IEEE Electrification - December 2021 - 70

That is twice the fastest speed obtained by high-speed
rail and maglevs and similar to that of most fighter jets,
with considerably less energy consumption (see Figure
3). Tubes also offer protection from adverse weather
conditions. Crosswinds, heavy rain, and snow would
have less impact on hyperloops. Numerous approaches
have been taken to develop hyperloops, and several
companies have emerged. Zeleros is one of them,
whose approach is described in the " Description of
Zeleros's Hyperloop " section.
One of the drawbacks of hyperloops could be the
amount of energy consumed by the pumps to maintain
low pressure inside the tube. On the other hand,
assuming that electric power of 40 W/m2 can be
extracted from solar panels and that the tube can be
encased in panels, a 4-m diameter tube would produce
160 kW/km, which is, for an initial computation, more
than enough to energize the pumps in a realistic scenario.
Finally, the vehicles will be autonomous. This
enables operation from a control center, eliminating
the human factor from safety concerns and helping to
reduce operating costs, including long training periods,
simulators, and manuals.
Description of Zeleros's Hyperloop
The Zeleros concept (Figure 2) can be divided into two
systems. The levitation is based on hybrid electromagnetic
suspension. Permanent magnets surrounded by electromagnets
are placed on the vehicle. They lift the weight
of the vehicle, while the electromagnets control the gap
between the vehicle and tube wall. This way, less power is
required to energize the coils, as most of the work is done
by the permanent magnets. On the other hand, the main
propulsion is based on a simplified aeronautical engine
from which the combustion chamber has been removed.
A compressor driven by an electric motor captures the air
in front of the pod, compresses it, and exhausts it through
a nozzle to generate the required thrust.
One of the main advantages is that, as all the technolo600
800
200
400
Paris-Frankfurt
600
km
Boston-Baltimore
700 km
New Delhi-Ahmedabad
900 km
Figure 3. The energy consumption per seat for different transport modes (one way). (Sources: Siemens
and Flight Aware.)
TABLE 1. The duration of flights from Barcelona, Spain, to European
cities. (Source: Flight Aware.)
Destination
Toulouse, France
Paris, France
Brussels, Belgium
Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Distance (km)
(Straight Line)
267
828
1,085
1,243
Copenhagen, Denmark 1,771
Stockholm, Sweden
2,317
70
Distance (km)
(Actual Flown)
332
900
1,259
1,378
1,996
2,530
IEEE Electrification Magazine / DECEMBER 2021
True Speed
(km/h)
398
452
567
498
591
680
53 min
1 h, 48 min
2 h, 7 min
2 h, 26 min
2 h, 57 min
3 h, 32 min
gy is integrated into the vehicle, the track complexity is
significantly reduced compared to other approaches that
base their propulsion on linear motors. Since no coils and
permanent magnets are required on the track, the infrastructure
costs considerably less. Another benefit is that
excess energy in the flux can be recovered using a turbine,
making the whole system more efficient.
Regarding speed, there is a debate not only from the
technical perspective but also
from the customer and user
point of view. At a minimum,
any transportation system
added to the current portfolio
needs to provide better service
than existing ones. The fastest
means of travel for conventional
passengers is the airplane.
In addition, it is well
known that commercial airplanes
are the safest mode of
transportation. So, hyperloops
should at least match airplanes
in these two features.
The problem to be solved is
not what a hyperloop's top
speed would be but what its
average speed would be for a
given corridor.
An example of airplane
Real Travel Time
(Including Taxi)
average speeds can be found in
Table 1; it demonstrates that
despite having top speeds of
850-950 km/h, planes' average
speed (their so-called true
speed, which includes taxi
travel time), is much lower, as
graphed in Figure 4. Considering
this, there is a case to be
made for a ground system that
can sustain a cruising speed of
at least 650 km/h for distances
Energy Per Seat (MJ)

IEEE Electrification - December 2021

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