“We are at a point where we can probably demonstrate the entire Hyperloop stack including a vacuum tube at about 400 meters in length on our new campus,” he said, referring to the demo that Avishkar will give Hyperloop at the 'Global Hyperloop Competition' . ', which IIT-Madras will host in January next year.
Invented by Elon Musk in 2013, the Hyperloop is a low-pressure tube in which magnetically levitating pod-like vehicles can be used to transport cargo and passengers, sometimes at speeds of more than 1,000 km per hour.
Although Musk's companies did not commercialize the technology, two companies had taken up the challenge: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. (HyperloopTT) and Hyperloop One.
Hyperloop Italia, a licensee of HyperloopTT, is currently investigating the feasibility of an operational hyperloop prototype called 'Hyper Transfer' for the transportation of freight and passengers. It hopes this will lead to the construction of the world's first commercial hyperloop system in Italy. It does this in collaboration with two Italian companies: WeBuild and Leonardo.
Hypeloop One was less lucky. The startup suffered a major setback when Virgin founder Richard Branson pulled out two years ago, after which Hyperloop One ceased operations in December 2023.
When Branson's plans to develop the Pune-Mumbai, Bengaluru-Kempegowda airport and the Amritsar-Chandigarh hyperloop corridors in partnership with Dubai-based logistics firm DP World were shelved, it added to the disillusionment.
But Chakravarthy, faculty advisor to the IIT Madras student team of Avishkar Hyperloop, remains optimistic. He underlines that since 2017, Avishkar Hyperloop's 70 or so rotating student team has developed “the entire Hyperloop stack of contactless propulsion, contactless braking with linear induction motor and levitation and a vacuum tube, etc.”
The Indian Ministry of Railways is a key partner in this Hyperloop technology development initiative at IIT Madras. Other research institutions including Hyperloop IITB, the official hyperloop team of IIT Bombay; IIT Delhi's student hyperloop; and Team Vegapod Hyperloop, a student-led research team from MIT World Peace University, have consistently competed in global hyperloop competitions and compete with their pilots.
TuTr Hyperloop
The IIT-Madras-incubated TuTr Hyperloop, on its part, will work towards “commercializing these developments – it can generate revenue from freight (by providing services to ports, mining industries and logistics providers) and ultimately from passengers,” said Chakaravarthy, consultant of the startup.
He emphasizes that TuTr Hyperloop is making steady progress. For example, it is working with IIT-Madras to develop intellectual property (IP) in hyperloop technology.
In December 2022, the startup signed an agreement with Tata Steel to jointly work on the development and implementation of Hyperloop technology and leverage Tata Steel's expertise in the design and development of steel and composite materials.
In January, ArcelorMittal said it is partnering with Avishkar Hyperloop and TuTr Hyperloop to provide 400 tons of steel to manufacture the 400-meter vacuum tube, as well as engineering, design and project management expertise to support the creation of the first Hyperloop test track at IIT Madras' 163-acre Discovery Campus in Thaiyur on the outskirts of Chennai. The autonomous, floating pods are tested at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour in the vacuum tube.
In March, Swiss transportation technology company Swisspod signed an agreement with TuTr Hyperloop to help design and finance a test center in India that will serve as a hub for testing and refining hyperloop technology in real-world conditions. TuTr Hyperloop also has a partnership with Hardt Hyperloop, a leading European hyperloop technology company, to realize interoperable hyperloop technology between Europe and India.
Quintran Hyperloop
Pune-based Quintrans Hyperloop, co-founded by Pranay Luniya and Kartik Kulkarni in 2021, is also currently developing a “few pilots, and the plan is to develop these technologies in India itself to make it as cost-effective as possible”.
“I think we're just getting started,” says Lunia, whose startup is “currently working on a pilot on a small 15-meter setup in Pune. The idea is to prove both magnetic levitation and linear motor drive. We are working on floating around 1 tonne in terms of payload. If we are able to do so, we will be the first private company in India to float any form of cargo.”
Once that goal is achieved, Quintras plans to develop a full 100-meter pilot setup in collaboration with the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) in Pune.
Lunia underlines that while many focus on speed as one of the benefits of a hyperloop, “many people miss the fact that a Hyperloop has tubes on which one could place solar panels (since most of the corridors would be elevated rather than underground). In principle, you could power the Hyperloop with a renewable energy source, which is extremely important given the rising levels of CO2 emissions and the government's goal of net zero.
Why Hyperloop projects take a long time to bring to market
Firstly, according to Chakravarthy, the technology is in its infancy around the world and 'newer and better solutions' are emerging all the time.
“For example, I could use a linear synchronous motor instead of a linear induction motor. And I could put it on the track instead of putting it on the board, and I could use electrodynamic suspension instead of electrostatic suspension. I could use a concrete suspension tube instead of a mild steel tube. Furthermore, I can float from above or from below. Therefore, there are many different technological choices to assemble the entire stack and it is not very clear which one exactly will are the cheapest,” he explains.
Second, technological proof-of-concepts are not robust. For example, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Hyperloop performed the first passenger ride under vacuum conditions on July 10, 2023 at TUM's Ottobrunn/Taufkirchen campus near Munich. But then it was just an 80-foot test tube.
As Chakravarthy notes, if a company like TuTr Hyperloop is operating at “a commercial scale where passengers can sit and ride, they will need to ensure that the technology they develop is as affordable as possible.” The reason: “If you have made a wrong choice of technology, you will have to pay the price for quite a long time; it's a kind of sunk cost that will have to continue for the next 10 to 15 years.”
Third, according to Chakravarthy, it is very difficult to raise money for an unproven technology like Hyperloop. “Investors will ask themselves: where is the concept and who will be the customer, among other things?”
Qunitras also “currently receives funding from multiple government schemes, government subsidies and schemes”. Lunia agrees with Chakravarthy that raising money from venture capitalists (VCs) in India is very difficult because “this is kind of a risk-hungry business for Indian VCs. So we have tried to focus on some sovereign wealth funds.” “.
Fourth, there are no global standards for this technology. “It takes several different standards to come together. For example, the rail standards can be metro standards. The tunnel standards can also be metro tunnel standards. Lane changes may be railroad standards. But the cabin and pod may actually have automotive standards. The cabin could be of aircraft standards, the vestibules could be of space standards and so on,” says Chakravarthy.
Global companies
Sure enough, global hyperloop companies, including Hardt, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Nevomo, TransPod, Swisspod Technologies and Zeleros, came together to form The Hyperloop Association.
The association, based in Brussels, hopes to work with bodies such as the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Railway Undertaking, research centers and academia “to promote progress and facilitate the widespread implementation of the innovative transport system across Europe and worldwide”.
Canada-based TransPod, which is developing the FluxJet hyperloop, led the process of writing EU standards for 'reference architecture' of vacuum transport. However, Chakravarthy emphasizes that 'developing the designs is part of the story; developing the prototypes is the second part of the story. But by conducting a huge amount of testing, the proof of the pudding exists.”
Chakravarthy, meanwhile, hopes that the Global Hyperloop Conference that IIT-Madras will host in January will boost the fortunes of Hyperloop technology. “The prospects look extremely bright, especially for what we are doing in India. People from all over the world are amazed at the amount of progress we have made and the level of maturity we have reached. All this gives us a lot of confidence. that within the next decade or so we should have Hyperloop tracks, at least in some parts of the country.”
“If I were to be modest, I would say we are a year behind the rest of the world. Otherwise, we are on par with Hyperloop developments around the world,” says Chakravarthy. Hyperloop, he concludes, can enable India “to leap beyond the high-speed rail narrative that both Western countries and China have experienced in the recent past. It's like jumping straight into the smartphone. We can lead the world, we can lead by example.”