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Hearings Today on Hydrogen-Solar-Maglev Supertrain for Michigan

State’s legislature, foolish as ever, contends that the plan is worth consideration.

Back in March, the State of Michigan announced that it would hold hearings on a proposal for a new mass transit system to run between Detroit and Lansing. The Interstate Traveler Company promises to build a 200 mph maglev train, running on hydrogen and solar power, along the right-of-way of several highways. The project would be financed completely through private means. Today, the first of those hearings will be held in the state legislature.

The Interstate Traveler Company has done little more than provide a series of graphics to support its claim that it knows how to create a true high-speed rail system. Its founder, Justin Sutton, has no experience with the rail industry, but he’s won a prize from the American Computer Science Association. That organization is currently promoting the idea that Bill and Hillary Clinton are supporting terrorism and which refers to the President as “Mr. O’Bamma.” Nonetheless, Tim Hoeffner, administrator of high-speed rail for the Michigan DOT, thinks Mr. Sutton’s project is worth examining.

Yet there is little evidence thus far presented that demonstrates how this project could be built at the advertised minimal cost of $15 million a mile or that several miles of track could be built each day, as the website claims. The project’s reliance on solar power for energy production is similarly difficult to believe in a place as overcast as Michigan. The vehicles’ design is questionable at best. The company’s proposals for a horse transporter and moving surgery center are strange.

Michigan has a good chance of receiving funds for a new — traditional — high-speed rail line between Detroit and Chicago; the federal government’s $13 billion commitment to fast trains could spark renewal in many of that state’s declining cities. But the Interstate Traveler Company is not the place to start. How soon will the state’s legislators figure that out?

28 replies on “Hearings Today on Hydrogen-Solar-Maglev Supertrain for Michigan”

Somehow, all I can think is monorail, Monorail, MONORAIL. I wonder how this will work during solar eclipses.

Poor Michigan. How they can’t see the obvious insane B.S. of this plan is beyond me.

What would be the benefit of the state owning the rail over the Interstate Traveler Company IF they can build it?

I think Michigan should push for a plan to transport people from Detroit to the North Pole, via a hydrogen powered, articulated, sleigh-shaped BRT system, which would combine the efficiency of Santa Claus, the cost benefits of BRT, zero green house gas emissions and the kids would enjoy a ride in Santa’s sleigh as well.

One thing I agree with is building on the same ROW as the highways – for conventional HSR – other than that this idea is nuts.

One thing I agree with is building on the same ROW as the highways – for conventional HSR – other than that this idea is nuts.

In many places the old railroad ROW is better than the Interstate. It was built before there were suburbs and goes in straight lines. And it goes right into the heart of downtown.

How unfortunate for the citizens of Michigan that this stuff gets taken seriously.

I have long thought that state governments attract the lowest caliber of elected official when compared to federal and local government.

This is another data point in favor of this hypothesis.

Adirondacker – I agree and that should have been one of their points, I was just referring to this idea. Of all the BS they mention the Highway ROW makes some sense.

What a crackpot idea and organization. The fact that the Michigan legislature is even considering this proposal is a slap in the face to all rational, fact-loving citizens of that state.

The company’s proposals for a horse transporter and moving surgery center are strange.

The moving surgery center is …. odd. The equestrian center not so odd. During racing season at Saratoga Springs – which is along the way when I’m headed to Albany – the Northway has lots of horse trailers on it. I’m sure many of those people would prefer to transport the horse(s) by train. So I looked harder at the equestrian vehicle. . . why does it have bedrooms? This thing is going to be going at maglev speeds, they could cross the country in ten or twelve hours. And I noticed that it’s either filled with dwarf ponies and extraordinarily small staff or it’s not the same width as the passenger cars. . . but then nothing seems to be the same width as the passenger cars…. Look at the size of the vehicle carrying the automobile…

And they still have solar collectors on the North side of the conduit. The side that is shaded from the sun.

The link about the hearings doesn’t mention this Interstate Traveler Company specifically so I was inclined to believe that maybe you were mistaken and Michigan had moved on. But other websites corroborated your claim.

My best guess at why this website even exists involves a mentally unstable scammer who stumbled upon a hapless design student’s undergraduate thesis (or said student experienced massive head trauma before designing the website he was going to use to scam potential investors to pay his student loans). I’m mostly worried that if this gets too much attention it will ultimately serve as fodder for people who think rail projects are inherently impractical.

Ever the cynic, I’m going with: some elected official got their brother in law to invent this company with graphics provided by some 12 year old child in order to siphon off a nice bit of that free flowing stimulus cash. Said official then gets a hearing for this company in front of some committee to give it legitimacy.
Who wants to bet they are at least awarded a “study” worth $50k or so…

All of the comments above have one thing in common, they are long on opinion but address no facts!

First I have to ask how each of the correspondents writing the opinions would solve the problems of energy independence, cost of infrastructure improvement and the rapid decline of employment without a plan such as Interstate traveler?

Rockfish opines that Interstate Traveler is looking for stimulus money or a 50K study. Obviously he is as ill informed about Interstate Travelers financing as the others are about the technology. Interstate Traveler is privately funded, is not looking for stimulus funds and needs only right of way approval from the state! All funding comes from private sources and a brief perusal of the website would have shown that fact.

The startling fact is that those opining about the system have not taken the time to understand what Interstate Traveler is actually proposing. That is a shame for everyone who listens to these off the cuff blatherings instead of looking at the Interstate Traveler program with a rational eye.

Why they are writing from a position of self inflicted ignorance is beyond me. In the end, science will win over opinion and then these anynomous pundits will change their screen name and try to take credit for the benefits Interstate Traveler delivers.

For those who read their bleatings but want the whole story visit http://www.interstatetraveler.us and get the whole story!

Adam I read parts of the Interstate Traveler site, they write about using off the shelf technology and then go on to describe things that don’t exist.

I look at their lovely pictures. I see solar collectors on the NORTH side of the structures, the side where the sun doesn’t shine. I see claims that it’s going to carry huge amounts of water and waste on it’s delicate structure. 24 inch gas pipelines, 36 inch water mains and 48 inch sewer lines, the kind of thing you need for large populations, don’t teeter on delicate structures. I look at the pretty pictures of the vehicles they are proposing and notice that they aren’t at the same scale, the passenger car is much narrower than the car that purportedly ferry automobiles. Neither of them are the same width of horse stable fantasy. . . which should be able to make it cross country in ten hours, yet has bedrooms in it..

They have never ever built anything. No working model, not even miniature mock ups.

I could whip a web site that says we can travel 14 gazillion miles an hour powered by gnat farts and it’s only gonna cost 47 cents a mile to built. That doesn’t mean people should take me seriously.

Adirondacker,

The Interstate Traveler has developed over 14 years and some of the drawings are a few years old. The drawings on the website are concept drawings but they are backed by Finite Element Analysis of the track structure, propulsion system and vehicle designs.

While Interstate Traveler as a company hasn’t built anything yet, the people who form the company sure have, and the subcontractors that are involved like EDAG are well known engineering firms.

You said that we claim COTS for most of our subsystems and you are right. Almost every system we propose is in use in other applications. Superconductors, linear motors, Servo platforms, photovoltaic panels, electrolyzers and gas turbine generators are all available for purchase with a credit card or company purchase order. The vehicles are custom as are the rails and support structures.

You call our rail system “Delicate” and I, as a person who has successfully fielded many mechanical designs and has done a lot of analysis on this one, wonder what you base that opinion on. You cannot possibly know the materials, stresses, connection methods or processes used. I doubt you have done bending moment, wind load, beam deflection, natural resonance, or slenderness ratio studies. How could you? You don’t have the data!

Depending on whether you are looking at concept drawings done before or after the FEA, you may be looking at older plans which were left on the site because they showed things other than the current exact rail configuration so even your assumptions are not accurate.

Again these are concept drawings, not final plans. Also we propose three different rail guages and that shows in the drawings. The guages are related to load and line speed so you may be misinterperting the drawings if you assume a single rail guage.

Of course there will be a development period where we build a test track and finalize configuration and materials used in the production model. That is planned for start later this year.

With a project of this size, a company frequently goes from drawings like this to prototype hardware and finally to as-built system.

Rarely is the puiblic involved but this is a municipal system and so hearings are in order. Virtually every building starts with a concept drawing, gets funded then the building is engineered and then built. This system is no different we are following the accepted path. We are ahead of that process somewhat because a lot of our engineering is done and ready to implement.

Now to the one aspect of the system where you actually had tried to make a technical point.

You talk about the panels on the north face of the rail and intimate that we are somehow ignorant to put them there. That is proof that a little knowlege on your part is a dangerous thing. True, if we expected full output or even efficient output for full power generation this would be a poor choice of location using todays common solar panels!

What you do not realize is that it only takes 1.25 volts to electrochemically seperate water into its constituient gasses. This voltage at a reasonable current level, is very easily obtained from panels in the shade especially if the panels are the more modern thin film panels (Gen 2) .

Generation three panels have even more promise for this application so we show the panels on both sides because when it is practical and cost effective to do so we can use the shaded side for the low voltage electrochemical system and the sunlight side for the line voltage system.

If I were you I would be turning redfaced about now because I am betting you never thought of that aspect with the use of solar panels! We did and that is why we are the designers of ths system and you are not!

An apology for your scientifically unaware innuendo would be appreciated since I do not want readers to think you were right in your allegation when you are so obviously wrong!

Perhaps you need to research the system more fully before embarassing yourself further with opinions like this one!

I look forward to the day when you take your first ride on our system! I imagine that is what it will take to convince you and so be it!

I don’t think you will have long to wait!

Finite Element Analysis

And my Digital Volumetric Totalization of gnat farts shows they they have three bazillion megajoules per fart.

the subcontractors that are involved like EDAG are well known engineering firms.

I’m sure EDAG or one of the other contractors would be very happy to have a representative or two come to the hearings. How many are scheduled?

Superconductors…

I’m rewiring the house. There’s places I have to drag 10 gauge instead of 12 gauge because the run is so long. How come the guy at Home Depot didn’t suggest superconductor? …Who is producing it on a commercial scale?

…electrolyzers

Then why do they use steam reforming to make industrial hydrogen? If it was cheap and efficient they wouldn’t be doing that. And who’s selling kilowatt sized ones?

And why not just use the electricity on the grid directly instead of passing it through a hydrogen cycle?

You cannot possibly know the materials, stresses…

Water mains and sewer pipes are heavy. Supporting them needs concrete and steel, lots of it. Put a train on top of that and whatever you are building is going to massive. Unless you are planning on some uninvented wonder product that can carry all that weight.

We are ahead of that process somewhat because a lot of our engineering is done

Great! go down to the community college and hire one of kids majoring in CAD and have him produce some drawings.

If I were you I would be turning redfaced about now because I am betting you never thought of that aspect with the use of solar panels!

Laughing is more like it. How cheap do the solar panels have to be so they pay themselves off in hydrogen produced mounted on the north side? … and that gets back to why not just feed it into the grid and sidestep the hydrogen production? How cheap do they have to be to produce enough electricity to pay themselves off?

….if the wonder material you are going to building this out of is so strong why not extend an awning like structure off the south face, put the solar panels there and increase their output. A few pieces of steel are going to much cheaper than solar panel for a very very long time.

Perhaps you need to research the system more fully before embarassing yourself further with opinions like this one!

I’ll bite, where do I research it more?

I look forward to the day when you take your first ride on our system!

Thanks, I think I’ll just wait for Heisenberg Compensators to be perfected and just use transporter technology.

Wow Adirondacker you are really something!

In order:

You: “I’m sure EDAG or one of the other contractors would be very happy to have a representative or two come to the hearings. How many are scheduled? ”

Reality: EDAG’S director of develomental engineering already testified at the first hearing and if you had actually watched the tape of the proceedings available online instead of rendering an in-absentia opinion you would have known that! Evidently informing yourself before bloviating is too much of a bother.

You: I’m rewiring the house. There’s places I have to drag 10 gauge instead of 12 gauge because the run is so long. How come the guy at Home Depot didn’t suggest superconductor? …Who is producing it on a commercial scale?

Reality: Superconductivity was discovered in 1911. American Superconductor http://www.amsc.com/products/index.html
Makes both gen 1 and 2 systems for power distribution. The gen 1 cable has been used in powerplants for years with a well proven track record. If you want to keep a tank of LN2 around the house then you too can wire up with superconductors. The smallest they make is 4/0MCM so good luck pulling it through your attic and connecting it to the outlets will be a pain!

You: Then why do they use steam reforming to make industrial hydrogen? If it was cheap and efficient they wouldn’t be doing that. And who’s selling kilowatt sized ones?

Reality: Steam reforming is a hydrocarbon based system and in case have been living in your bunker the last few years we are running out of Hydrocarbons. Steam reformation is handy but its douible expensive as far as hydrocarbon goes. You have to burn coal to generate electricity to run the reformer to crack the gas. This does nothing to solve the problem. Also solar has come a long way and now allows an efficient means of running electrolyzers instead of using coal based electricity. By using solar it makes sense. About a dozen companies make large scale Hydrolyzers the largest is Norsk hydro! Apparently the Swedish don’t have as many people like you as we do so they are way ahead of us as is most of Europe!

You: And why not just use the electricity on the grid directly instead of passing it through a hydrogen cycle?

Reality: We don’t use grid power we make grid power! With over 1 megawatt (*2,400 sq ft of solar panel) per hour per mile of track during ensolation hours,we have more than enough power to run the train directly from the sun, make Hydrogen for energy storage and in some areas,still sell some back to the grid! In non ensolation hours we burn the H2 to make electricity by running it in a gas turbine (Several sizes commercially available)

{Water mains and sewer pipes are heavy. Supporting them needs concrete and steel, lots of it. …………. put the solar panels there and increase their output. A few pieces of steel are going to much cheaper than solar panel for a very very long time. }

I shortened your diatribe and bracketed it so you would know how much of your bloviation I was assessing when I wrote this part.

I doubt very much that you are an engineer or at least I hope you aren’t because you really need more education!

My point is that we ran the numbers, did the FEA and verified the design as practical. Changes will be made as needed after testing refines the design even further but our starting point is sound. As we build the prototype we will probably change a lot of minor stuff and maybe even some major stuff to expedite construction and streamline the design. I

In short; your opinion based on a guess is not relevant in the face of proper analysis and confirmational testing.

And now for the part I love; the testing phase:

Tell me what this is and Explain it:

DeltaX, DeltaP >or= h(bar) /2

and how does it pertain to your last statement;

You: “Thanks, I think I’ll just wait for Heisenberg Compensators to be perfected and just use transporter technology.”

Here’s a clue h(bar) is reduced planck’s constant.

Good luck with the bonus question, I doubt you know what it is but a quick web search might help out with the what but only a physics education will help you really explain it!.

If I ever need an expert on gnat farts I will consult you,….I promise! …..:)

EDAG’S director of develomental engineering already testified at the first hearing and if you had actually watched the tape of the proceedings available online

I tried to find it. I searched for “interstate traveler” and found a few crude animations on YouTube. I searched the Michigan legislature site. I’m sure Interstate Traveler has a copy of it, they can put it YouTube like their other videos. Unless their executive vice president in charge of media relations is off at summer camp. I’m sure he’s excited about starting high school in the fall.

Ya got a link? This director, he got a name?

If you want to keep a tank of LN2

When the tank is full I keep 200 pounds of propane around the house – just outside it, near the kitchen range. I’d keep the liquid nitrogen near the Dewar flask the superconductor is in. It would be much easier to manage that than on a moving train. Or under a moving train. It’s not clear if Interstate Traveler is going to be using the superconductors for the magnets in the train or for the power line embedded in the conduit under the sewer line.

The smallest they make is 4/0MCM so good luck pulling it through your attic

The pictures on their website show a thin film. it has a shipping weight of 3 pounds per hundred meters. They sell so much of it the minimum order is 500 meters though they are willing to sell in shorter lengths.

connecting it to the outlets will be a pain

According to their website low temperature solder works well. The husband is handy with a soldering iron.

You have to burn coal to generate electricity to run the reformer to crack the gas.

The reactions run on heat not electricity. The heat can come from any source, oil coal, natural gas. I suppose if the natural steam coming out of cracks in the earth was hot enough that could be used too. The only electricity they have to use is for the control systems. The process that manufactured illuminating gas was similar if somewhat cruder. That didn’t need electricity at all.

With over 1 megawatt (*2,400 sq ft of solar panel) per hour per mile of track during ensolation hours,

In round numbers. . .
One square meter of ideal insolation yields approximately one kilowatt per hour at sea level. 2400 square feet of collector comes out to approximately 222 square meters or 222,000 thousand watts. Since a mile is 5280 feet long 2400 square feet of collector seems a bit low to me. Unless the conduit under the the trains is only 6 inches wide, because they appear to be covered in photovoltaic cells in the drawings.

If I remember correctly theoretical maximum conversion is 33 percent. So 333 watts a square meter. Last I read they were hoping to get efficiency up to 20 % or 200 watts per square meter. 200 watts a square meter comes out to roughly 20 watts a square foot. Lets go for 25 watts a square foot, you need 40000 square feet. to get a megawatt. Again in round numbers, that’s an 8 foot long collector for every foot of track. 40,000 square feet of collector shouldn’t be a problem. I woulda thought a tool and die maker would be better at calculating things like this.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/adam-nehr/6/b03/557

We don’t use grid power we make grid power! …

How much power do you lose in the conversion to hydrogen? It’s not 100 % efficient. You gain efficiency by selling what you produce – electricity – as electricity. The turbines are less than 100% efficient. How does conversion to hydrogen and then burning the hydrogen compare to storing the electricity in super capacitors or plain old batteries? You’d get better conversion efficiencies if you shipped the electricity as electricity to a pumped storage facility and generated peak and nighttime electricity that way.

Adirondacker,

1) The link to the hearings is:

http://lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090615/NEWS01/90612002&template=mogulus

His name is Javier Rodriguez

The thinfilm superconductors are not what we would use look for the distribution cable. American Superconductors system is
found here:
http://www.amsc.com/products/htswire/HTSCables.html

If you have geo thermal or solar heat then you can use it to do reforming but that was not my point it was that you are cracking a hydrocarbon that is of limited supply and modern solar panels make it a moot point!

Congratulations you were paying attention! I mis typed the solar area per mile (thought I put in the correct number 82,400 st ft / mile but left off the 8 by accident) Nice catch and you now realize why we use the rail cap as a solar generator!

Your number of 1Kw per M^2 is correct rerun the numbers compensating for my typo and you will see my point! BTW we are proposing 12% efficiency panels because it is conservative, 19% panels are available and 30% panels are on the way so by the time we are up and running the numbers could vastly improve especially with new thinfilm printed cells.

Throughput efficiencies sunlight to repower through the H2 cycle are 25-37% but solar power is free after infrastructure costs and H2 turbines are extremely efficient and are in that figure. We think we can get the high number easily but quote the range to be safe.

What about the bonus question?

Thanks for the link to the video, I haven’t laughed that hard in months.

If I ever find a transcript I’ll go through and identify all the ….jokes.. Or I’ll save it off and edit them into the really funny parts.

Hopeless and also evasive, you still haven’t answered the bonus question and now resort to dismissive sarcasm!

Funny, you never did make a valid point, just spewed a bunch of vitriol! I hope your ego was gratified!

Sadly, your sarcasm indicates that you are out of ideas!

In the end I think you have done us a great favor because anyone who objectively looks at our conversation and follows the links will know that we have done our homework and our opponents, represented by the likes of you, have not!

Good luck with the wiring! Watch out for the LN2…its really cold! And please, write a paper on Gnat Fart energy specifics, I have some propulsion engineer friends at work that would love to read it…..and laugh!

BTW, did I mention that I work for a contractor at Kennedy Space Center? Interstate Traveler has engineers involved from all different disciplines all over the country including Hydrogen specialists and also Instrumentation Specialists like me. Some work on space vehicles others on more terrestrial systems. I have built data collection systems, Specialized camera systems, Optical systems for tracking telescopes and even developed, built and flew my own airplane. I am responsible for my companies electrical compliance with C1 D2 B (Hydrogen) environments and design equipment to be used in those environments. With all that in mind,if Interstate Traveler has a fatal flaw its pretty well hidden cause my 35 +years of experience engineering and building complex systems hasn’t found it!

Oh well enough time invbested here, since you obviously have nothing further to offer I will bid you adieu’

<emSadly, your sarcasm indicates that you are out of ideas!

I wasn’t being sarcastic. The parts of the video that aren’t hilarious are sad.

BTW, did I mention that I work for a contractor at Kennedy Space Center?

No but your Linkedin page does. I hope InDyne is very happy with your work. The photos on your personal website are stunning. . . it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Interstate Traveler is a scam.

I have 45 years of experience dealing with grifters and scam artists. I can smell one at 50 yards. The only people in that two hours of meeting that directly answered simple questions was the guy from Michigan DOT and poor Javier. Javier looked very very uncomfortable. At least he was honest, when asked if any of the work he is familiar with is ready to be used he answered that “it needs more development”

You’ve claimed that it’s fully engineered. Fine, some one can click on a few things in the CAD program and produce some drawings, one that don’t look like some weird amalgam of Popular Science circa 1965, a Dianetics brochure and stuff lifted from PRT sites.

There’s been lots of claims that it uses existing technology. And that investors are chomping at the bit to invest. Fine take some of that existing technology and some of that investor money and produce a test track. Not even a test track but a test bed that demonstrate the vehicle you are proposing can move. Not at high speed but at any speed.

That is definitely the shittiest website this side of 1995.

I know things have been rough for the last couple of decades, but hopefully MI still has enough self respect to not fall for this kind of crap.

Adirondacker,

First a scam is something done by people who have no intention of ever doing what they propose based on an impossible idea that they know to be false. Our idea is not only possible it is enevitable in one form or another and far from lacking the intention to prove ourselves right we have worked for years with our own money to prove ourselves and are within months of starting the building phase of the project.

I do not know why you feel so self ritcheous and judgemental about this but I have not head a cogent argument only a bunch of baseless opinion. Every time I proved you wrong you changed the subject trying to find a point of weakness. Now it’s just rhetoric.

I guess I am curious enough about one thing though and would really like to hear you address this question.

With mankind running out of economically obtainable hydrocarbon fuel and with climate change an ever increasing threat, how would you solve the problem? I wish to point out that any solution would go through the stage we are in right now and I assume you would attempt to kill them too so what is your agenda and what is your solution?

Thank you for the compliment on my images from my personal website, I have been involved in imaging as a imaging analysis specialist for many years and also did some illustration work when I owned my own business in the 80’s. If you liked the images and fully understand them then you also know that the person that created them does not have the point of view of a scam artist.

Anyway wiser heads than yours are prevailing and the test track you are suggesting (Our intention all along to start with one) will be started once the hearings are through.

In the end ask yourself if there are any other non hydrocarbon based proposals out there, how we solve the problems before us without a radical departure from the current paths, what such a program would look like in its nacent stages and what happens if people like you happened to succeed and kill the ideal that would work by offering an opinion that was wrong.

Adirondacker,

I meant to say in the previous message:

You need to get your nose checked! You have been smelling too many gnat farts and apparently you think you smell things that aren’t there!

“I have 45 years of experience dealing with grifters and scam artists. I can smell one at 50 yards.”

Wow… what a wild bunch of comments. Especially that hillbilly from the Adirondack mountains (sorry I just insulted hilbilies)… kind reminds me of the Black Knight in montepython … No one shall pass…he/she says! mean while a bonfied engineer with real credentials who is not hiding his identity behind a mask, chops off his arms and legs with real scientific statements while he/she continue to spout meaningless insults and accusations completely oblivious to the fact that they don’t have a scientific leg to stand on. I wonder what fool his hiding behind the mask of the Adirondacker? Sure seems to be promoting fossil fuels and grid power… probably works for one of the big power companies, I’ll bet… Oh, and it kinda dawned on me that if the rail follows the highways, the rail will benefit from having solar panels on both sides of the top, all day long… America’s highways meander in all directions and any light generates a current… this Adirondacker is a real stupid jerk. You can read blogs about this all over the web… this guy/girl is just a nasty jerk-off compared to most comments I have read…. yeah.. what is this guys problem? He/she probably hates green energy ideas and does not believe in global warming… go back to your mountain.