This is a modern twist on an old school fuel. Before coal became popular, wood was used in steam engines. Most of the big rail companies owned huge forests to ensure a steady supply of wood for both rail ties and fuel.
Though not as fast as the UKs A4s, US built steam engines in the 1940s ran the Boston to NY City to Washington DC route in times that would shame the Acela.
I will bet if they used a modern bio pellet fueled power plant could easily beat the world record set in 1938 while being far more efficient in the process.
http://www.squidoo.com/the-mallard
Now the problem becomes, where to run the trains? The US ripped up thousands of miles of express rails in the 1960s and 1970s. Only a handful remain in service mostly out west.
There in lies the problem for Acela making it a billion dollar waste of money. Built for speed and no where to go.
If the Twin Cities-based Coalition for Sustainable Rail (CSR) has anything to do with it, trains will soon run carbon-neutral.
This week, the Coalition, a project of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Environment, teamed up with Sustainable Rail International, a non-profit advocacy group, to announce the launch of an initiative to build the world’s fastest biofuel-powered steam locomotive.
If successful, the prototype won’t just be carbon-neutral; it will also eclipse the current steam locomotive world record by traveling at 130 m.p.h.: providing a compelling alternative to diesel-electric trains used today.
“This project presents a novel approach to U.S. locomotive development,” said Davidson Ward, president of SRI, “looking to technologies of the past to inspire solutions for today’s sustainability challenges.”
Paving the way for the project was the creation of torrefied biomass, a carbon-neutral coal substitute. Engineered by the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute, the new fuel has the same energy, density, and material properties as coal — without the sulfur, metals, or carbon footprint.
If those involved have anything to do with it, the project’s impact will extend far beyond the creation of a successful prototype.
“Once perfected, creating the world’s first carbon-neutral locomotive will be just the beginning for this technology which, we hope, will later be used for combined heat and power energy in the developing world as well as reducing the United States’ dependence on fossil fuels,” said Rod Larkins, Special Projects Director of the University’s Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment.
Mr. Conductor would be very proud.
Photo: Vestman/Flickr
