HyperloopTT, a company focused on realising a hyperloop trajectory, wins the iF Design Award for 'Professional Concept' for its sustainable HyperPort concept. At the same time, Elon Musk announced that The Boring Company, which focuses on building tunnels, will realise its own hyperloop route.
HyperPort is a system aimed at deploying the hyperloop at ports. The system is being developed by HyperloopTT together with German terminal operator Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA). It is a plug-n-play solution for port operators. It allows them to transport containers over a distance of hundreds of kilometres in just a few minutes. The system can transport 2,800 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) per day.
Reliability, efficiency as employee safety
The transport takes place in a fully enclosed working environment, which increases both the reliability, efficiency and safety of employees. Running on the route are HyperPort capsules designed by strategic design and innovation consultancy Mormedi. Each of these capsules can carry two 20ft containers, a 40- or 45ft container or a so-called High Cube container. In doing so, speeds comparable to aircraft are possible, according to HyperloopTT.
The project now wins the iF Design Award for Professionals Concept. The iF Design Awards are presented to products that demonstrate design excellence. The award for Professional Concept focuses specifically on experimental and conceptual designs. These are projects that have been commissioned but not yet executed. However, also consider innovative design concepts whose implementation is not scheduled that year.
Andres De Leon, CEO of HyperloopTT: "HyperPort is a sustainable, high-speed freight solution fit for the modern era. We are delighted to be recognised by the creative minds at iF Design and would like to thank our partners HHLA and Mormedi for their detailed approach in realising the designs, models and optimisations that helped develop HyperPort from concept to practice."
Concept by Elon Musk
The hyperloop concept was conceived by Elon Musk, billionaire and founder of SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company, among others. In this concept, a train travels through a vacuum tube. The vacuum present creates a low air resistance, so the vehicle requires relatively little energy to reach a high speed. The top speed is expected to be 1,200 km/h. At this speed, you can cover a journey from Amsterdam to Paris in just about 30 minutes.
Musk presented the idea in 2012. The billionaire set up the Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2015, aiming to accelerate development. In it, participants were challenged to build a half-scale hyperloop pod. These pods were tested on a 1.6-kilometre-long test track, also built to half-scale. Three teams competed in January 2017. The Dutch student team from TU Delft won the competition under the name Delft Hyperloop.
Realising working concept
Now Musk announces that his tunnel boring company The Boring Company will also build a hyperloop track. On Twitter, Musk reports, "Over the next few years, Boring Co. is trying to build a working hyperloop. From a familiar physics perspective: this is the fastest way to get from one city centre to another for distances less than ~2000 miles (ed: converted 3,218 kilometres). Starship is faster for longer distances." The Starship referred to by Musk is a spacecraft from space company SpaceX, a company also founded by Musk.
The Boring Company was founded by Musk in 2017. It initially operated as a subsidiary of SpaceX. Since 2018, the company has been operating independently. The Boring Company focuses on drilling tunnels faster, more cheaply and more intelligently. This smart approach involves, amongst other things, processing rubble from drilled tunnels into concrete blocks. The Boring Company sells these blocks. This means the company incurs no costs for disposing of the rubble.
First test tunnel in California
An initial test tunnel has been realised by The Boring Company in California's Hawthorne near SpaceX's headquarters. The tunnel is about 1,800 metres long and cost $10 million.
So now Musk wants The Boring Company to realise a working concept of the hyperloop. Details are not known. For instance, it is unclear when this project should be ready. It is also not known how long the route will be and where it will be realised.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Photo: The Quintero One, a concept for a hyperloop pod that HyperloopTT presented in 2018 (photo: HyperloopTT)
