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-Hendrik

MAGLEV TRAINS AS ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION

BACKGROUND

Alternative fuel is a principle that relies on using any type of fuel, other than petroleum, to power equipment. Although there are currently many alternative fuels available, I would like to discuss the MagLev (magnetic levitation) train as a source of alternative fuel. This is a transit system that could drastically reduce our energy needs but it also a system that would require drastic changes and measures to become a reality in the United States.

Magnetic levitation operates on a Physics principle that two objects can be suspended from one another by magnetic fields. This principle applies so perfectly to trains because the main constraint for the speed at which trains can travel is the friction and vibration caused by the train wheels on the train tracks. With the MagLev train the wheels, friction, and vibrations are all taken out of the equation, leaving essentially only air resistance as a constraint to the train’s speed of operation.

MagLev trains can travel at about 300 miles per hour. The MagLev is a system that many European countries don’t see as a viable method of transportation to replace the extensive rail networks currently in place. Their use of conventional trains is currently so strong that replacing all conventional lines with MagLev tracks is not appealing at all. In the U.S. on the other hand we don’t have such an extensive rail network, I am talking railways like you see highways, as Europe does. It would almost make sense for us to be the country leading the way in commercial MagLev operation. Japan and Germany seems to be leading the way in not only the research of these trains but also the push for commercial use. There is about 25 percent of railway in Germany that uses the MagLev trains and there are two MagLev lines in Japan.

It should be understood that a MagLev transportation system is not a replacement transportation method, but instead an additional option to existing transit. If a MagLev system were to be considered in the U.S. to replace transit between say the two Coasts what would the ramifications be? How much fuel consumption would be reduced by reducing airline take offs and cross-country flights. I mention this because most fuel consumed during a average flight is consumed at take off and since cross country flights needs so much fuel to complete the trip the plane is much heavier and uses much more fuel on take off. Would it be better to have more short distance flights instead of long cross country flights that burn large quantities of petroleum? The answer is no, they are instead operated by a combination of electricity and rotation of the superconducting devices levitating the train. What if a MagLev system is used to alleviate the congestion of cross country flights? For the already crippled airline companies this idea probably does not sound good at all but how does it sound for long-term environmental ramifications?

Such talks are already taking place in the United States, which is very exiting because so many doors are being opened for scientific advancements. Scientist and engineers usually just needs a challenge to get to work, and we have our challenge! Headlines such as: “Train would link Ohio cities, Planners project $3.2 billion high-speed line”, should be expected more often within our lifetimes. It is truly exiting times for innovation and new ideas spurred by our challenge to meet energy needs and conserve our resources for future generations.

CONCLUSION

These ideas are much closer than most may think. Skyrocketing gasoline prices and shifting public attitudes about mass transit are giving the MagLev “revolution” a whole new foundation to stand on. Science and engineering is not what is currently holding MagLev systems away in our country, we are standing ready. The many aspects of finances and politics, public interest and approval and special interest groups play a huge roll in the decisions being made. You think a MagLev runs on petroleum? You think the airlines would be hurt by such a system of transportation? Do you think the voters want to invest in such a “pie in the sky” idea? It was said by the first airplanes that they would have minor impact on our future and society. It was thought that airplanes would be used for recreational purposes only. With the push of a few brave souls the world was transformed! MagLev trains are a reality and can be that transformation of our time, the one that will impact our future and economy in the very same way that airplanes did from the 1950’s on.

Trans-Alaskan Pipeline

SUMMARY

The Trans-Alaska pipeline is 800 miles long and was constructed in 1977. The pipeline is designed to withstand many environmental and geological occurrences, such as frost and earthquakes. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was designed and constructed to move oil from the North Slope of Alaska to the northern most ice- free port- Valdez, Alaska. During the oil’s journey south it crosses numerous geological faults, which expose the pipe to dangers of shifting foundations or even rupturing. I will take a look at the importance of the role the pipe serves in our current energy needs and for fun I will then discuss some of the interesting design aspects involved to overcome the environmental challenges.

THE PIPELINE’S IMPORTANT ROLE IN OUR ENERGY DEMAND

Pipeline elsewhere, is a major U.S. oil pipeline connecting oil fields in northern Alaska to a sea port where the oil can be shipped to the Lower 48 states for refining. Since its completion in 1977, the pipeline has transported over 15 billion barrels of oil, that is an average of about 1.93 billion barrels a year. Given that the U.S. consumes approximately 20 billion barrels of oil a year the Alaskan oil is but a small fraction to quench our demand. The oil from the northern oil fields is stored in sstorage tanks in Valdez until tanker ships transport the oil to refineries. There are 18 storage tanks with total storage capacity of 9.1 million barrels total. The Alaska North Slope (ANS) oil field functions on the principle that U.S. oil be used domestically, and remain available for consumption in the U.S. as a matter of energy security, but about 7% of crude oil production from the ANS is currently exported to South Korea, Japan, and China. When the pipeline was constructed congress put a ban on the export of the oil that was to flow through it. That ban has recently been overturned as we now export 7% of the oil. A June 1994 Department of Energy (DOE) study, Exporting Alaskan North Slope Crude Oil-Benefits and Costs, found that exporting Alaska crude would increase producer receipts for both California and Alaska oil. The increased producer receipts would be the result of transportation savings realized by avoiding a trip through the Panama Canal.

CONCLUSION

It can then be concluded that the pipeline plays a vital role in our energy demand and also in the energy demands of a few other countries. The pipeline is just a small part of the puzzle when it comes to the U.S. oil imports but it plays a vital role in energy security. During the Arab oil embargo of 1973 there was a great sense of need for such energy security.

Oil exploration

Background

Oil exploration is a term that is used to describe the search for petroleum by geologists and engineers. The complexity of the issue comes to play due to the fact that petroleum is found under the Earth's surface. The most difficult oil exploration takes place on the oceans of the world, not only must the explorers drill through great distances of crust but they have to do so while floating great distances above the crust on the ocean surface.

Continental shelves

Oil can be found on most continental shelves, where the water is shallow and carbon deposits have been collecting for millions of years to form hydrocarbons. The continental shelves are the shallow, but not exactly waist deep though, area of coast that surrounds each continent. After the continental shelves there is the great abyssal plain where ocean floor spreading have created rather new ocean floor with minimal carbon deposits.

There is not much oil in the abyssal plains. To better understand the concept of continental shelves and abyss take a look at the image to the right and then I will move to why there is not much oil in the abyssal plain.

As you can see the abyssal plain is relatively deep compared to the continental shelve.

Ocean sea floor spreading

Sea floor spreading is the method in which the ocean floor basically recycles itself. As you may know, the Earth's crust is made up of plates that fit together like a puzzle. The crust is part of the Earth's lithosphere. The plates are called tectonic plates. The ocean ridges is where, like a giant zipper, the plates are joined. The plates are continuously moving, very slowly, and new magma turns into lava on the ridges that join the plates. Now, imagine new rock being added in the middle, where the plates join, and you almost have to imagine that the plates will spread out and that the edges, where the continents are, will need to disappear. In a bit more complicated manner, that is exactly what happens. The lithosphere, crust and upper mantle combination, disappears at subduction zones. Subduction zones are neat because the oceanic crust slides under the continental crust, creating earthquakes offcourse, and the oceanic lithosphere gets melted into magma in the athenosphere, area in the crust under the lithosphere, just to come back through the ocean ridges to repeat the cycle in about 200 million years. This animation will help clear sea-floor spreading up a bit. Tectonic Plates




Lack of oil in the abyssal plain

All that information comes back to one point, the lack of oil in the abyssal plain. As you may know oil comes from carbon, which is contained in living organisms. The reason there is little oil in the plains is because the oil needs millions of years to form under pressure and warm temperature, such as found under the oceanic
crust. The sediment, carbon rich material, that falls to the ocean floor gets buried over time under new sediment and eventually travels deep enough to become oil. It is a false notion to assume that oil comes from buried trees and dinosaurs, when instead it descends from dead algae and plankton bodies. That would naturally explain why most oil is found in the oceanic crust or areas that used to be oceanic crust.

As explained earlier, the ocean ridges are constantly adding new ocean floor and the old ocean floor is constantly disappearing under the continental lithosphere. What this then tells us is that the oldest seafloor is closest to the continental shelves or where the continental and oceanic lithospheres meet. The oceanic ridges are out in the middle of the ocean and there is not only colder deeper waters, but newer ocean floor with little carbon sediment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these are the facts that lead to the creation and location of oil:

• millions of years worth of carbonic sediments collection of sea-floor
• oil comes from algae and plankton, not trees and dinosaurs
• pressure and heat inside the Earth's crust "cooks" the material
• newer sea-floor near ridges, therefore less sediment and less oil
• oldest sea-floor found near continents and edges of oceanic lithosphere