater than HS2 or any other type of rail system. at comparable high speeds.”

Will Virgin Hyperloop play a role in the future of freight?

Hyperloop has its advantages. If speeds of 760 mph can be achieved, it would prove more than three times faster than current high-speed rail systems. Likewise, inside a tube or tunnel, these systems would be less affected by the elements, and in an emergency it would prove much easier to evacuate at ground level than at ground level. 30,000 feet in the air.

These systems, Geddes points out, could also provide infrastructure redundancy by feeding utility cables through the tube.

“There are a few issues, but I’m really confident that over time these issues will be resolved,” Geddes insists. “It was 1904 when the Wright Brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk, and look how aviation developed in those days.”

But will we see large-scale systems like those offered by Virgin Hyperloop? For Bailey, it’s unlikely. Rather, we’re much more likely to see smaller hyperloop systems such as Magway, which push containers through small tubes using magnetic energy.

While it doesn’t deliver the promises of high-speed hyperloop, it does deliver many of its benefits – a low-energy alternative that relieves the load from existing rail and road networks. Similarly, significantly smaller in size, the roads could be installed alongside existing transport networks, thus reducing the environmental cost.

“The cost and feasibility of installing these systems is much lower than a train-sized hyperloop system,” says Bailey.

“It’s not about whether a hyperloop system will be developed. It’s a question of when and what this system looks like.