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Europe’s longest hyperloop test track revives futuristic tube transport hype | Hyperloop

Europe’s longest hyperloop test track revives futuristic tube transport hype | Hyperloop

The longest hyperloop test track in Europe has opened, raising faint hopes once more that the maglev meets vacuum tube transport technology could be the future.

Operators said the facility would help prove the hyperloop’s feasibility, saying it could allow a 6,200-mile (10,000km) network of high-speed tubes to be in place around the continent by 2050.

As it stands, the European Hyperloop Center test bed in Veendam is not so much a loop as a 420-metre-long forked white pipe running alongside the railway and road that must still be used, for now, to transport people around this corner of the Netherlands.

Made of 34 interconnected prefabricated 2.5-metre-wide steel cylinders, the partly EU-funded test pipe is somewhat shorter than the 2-mile track envisaged in 2020, and allows speeds of only a fraction of the 620mph (1000km/h) that proponents believe the technology can achieve.

The test track at the European Hyperloop Center
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Novel PET Recycling Technology Put to the Test

Novel PET Recycling Technology Put to the Test

Switzerland-based gr3n, which has developed an advanced recycling technology for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), reports that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with shareholder Intecsa Industrial to build a “first-of-its-kind” recycling facility. The engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) phase is set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the plant is projected to be operational by 2027. 

Economically viable technology

Gr3n’s advanced recycling process leverages microwave technology and alkaline hydrolysis, providing an economically viable industrial approach to PET recycling, according to the company. The process reportedly breaks down any type of PET and polyester into two core components — PTA and MEG monomers — which can then be re-assembled to obtain virgin-like plastics and achieve endless circularity. The process has the potential to change how PET is recycled worldwide, with huge benefits both for the recycling industry and the entire polyester value chain, said gr3n.

Image courtesy
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