Tata Steel, Hardt Hyperloop partner on low carbon steel to reduce transport emissions

Tata Steel and Hardt Hyperloop have signed a contract to use Tata’s low carbon steel product Zeremis Carbon Lite in the Hardt Hyperloop high-speed, sustainable transportation system in a bid to reduce energy consumption and transport emissions, Tata said Sept.23.

The official supply agreement has been officially signed after Tata announced the delivery of the first batch of the new steel product made for Hyperloop in July.

The companies will now field test the first tubes made using the certified low-carbon steel in the European Hyperloop Center in Groningen, the Netherlands, Tata added.

Tata joined forces with steelmaker POSCO in 2020 to work on development of steel grades customized for building strong, lightweight spirally welded pipes for Hyperloop that can withstand an internal low air pressure with sufficient rigidity.

The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to achieve a 50% weight reduction compared with conventional tube technology, which Tat said it aims to achieve by developing new steel qualities and creating new pipe designs.

“The hyperloop technology is more environmentally friendly than flying or driving, as it requires much less energy and thus almost no CO2 per kilometer traveled,” Tata Steel Nederland’s head of Marketing Engineering, Huib Simon, said in statement.

Hyperloop uses 10x less energy than road transportation or aviation, and the shift to this technology will allow for the saving of 1 billion mt of CO2 emissions annually by the mid-century, according to Hardt.

— Ekaterina Bouckley