Our Green Future Is Looking Way Cool!

At the Kohama Laboratory, Institute of Fluid Science at the Tohoku University in Japan, Professor Yasuaki Kohoma leads a group of researchers developing an aero-train. Called “Zero Emission Aero-Train”, it is a high-speed electric train, that looks like the love spawn of a high-speed train and a jet airplane.

Simply put, the Aero-Train is a “levitating” train achieved by utilizing the aerodynamic principle of ground lift. The phenomenon of floating up or uplifting on the wings when flying close to the surface is called the wing-in-ground (WIG) effect. At high speeds the aerodynamic lifting force becomes extremely large with a much smaller drag force, gliding instead of rolling. We have all have seen videos of jet boats flipping through the air during races, same principal. This makes it possible to achieve many of the advantages of a maglev train, without the expensive electromagnetic coils.

It’s acceleration is three times greater than that of a conventional high-speed train, zero to 279.6 mph (450 km/h) in only 90 seconds.

Solar panels are placed on the guide-way’s roof, while wind generators are placed alongside in those places where wind energy is generally available, the power is then distributed all along the walls. At high speeds the Aero Train requires virtually no energy since it relies on the sole effect of lift from the air that occurs when moving. The wings serve to guide the machine, by fins using the same WIG effect against the guideway walls, and to collect power for the vehicle. The generated electricity can be fed to the train’s ducted electric fans directly or stored in its on-board batteries. Energy, ecologically obtained solely from the sun and the wind. The researchers expect the system to generate much more energy than is consumed by the Aero-Train, thereby making it double as an electric power plant.

Research in the area of ground lift surface travel is not new, 42 years ago an Aero-train project in France lasted 12 years, beat some world speed records, but in 1977 the project ended because changing all railroad tracks for “aero-train” tracks was too expensive.

Professor Kohoma and his team have been working on their Aero-Train project for over a decade and are right on schedule. Marking success with met goals such as the test run in 2003 in which a prototype with three pairs of wings and driven by four propulsion engines supplied with solar and wind power was able to reach 93 mph (150 km/h).

Professor Kohama’s group is set to have the Aero-Train complete and in service by 2020. With a length of 279 feet (85 meters) and consuming about 1/2 to 1/3 the energy of the bullet train, it will rocket 350 passengers to their destination at speeds of 310 mph (500km/h), 4 inches (10cm) above the ground. Wow! I wanna ride!…Pick me!.. Pick me!

… as the green future unfolds!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Application to connect wind development projects to Alberta transmission system approved (newswire.ca)
• The Heat Is On When It Comes to Building Coal-Fired Power Plants (scientificamerican.com)
• Renewable Energy Plan Divides Environmentalists (abcnews.go.com)

Tags: climate, environment, Everything Solar, Going Green, green, water, wind

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Going Green, science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.