Future Of Transportation: Burning Fat And Freight Shuttles
Experts At Supply Chain Conference Discuss Alternative Fuels, Shipping Methods
Last updated Wednesday, April 5, 2006 7:53 PM CDT in Business
By Lana F. Flowers
The Morning News
Electric pods zip down the highway median, carrying 20-foot-long rail containers to move freight inland and away from congested ports.
The system requires no drivers, virtually no maintenance and runs 24 hours per day on electricity.
Vehicles on the highway flanking the median run on refined chicken fat, corn stalks and waste from paper mills.
That vision of the future, discussed at the University of Arkansas' supply chain management conference on Wednesday, could improve air quality and reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil.
At least one Arkansas company, J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, already uses alternative fuels
Kirk Thompson, J.B. Hunt president and CEO, said during a supply chain conference panel discussion that J.B. Hunt "burned right at 15.5 million gallons of fuel" in February.
"Of that, interestingly enough, a half million gallons were biodiesel that we bought in Illinois and Minnesota," Thompson said. "So it is a concept that is beginning to pick up some steam."
Biodiesel is derived from natural oils such as soybean oil or animal fat, including chicken or beef fat. It's blended with traditional petroleum-based diesel in varying concentrations.
Ethanol is made from fermenting sugars from various carbohydrates, including corn and cellulose residues from wood. The process of making ethanol is similar to fermenting wine or making beer, panelists said.
Arkansas is the perfect state to produce both fuels, panelists said at an afternoon discussion during the supply chain conference. Ethanol can be made from timber byproducts by companies like Potlatch in south Arkansas. Biodiesel can be made from chicken or beef fat now produced through companies like Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale.
In addition, alternative fuels could be shipped via the Mississippi River on the state's eastern border, panelists said.
Mike Popp, UA professor of agricultural economics, said ethanol has the largest market share of any renewable fuel. In 1980, 175 million gallons of ethanol were produced in the United States. The projection is to produce 7 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012.
Popp said the "ethanol belt" is in the traditional Midwestern corn belt, including states like Iowa, Illinois and Michigan.
Ed Clausen, a UA chemical engineering professor, said the United States in 2005 produced 4.3 billion gallons of ethanol from corn and can produce 13 billion gallons of corn ethanol each year without affecting the food supply.
However, the United States needs 150 billion gallons of ethanol to replace petroleum, Clausen said.
Ethanol can be blended with traditional gasoline. Car manufacturers now sell vehicles, dubbed "E85," that use a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, Clausen said.
Using different fuels is not the only transportation solution.
Steve Roop, an assistant agency director who oversees the Transportation Safety Center and multimodal freight transportation programs at the Texas Transportation Institute, said moving freight inland and away from congested ports could reduce pollution from diesel emissions.
He began working in 1999 on a "secure, automated, fast and environmentally clean" or SAFE freight shuttle.
The shuttle would allow metal containers from ships or rail cars to sit on pods that run on eight steel wheels on automated electric rails. Cranes and machines would lift the containers from ships, place the containers on the pods and move the freight up to 100 miles inland, Roop said.
The container freight could be taken to inland terminals and put on semi-trailers or rail cars for transportation to the heartland, Roop said.
The SAFE freight shuttle would use linear induction motors -- electric propulsion systems with virtually no moving parts. Roop said the system would require few employees, be secure and eliminate public safety concerns like train derailments or accidents at crossings where railroads meet highways.
The SAFE freight shuttle would run at 30 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour and cost 10 cents per mile to move a fully loaded container, Roop said.
Roop his concept is similar to systems operating today, including a linear induction sky train in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Obstacles include making the shuttle vehicles, laying track and acquiring rights of way -- all costly propositions.
He said the freight shuttle system could operate on a 25-foot-wide strip of land, such as a highway median. The shuttle system could operate continuously and move 6,000 containers per day, Roop said.
Reader Comments (No comments posted.)
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsibility of their authors. The Morning News does not review comments before their publication, nor do we guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by our comment policy. If you see a comment that violates our policy, please notify the web editor.
Not already registered?
