The Interstate Traveler: a High Speed Hydrogen-Solar Transportation System that Produces Enough Abundant, Clean Low-cost Energy to Power the World
American Computer Scientists Association announces it is mentoring / engaging in assistance to perform a validation, demonstration study to the Interstate Traveler Project, a project originated by Justin Sutton to build a high speed hydrogen solar rail transportation system with some remarkable side benefits.
(PRWEB) May 26, 2005 -- Imagine traveling from NY to Los Angeles by car in
10.5 hours, while your Rail system is producing enough hydrogen to power 70% or
more of the Nation’s entire energy demand at no extra charge? Sounds impossible?
Don’t bet on it. If a young group of dedicated pioneers have their way, within a
year ground could be broke to build a new kind of accelerated highway based on
rail transportation of autos, freight and people.
The new highway, called
the “Trailblazer” is one that can carry cars between major metropolitan areas
reportedly with absolutely no fuel cost. The startup company, Interstate
Traveler Company, (http://www.interstatetraveler.us) has been “adopted” by the
American Computer Science Association as “the wave of the future, now!”
According to the ACSA, who has studied the solutions offered by the Interstate
Traveler Project – a truly innovative business model has broken down the
barriers to a ready supply of cheap, hydrogen energy for the future clean energy
economy of America.
Major breakthroughs in engineering have made it now
possible to build a high speed transportation system that has virtually no fuel
costs, can move automobiles, people and freight interstate at speeds up to 250
miles per hour or more, and yet it produces 300% excess hydrogen for every 100%
of its own power needs. The unique technology of the Interstate Traveler uses
twin-rail light duty Mag-Lev propulsion, and includes a large array of “Hydrogen
from Solar” Conduits (HSCs) that produce hydrogen the entire length of the rail
system during sunlight hours.
Due to the extraordinary length of this
rail system, the HydroSol Conduit could produce an excess of hydrogen
continuously during daylight hours spanning the continent, says the Interstate
Traveler Company. This breakthrough reportedly leverages a phenomenon nationwide
that is called “the eight hour guaranteed sunny day”.
The Interstate
Traveler’s transit system is said to use new Automobile Carriers and small
passenger/freight carrying MAGLEV cars which would travel between cities at
breathtaking speed. Interest in the new system has ranged far and wide,
including some pretty powerful state government bodies such as the State of
Oklahoma and the State of Michigan, reportedly. And it has interested many in
the big three Automobile manufacturers, who see it as a way to reduce the
operating cost of automobiles drastically, allowing them to comply with
emissions standards at the same time as reducing the cost to manufacture
vehicles, and increasing demand, since fuel would be so inexpensive and
clean.
Recent advances have made it possible to pump Hydrogen into an
automotive tank, while cooling it, preventing safety issues and insuring that
such as the Interstate Traveler can provide Hydrogen directly to commuters’ and
shoppers’ autos.
The heads of the ACSA (http://www.acsa.net) have labored long hours over their slide
rules to verify, on paper, the concept of the Interstate Traveler ( http://www.interstatetraveler.us ).
“We have discussed
moving into the final validation stages with the Interstate Traveler Company and
have concluded that not only is this a feasible energy and transportation
development project, but it is something that would appeal generically to the
Auto, Bus, and Air travel Industry- a new venture that could also pay for the
cost of fueling their main products: cars, jets and buses/trucks. While
initially it may seem costly, from our standpoint, it rapidly pays for itself.
So quickly, in fact, that the pain of development is minimized and
negligible."
"We hope to assemble a team to monitor the permit issuance
and building of several demonstration legs of the Traveler, so that a live run
test of the new slotted electrical engines, its intermediate duty MagLev system,
and the hydrogen solar generating conduit (and other facilities) can quickly
demonstrate the economic soundness of the Interstate Traveler concept. And,
obviously, we’re pretty excited about the idea of autos, people and light
freight being able to ride this new system at 250 mile per hour between major
metro areas,” stated ACSA scientific chairperson, Jack A. Shulman, adding:
“Frankly, I’m a flight enthusiast and aviation flight control system
designer. You couldn’t keep me out of a Jet if you tried. Nonetheless, I doubt
Justin Sutton is going to be able to keep me out of the Traveler, either. It
compresses that weekend trip 200 miles to Atlantic City for me down to a 20
minute jaunt, and I’d be able to rail to DC or Boston at five times the normal
speed, while catching up on a little homework. The whole project is, to me, in a
word: Fascinating! They’re really on to something, here!”
An Amazing
Solution
Himself a computer scientist and physicist, Dr. Shulman became
interested in the automation control of Justin Sutton’s Interstate Traveler "at
first sight".
"It represents a unique scheduling, piloting, energy
management and maintenance opportunity for any automation system", he indicated,
in a recent interview, adding:
“I was always attracted to Hydrogen from
Solar (HydroSol) Energy, because: once commercially rendered feasible, it is the
cleanest, soundest way to obtain energy. One is literally 'mining Sunlight for
electrons' and then, converting ordinary water into Hydrogen and Oxygen with it.
Everyone has seen that experiment performed in High School Physics class, yet
this is the first time we’ve had a broad spectrum functional model that will
allow engineering to leverage the phenomenon into an application that will
dramatically benefit all of humanity."
"ACSA is still organizing a
substantive validation exercise; however we mainly feel obligated to safeguard
the means for Interstate Traveler Company to build its high speed hydrogen-solar
rail transportation system and energy product facility without any actual damage
to the environment. That, right now, seems very feasible: it should cause no
damage at all, and we can control the environmental impact of building it, with
the help of appropriate environmental engineering and with the assistance of
such as the EPA and DoT. Fortunately, its’ design appears to be literally
perfect."
"As it was explained to me: The Interstate Traveler Company
intends to build their rail system on and adjacent to the already cleared
property of the United State’s massive Interstate Highway system. This insures
that egress development can retain the prior investment made by the Federal
Government in having built todays Interstate Highways. Also, quite fortunately,
the business model being used by Interstate Traveler Company enhances the way we
travel by our traditional automobiles, SUVs, Busses and Trucks: allowing the
Interstate Traveler to carry the vast load of autos and passengers between state
metropolitan areas, letting hydrogen powered Automobiles, Vans and SUVs do the
rest locally when they off-load. the balance of its excess fuel is then sold to
the power companies, industry, and hydrogen distribution Station systems
formerly used to sell Gas and Diesel."
"About the only thing it doesn't
need from today's automotive transportation infrastructure are barrels of oil,
allowing them to be redireted to make profitable lubricants, solvents, chemical
derivatives, plastics, and other, more profitable such uses for petroleum,
prolonging oil's unique value and pushing off the date that they would
eventually run dry at the oil wells, which has recently been projected to be
2045 by some. While I personally do not believe oil wells will run out by then,
there are many profitable uses for it when it is no longer needed as the staple
for automotive propulsion, and can be replaced with the excess hydrogen produced
by Interstate Traveler Systems all over the world. The presumption that the only
use for crude oil is to make gasoline is a misconception. By not having to burn
it, oil ceases being a combustion air polutant, which should make its use in
plastics and so on mor palatable to the environmentally concerned."
"This seems like the best of both worlds to me, assuming the Interstate
Traveler Project can be completed successfully. Not only does it combine solar
and hydrogen energy forces into a clean and complimentary "symbiosis"-like
solution, it also combines the use of light and medium duty high speed mass
transit vehicles with the flexibility of ordinary automotive travel. In my view,
if it works, it will yield a seemingly perfect mixture of environmental safety,
raw performance, cheap sustainable energy, and will relieve America of it's
dependence upon foreign oil for it's future energy sources. We have the utmost
hopes that the entire Interstate Traveler Project, all 54,000 miles of its
track, can all be made to work. Sometimes there are other issues than technology
and adaptability that get in the way of projects of this size, scope and
importance.”
The results of building the entire system, states the
Interstate Traveler Company: enough plentiful excess hydrogen fuel to power
local traveling automobiles, trucks and buses, by building this new transit
system adjacent to the existing United States Interstate Highway System (known
as the Eisenhower Memorial Interstate Highway) at the low cost of about $10
million per mile, reportedly. Its conceiver, Justin Eric Sutton, has been
described by the ACSA as: “an extraordinary scientist and an outstanding and
brilliant entrepreneur, who has hit upon an amazing multi-disciplinary solution
to problems that face us in America today, namely: energy and how to obtain it
cleanly and inexpensively”.
With a build time to market of little more
than 5 years, according to the company, the entire Interstate Traveler Project
should pay for each major segment (breaks even) from its own revenue, within 3
years of each segments’ completion. Building it is comparatively easy, aside
from the crossing of mountain passes, which has already been done by the
Interstate Highway System: that provides a perfect egress for the Traveler,
according to Sutton. The Project reportedly intends to use an amazingly
innovative, heavily automated rate of construction: about 15 miles of track
built per day.
The company also has reportedly consulted with the big
three automobile manufacturers and various aerospace companies. It appears that
these major forces in each industry have expressed interest in supplying the
Traveler’s “light to medium duty MAGLEV rail cars” and it's other components.
According to the Interstate Traveler website, one of the most appealing aspects
of the design is that it does not rely on older rail concepts that were driven
by large scale, heavy rail engines and cars. The older style rail system design
carries with it an enormous weight penalty not present in the Traveler, whose
rail cars are much, much lighter and designed to travel at much higher speeds.
As anyone in auto racing can tell you: creating a better weight to power ratio
yeilds more speed with less fuel, and can express itself through various
mathematical formula as “the right thing to do at the right time.”
How it
Accomplishes What it Accomplishes
According to the Interstate Traveler
Company, there are some pretty remarkable consequences of taking the design and
business model direction that it has.
Each month, 400 miles of this new
rapid transit highway could be built (the approximate distance between Boston
and Washington) and pays for itself within 3 years of the opening of a major
segment. Cross country, an entire 2500 mile length can be built in 1 year from
NYC to Los Angeles, and pays for itself within 3 years. Three such projects, in
only 1.5 years, could link a northern, southern and central route producing
connections between 75% of the major metro areas in the United States.
At the end of three years, nearly three quarters (¾) of the hydrogen the
entire track produces becomes freely salable to business, industry, and the
general public for power consumption in homes, offices, industry and municipal
utilities' usage. Only one quarter (¼) is ever used to power the transportation
system itself, at maximum load. To compliment its own ability to be easily
maintained and safe to operate, the entire Interstate Traveler system was
designed to provide for only two or three basic types of "universal" medium duty
rail vehicle platforms, each adaptable to a limitless range of "Travelers": one
to carry one or more automobiles or other vehicles to a specific destination,
the others to carry interstate commuters in small groups or to perform utility
functions. The commuter version is also designed so that it can be equipped to
carry freight and packages. Other types of "Travelers" are also on the drawing
boards. Small "on and off” stations at various locations would allow individual
Traveler Vehicles to pick up and drop off Autos “all over the place”, stated the
Interstate Traveler Company, and would provide other services needed by the
system. Surprisingly, it is all this "scaling to fit" in the Traveler's design
that makes it all feasible!
For example, while not suggesting such should
be abandoned, plans that require huge, centralized solar energy plants require
enormous land areas to gather enough sunlight. The Traveler does not require
such vast tracts; it gathers light along its entire length, 54,000 miles and
delivers power where it is needed at a minimum of overhead. To store the power,
it uses hydrolyzation to convert water to Hydrogen.
Furthermore,
centralized solar energy plants also have a problem delivering the power they
make to distant locations, requiring many large plants and long distance AC
transmission (with considerable waste and loss) to get power to a usage area.
The Traveler maintains a continuous conduit its entire length, along which it
uses successive hydrolyzers to convert solar energy to hydrogen, with storage of
the hydrogen along its entire length in safety storage tanks. Its a safety
conscious design provides “hydrogen tanking up” Service Stations at every major
“on and off” station, and low overhead hydrogen pressure driven transfers within
the length of the conduit to keep every station at full capacity nearly all of
the time.
Safety doesn’t end there; fire blockades and control systems,
and tamper proofing security have already been carefully thought out and planned
for. It is believed it would be virtually impossible to sabotage a system so
large, as even in the case of terrorist attack, only a small portion of the
Traveler would be effected, and security provisions provide for rapid response,
and ease of effecting repair. Up to a 15 mile segment can be entirely replaced
in a single day.
The Traveler's "Service Stations" are distributed at
convenient locations where they can provide hydrogen to autos that use the
Traveler, and can provide local hydrogen to automobiles, trucks and buses in
each metropolitan area. Additional hydrogen would be off loaded at "master
distributors" which would then provide it to electricity producing plants for
the nation’s power grid. Also, hydrogen would be provided to delivery systems
which own their own hydrogen pumping stations to serve the hundreds of millions
of automobiles at use in America. And remaining hydrogen could be used for other
purposes, such as by industrial plants and air and space
travel.
Amazingly, once the entire 54,000 miles of Interstate Highway are
eventually built out with accompanying Interstate Travelers, an enormous (as
much as) 85,000 Mega Watts of energy might be achievable by the entire Traveler
system, continuously during any 12 solar hour period. That power is actually
stored by converting it to Hydrogen, hydrogen converters, producing clean
burning hydrogen from ordinary water. That Hydrogen is then stored and used to
power internal combustion engines and fuel cells on demand, wherever needed,
both within the Traveler’s system, and sold outside to the nation’s vast energy
consumptive industries. By the way: that’s 1 Terawatts Hour per 12 hour
sunlight-day, an enormous amount of energy!
Using the conversion
formula, multiply 3414 times each kilowatt hour to calculate the common form of
energy called BTUs. Believe it or not, the entire Traveler system could, if
Interstate Traveler Company is successful, produce an amazing 3.4 Quadrillion
BTUs every day of sunlight! That is considerably more than the combined demand
for energy of the entire United States each day.
Due to the desire to
work efficiently, the initial build plan for the Interstate Traveler appears to
be targeted at producing only 1/3 that amount of power (1.1 Quadrillion BTU for
every 10 sunlight hours). Accounting for the weather, that would produce about
300 such periods per year. That would calculate to as much as 330 Quadrillion
BTUs of energy per year.
Assuming a very aggressive estimate of loss,
assuming the system would lose about 40% due to various overheads and production
costs, and 20% of the remaining amount for operating the Interstate Traveler,
that would leave about 120 Quadrillion BTUs of energy (in hydrogen gas) left
over each year for ordinary business, government, industrial and consumer usage.
To give one an idea of how beneficial this might be: According to
statistics, in the USA we consume 98 Quadrillion BTUs of energy every year,
according to the Secretary of the US Department of Energy. He has indicated in
recent speeches that the Department of Energy expects the US to be consuming 120
“quads” per year in less than 20 years.
What this means, potentially, to
America is this: the finished Interstate Traveler could at almost no cost become
the source of all that energy, thereby eliminating America’s sole dependency
upon petroleum sources both domestic and foreign, for energy, allowing petroleum
to be used for other, more profitable purposes.
Because the Traveler is
so large a system, securing it is reportedly relatively easy, by design, and
because of its size, a natural redundancy insures that it would be
extraordinarily difficult to bring its hydrogen production to a halt, and easy
to repair it. Security includes camera systems, and high speed emergency
response units that can reach any problem in seconds ot minutes from the nearest
local station.
“The Secret Process”
The Intestate Traveler Company has
also indicated that its “secret process” might be of keen interest to
Environmentalists.
What they are referring to is the process the company
is using that it states reverses the Hydrogen back into energy. The hydrogen
powered internal combustion engines and hydrogen fuel cells are used to produce
electrical energy and motion. According to Sutton's team, such energy converters
return most of the water that was split into hydrogen and oxygen by the
Interstate Traveler’s HydroSol Conduit, back into the environment as clean,
distilled water: yielding a net gain in oxygen and a small amount of heat. It
even carefully replaces the heat from the Sun that was used by the HydroSol
Conduit’s solar panels to power the hydrogen production process.
It is a
scientific fact, according to the company, that the methods Interstate Traveler
Company has designed into it’s transportation system are among the cleanest,
most efficient means of producing energy for our use. The Interstate Traveler
appears to marginalize the need for other energy sources, since its designers
can always expand the number of HydroSolar Energy Conduits built along the
Interstate Traveler’s rail system, multiplying the available hydrogen being
produced.
Infrastructures to bring in clean water (much of which can be
retained by the system that powers the Interstate Traveler, and recovered from
Automobiles when they “tank up” at ITC Hydrogen Stations) are being planned for,
according to the company, as is the entire complex of manufacturers to build the
Traveler, and to supply Hydrogen Powered Traveler Vehicles and consumer and
other Automobiles by the Interstate Traveler Company and it industrial partners,
at this time.
According to the Department of Energy, the United States
spends over $500 Billion Dollars on energy annually (which equals ½ a cent per
BTU of energy).
The entire cost of building the whole Interstate
Traveler would net to about $650 Billion and would pay for itself in three
years, reducing the cost of energy by $500 billion dollars per year, and likely
bringing back the cost of fuel to the automobile driver down to 1/10th today’s
cost or less. That would have the effect of returning fuel costs for autos back
to their pre-1963 levels! The ACSA has commented: “If this is truly the result,
then what we are talking about here is nothing less than a miracle.”
The
Interstate Traveler Company’s figures seem to suggest that the overall impact of
the Interstate Traveler will be to drive the value of petroleum fuels down to
their pre-1963 prices and eventually will yield a viable alternative when the
world’s petroleum fuel reserves run dry, which some have said may happen by the
year 2040..
For more background information of the ACSA’s mentorship of
the Interstate Traveler Company, visit ACSA’s story on the subject at http://www.acsa2000.net/hshrt/
(RSS FEED: http://www.acsa2000.net/feeds/hispeedhydrorail.xml).
Closing
Note
ACSA indicated it would be assembling a validation / demonstration team
with Interstate Traveler Company over the course of the following six months to
a year, and that it hopes to break ground on a Boston, MA to Hartford, CT, to
NYC, NY to Baltimore, MD to Washington, DC to Atlanta, GE to Miami, FLA
Interstate Traveler (to be called the North-to-South East Coast Trailblazer) as
a demonstrator. It would follow the path of the famed Route 1 and the interstate
highways that were built in the 60’s to carry commuter loads along those routes.
It is hoped by the ACSA that, assuming all the technical and other
issues are worked out properly during this development period, that sufficient
funding and profit will emerge as a result, to empower building of three more
major runs cross country through major metro areas from the east coast to the
west coast, and two more North-to-South runs from Illinois southward and from
the Pacific Northwest to the Baja, California thereafter. It is felt that upon
completion of these major routes, that the balance of the system would be built
out without much further ado over the course of three to five years.
As a
mentor, ACSA provides understanding, guidance and assistance where possible to
subject companies such as the Interstate Traveler Company with extremely
innovative business idea. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all responsibility for
the Interstate Traveler Project, its success or failure, and its accuracy in
disclosure and feasibility rests solely with the Interstate Traveler Company and
its staff. ACSA has publicly stated it is "extraordinarily pleased with the
integrity and accuracy of reporting seen, to date, from Justin Sutton and the
Interstate Traveler Company."
ACSA is at this time anticipating
widespread support for the Traveler among its business affiliations and the
membership. For more information, please contact the Association through the
press contacts on this article.
Copyright © Written by Edison Park,
freelance journalist: exclusive to the ACSA Inc. 2005. All rights
reserved.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/5/prweb244462.htm