THE TRANSPORT INTERNET - FOODTUBES
Runner up in the 2008
St. Andrews Prize for the Environment. - Member of ISUFT.
FOODTUBES™ – Goods In & Waste Out – Low Cost , Low Pollution
Transport.
Cargoes can be packed into inexpensive,
lightweight cargo-capsules, approx. 1 metre x 2 metres (about the size of a
large man) or 1.57 cu metres, each carrying up to 2 tonnes of freight,
propelled through underground, undersea and over-ground pipelines by
electricity. Wire “Cages” of about this
size are loaded into supermarket vehicles, carrying goods between their warehouses
and retail shops.
The Capsules will be precisely controlled by
software – to travel through numerous interlinked, open-architecture Foodtubes
Circuits, each of about 100 km; eventually forming The Transport Internet ™.
In cities, dense-urban & urban areas,
Foodtubes Circuits will be installed using No-Dig technology; reducing surface
disruption. Pipeline-Circuits infrastructure will last for 50 to 100 years.
Foodtubes Commercial Models show 70% profits; charging less than
equivalent lorries and trains. http://www.noelhodson.com/index_files/ftubesfinancials_28Sep07_v15.xls
Foodtubes has calculated that today 92% of the
fuel or energy used to transport freight is wasted on moving the vehicles. Only
8% is used to move the goods or cargoes.
Water, oil and gas are transported
efficiently through pipelines. There are more than 300,000 km of large diameter
pipelines in Europe, including undersea pipelines; operating continuously, day
and night, transporting huge vital cargos, unseen and unheard by most citizens.
Many cargoes could be transferred into Foodtubes,
saving 90% of the diesel used today and reducing man-made CO2 and
other pollutants by 8% to 16%, annually saving billions of litres of diesel.
After water, food is the largest vital daily
cargo. The food transport industry now utilises 25% to 30% of all freight vehicles.
Foodtubes will transport goods from farm to supermarket, including recycling food
& waste.
Carrying food, and other suitable cargos. FOODTUBES Circuits are capable of removing
50% of all the commercial transport vehicles from city streets, main roads and
railways – and replacing a significant proportion of sea and air freight
transport.
If it wins this EC Grant Application (Apr 2011),
Foodtubes plans a Demonstration Circuit for city transport managers to consider
installing Foodtubes. http://www.noelhodson.com/Ftubes/12APR11-FOODTUBES-EC-e7M.pdf
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