On this episode of Net-Zero Carbon, Tyler Cole, director of carbon intelligence at FreightWaves, is joined by Steve Peaslee, CEO and founder of WickedHyper. Peaslee detailed the launch of his innovative enterprise to rapidly move containers inland from the ports using automation and emission-free energy.
WickedHyper originally planned to handle the loading and unloading process involved in using hyper rail systems to get containers to and from ports quickly, but the company it was working with backed out, so WickedHyper stepped in to take care of the entire process, including the transport of containers.
The company has been getting patents and working on technology ideas for about two years. Peaslee anticipates that a feasibility study will start this year to give the company more credibility among potential investors and industry players.
How the system works
A ship-to-shore crane moves containers off of ships onto automated or manually driven flatbed trucks or terminal tractors. The trucks transport containers to the hyper rail system. A mega gantry crane that can lift about 20 containers at once then lifts containers from trucks onto the tracks. The mega gantry can remove containers from the hyper rail system and put them on flatbed trucks nearby at the same time. This swaps out the containers headed to the port with those leaving the port at once.
The hyperrail has about 20 wagons that can be double stacked with 40-foot containers. Instead of using mile-and-a-half-long trains, these are about 1,200-foot-long mini trains. At an inland yard outside of downtown where land is cheaper, another WickedHyper system with a mega gantry crane would be set up co-located with a Class 1 rail to transport via rail.
“All of the components are either battery-electric, shore power electric or hydrogen fuel cell,” Peaslee said. The entire system could contribute to no carbon emissions, provided the systems relied on green hydrogen and renewable electricity.
Peaslee said the company has talked with some Class 1 railroads and some ports, but every port has a unique setup. Each of those negotiations is unique. Sometimes, tracks are not used often, so it would increase the asset utilization, but other situations have more issues with ownership.
“We’ve got the answer to this,” Peaslee said in regard to worsening port congestion and other supply chain issues. Cole said this kind of system could impact port congestion and supply chains in a big way.
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