Freight Train - Clean Tech

Union Pacific M–10000 (left) and Burlington Pioneer Zephyr. America’s first two diesel-powered streamliners pose side-by-side at Kansas City’s Union Station. Source: http://artcontrarian.blogspot.com/

Freight Train

“Blow Your Whistle Freight Train” was an early classic of American country and bluegrass music, performed by groups as wide ranging as The Delmore Brothers, Hank Snow, Clarence White, The Grateful Dead, Doc Watson, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and by front porch and shade tree pickers such as my Uncle John and myself.

I’d rather be in some dark hollow
Where the sun don’t ever shine
Than to be home alone and knowing that you’re gone
Would cause me to lose my mind.
So blow your whistle freight train
Take me far on down the track
I’m goin’ away I’m leavin’ today
I’m goin‘, but I ain’t comin’ back.

And then there was Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train”, also performed by a wide range of musicians including Peter, Paul, and Mary, Joan Baez, Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, and your correspondent and his uncle:

Freight train freight train goin’ so fast
Freight train freight train goin’ so fast
Please don’t tell what train I’m on
So they won’t know where I’ve gone.

One of the first songs I learned to play.

So what does this have to do with clean tech?

Railroads have been a major force in American westward expansion, economic development, transportation, and culture for close to 200 years. They continue to move massive quantities of freight, but far fewer passengers. They provide a highly fuel efficient means of land transportation, and offer opportunities for innovation to produce more efficiencies. Hence, the connection.

Union Pacific Railroad

Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP), headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest rail network in the US. Founded on July 1, 1862 with the signing of the Pacific Railroad Act by President Abraham Lincoln, the company was directed, along with the Central Pacific, to construct a transcontinental railroad. Seven years later the ‘Golden Spike’ was driven at Promontory, Utah, completing the cross-country line and inaugurating its use. Today the railroad has a fleet of more than 8,000 locomotives, travels in 23 states from Tennessee to the West Coast and the Canadian to Mexican borders on more than 32,000 miles of track, and employees 45,000. According to the company’s 2011 Fact Book, the railroad moved 978,163 gross ton-miles of freight, using 1,106 million gallons of fuel, had an average train speed of 25.6 mph, and an average inventory of 272,900 rail cars. UP’s freight revenue was obtained from energy (2%), intermodal (20%), agricultural (18%), industrial products (17%), chemicals (15%), and autos (8%).

Intermodal?

Shipping containers and over-the-road trailers are often shipped long distances via rail, mixing different modes of freight transportation, hence, ‘intermodal’.

Rail transportation of freight is three times more fuel efficient than moving the same freight on the highway. A ton of freight can be moved 450 miles on one gallon of fuel (e.g., diesel) via rail. Even though this is a very fuel efficient mode of land transport, railroads are constantly working to improve their fuel efficiency. One of the ways this is being carried out is through improvements to railroad locomotives. For example, see our posts here and here on a new fuel cell locomotive. The latter post contains a photo taken at the Golden Spike National Historic Site.

Another approach to increased fuel efficiency is modifications to the rolling stock.

Remember Aerodynamic Locomotives? Intermodal Container Cars Join Them

Does anyone remember the aerodynamic train engines of days gone by, particularly those from the 30s–50s?

Inventor Michael Iden was awarded patent US 8,215,239, ‘Aerodynamic pseudocontainer for reducing drag associated with stacked intermodal containers’, on July 10, 2012 from the USPTO Green Tech Pilot Program. Union Pacific benefitted from the accelerated examination offered by the program, receiving the patent slightly more than 18 months after initial filing.

Iden’s abstract provides a succinct, understandable summary of his invention:

Disclosed is an aerodynamic pseudocontainer for a train. The pseudocontainer is configured to be stacked atop an intermodal container in a lead container car at a lead end of the train, so that its aerodynamic configuration reduces drag when the train is in motion, thereby reducing fuel costs and emissions. The pseudocontainer may have connectors on its bottom so that when it is placed on top of the intermodal container, locking devices may be used for attachment.

This is illustrated by one of the patent drawings, and the photo showing the testing of Union Pacific’s ‘aerowedge’ prototype in August 2012.

A Historical Connection

The earliest patent citation on Iden’s ‘239 patent is US2,253,209 granted to John W. Patton on August 19, 1941 and assigned to the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia. Patton recognized that “it is desirable to provide a rounded end on the last car of the train.” This led to a railroad efficiency problem (i.e., an unintended consequence of innovation) because it meant that the last train car was a very different configuration than the others in the train, resulting in the need “to turn the train around at each of its terminals in order to prepare it for its return run.” This was found to be impractical, and Patton developed his solution:

One object of the present invention is to solve this problem by providing a streamlined casing for removable attachment to the tractor unit of the train, so that the tractor unit may be connected to the rounded end of a car and still preserve the streamlined appearance of the train.

His removable streamlining attachment, showing in an accompanying drawing, is a direct antecedent of Union Pacific’s new “Aerowedge” attachment for intermodal freight cars.

Source: triplepundit.com

Extra Energy for Wind Turbines

A large proportion of the inventions approved by USPTO’s Green Technology Pilot Program are directed toward wind turbines. All aspects of wind energy have been patented under the program – towers, turbines, nacelles, blades, generators, control systems, even construction techniques. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy of wind to rotational motion of the blades (or rotor), thence to electrical energy via the coupling of the rotor to a generator housed in the turbine nacelle.  In operating wind turbines for generating electricity it is sometimes necessary to reduce the power output of the turbines in a wind farm.  Conditions requiring reduced turbine power output might include maintenance periods, low or high wind conditions outside the operating envelope of the turbine, or periods when electricity generated by the wind turbine is not needed. Reduced wind turbine output (or “wind turbine curtailment” in the technical parlance) means that the aerodynamic energy present in wind is not captured, and from a clean tech standpoint, is wasted.

The New

Figure from US 7,750,490

“Method and system for extracting inertial energy from a wind turbine”, US 7,750,490, was issued to Hartmut Scholte-Wassink (Lage, Germany) on July 6, 2010. The patent was assigned to the General Electric Company. GE has been a very significant participant in the Green Tech Program receiving more patents than any other assignee. The patent provides two sets of claims: claims 1–8 are systems claims, and claims 9–15 are methods claims. Claim 9, the independent method claim states:

"A method for operating a wind turbine during curtailment of the wind turbine, the wind turbine comprising a generator and a rotor having at least one rotor blade, the wind turbine also comprising a drive train that includes at least one shaft coupled to the rotor and configured to drive the generator, said method comprising:

operatively coupling a control system to the wind turbine, the control system configured to adjust wind turbine operation to facilitate increasing a speed of rotation of the rotor during curtailment of the wind turbine;
and, operatively coupling an extraction device to the generator, the extraction device configured to extract inertial energy stored in the drive train upon release of the curtailment."

The extraction device in this invention constitutes a frequency converter (shown as 44 in the patent’s Figure 2) that is used to extract the potential energy stored in the increased shaft rotation speed described in claim 9 and other claims.

The Old

Figure from US 452,546 - May 1891

The earliest wind turbine patent related to the ‘490 patent, via the same original classification, was not issued by the Green Tech Pilot Program. It preceded the start of the Program by more than 118 years. J.M. Mitchell of Lawrenceville, GA was awarded patent US 452,546 in May 1891 for a “Wind apparatus for generating electricity and charging secondary batteries.” Mitchell explains:

"My invention relates to that class or type of mechanism whereby the natural powers or forces are sought to be utilized for the generation of one or more electric currents, the object being to supply electric currents having suitable energy for the operation of electric-arc lamps or other devices, or, on the other hand, for incandescent lamps, or doing other work, such as operating motors, and for other purposes. 

"It is the purpose of my invention to provide a simple and efficient apparatus in which the motive power is the wind, and to so construct the parts and organize the same that the wind-wheel shall be at all times presented to the direct action of the air-currents without breaking the electrical connections between the poles of the dynamo turning with said wheel."

Mitchell’s patent describes in detail all aspects of the turbine nacelle, transmission, generator, and includes battery storage (38 in his figure). A clean tech man ahead of his time.

Patents issued in the USPTO Green Technology Pilot Program, many of which are based on technology well over a century old, are described in Way Better Patents Discovery and Analysis Report.

USPTO Green Tech Quick Look

Way Better Patents compiled the first comprehensive, independent analysis of the USPTO Green Technology Pilot Program. The report looks at the inventions and technologies patented under the US Patent Office's program to accelerate the examination of "green" technology patent applications. See how inventors and innovators changed the USPTO vision of green technology from a narrow list of patent classifications into a compelling array of green tech inventions covering a wide range of technologies — energy, wind, solar, internal combustion engines, LED lighting and more.

Learn more about this important analysis of USPTO's Green Technology Pilot Program.

USPTO Green Technology Pilot Program

Way Better Patents Releases USPTO Green Technology Program Discovery and Analysis Report 

Way Better Patents has released its USPTO Green Technology Pilot Program Discovery and Analysis Report. The report is the first comprehensive look at the inventions and technologies patented under the USPTO’s Green Technology Pilot Program to accelerate the examination of certain “green” technology patent applications.

The Report

Using Way Better Patents patentECO Index as the framework to look at the innovations covered by the program, the report analyzes the first 836 patents granted under the program, from its inception in early December 2009 through its close in mid-February 2012. The report, available online and in an upcoming ebook format, documents which companies received patents including the top assignees, the “Young Guns” — the young companies that disproportionately impact economic growth and job creation, and the participation of independent inventors. The report is organized around Way Better Patents' patentECO Indexes.

Way Better Patents' analysts also looked at vintage prior art in each of the major program domains - Wind, Solar, Energy Efficiency, Water, Renewable Energy, Transportation, Biofuels, and Industry. The report also provides deep dive patent analytics on the geography, complexity, pendency, and specific inventive technologies patented under the program.

This report is an important look at the impact of accelerated examination programs as the USPTO implements the America Invents Act Section 25, under which

the Director of the USPTO and at the request of the patent applicant, may provide for prioritization of examination of applications for products, processes, or technologies that are important to the national economy or national competitiveness without requiring the applicant to pay the aggregate extra cost of such prioritization.

This report provides science and technology policy makers, researchers, and economic development experts with a unique perspective on an accelerated examination program like that soon to be allowed under Section 25 of the American Invents Act.
The report presents important information about the program’s participants and notable patents granted under the program including:

• How a patent for improving the driving experience for drivers of electric cars was considered an important aspect of green technology
• Which major wind and solar market leader that was in on the program from day one received the most patents
• How one inventor took methods used to cool semiconductors to dramatically improve the fuel utilization for heating commercial cooking pots
• A plant sunscreen invention that improves the life of produce
• How patents for internal combustion engines lead the way in patents granted in the “green” transportation inventions
• How two different Young Guns patented inventions for urban wind power solutions.

Is Green Technology More Than a Buzzword?

The goal of the analysis was to discover what green technology was patented under the program and frame it in a way that is understandable and useful for inventors and researchers, talent scouts, for real estate and economic developers who want to see what’s coming next in the green tech marketplace. Product managers will find the results useful in looking for technology and investors and business developers looking to see the which companies have accelerated the protection of their intellectual property in the Clean Technology space.

Is There a Benefit To Accelerated Examination?

Public policy professionals will find the report a useful and important look at the impact of accelerated examination of a particular class of technology. The report shows how the USPTO vision of the technology morphed into the vision of the technology held by innovators and their decisions on which inventions they selected to move to the front of the patent examiner’s docket. This is an important piece of analysis for framing discussions around the new ability of the Director of the USPTO to grant accelerated examination to economically important technology under the America Invents Act.

Is Green Tech New? Review the Prior Art.

Many green technologies are not new — wind technology, solar energy, electric motors — the report includes a section on green technology prior art and the timelines of some of these important “vintage” inventions.

This report is the only published detailed analysis of the results of the USPTO Green Technology Pilot Program. The Program essentially defines the USPTO’s view of what constitutes clean technology. It is required reading for anyone with an interest in past, present, or future clean technology inventions in the US.