Harry Valentine

Author and Researcher

Mr. Valentine has a degree in mechanical engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada specializing in thermodynamics (energy conversion) and transportation technology. He has worked as a technical journalist for the past 10-years and has more than 2 decades of research in the transportation industry.

Future Transportation Business on the Great Lakes and Seaway

By Harry Valentine 2018-09-16 00:35:51

In early September of 2018, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) released their most recent audit on maritime operations along the Great Lakes and Seaway. The numbers advise that since the 1950’s and 1960’s, the tonnage of cargo moved by across the Great Lakes declined by 50 percent from 157 million tons to 78 million tons by 2016, also declining by 32 percent from 115 million tons in 1980. Between 1980 and 2016, the tonnage moved along the St...

A Future for Hybrid and Battery-Electric Wing Ships

By Harry Valentine 2018-09-03 18:43:49

Over the past three years, various aviation technical publications have reported on developments in hybrid and battery-electric aircraft propulsion. A French made two-seat battery powered aircraft flew a distance of 300 miles in two hours at 20,000 feet. There would likely be scope to adapt future technology developments in hybrid and battery powered aeronautical propulsion to ground effect maritime technology involving wing ships that could occupy a unique future market niche. Introduction Some 50 years ago, there were two forms...

Alternatives to Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline

By Harry Valentine 2018-09-01 18:32:50

While the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has encountered a setback with court ruling against the Trans Mountain Pipeline, alternatives are still possible. This is Canada’s second major pipeline setback, the previous setback having been regional political opposition to a converted natural gas pipeline that was intended to carry oil from Western Canada to an oil refinery located near Canada’s Atlantic Coast. A third pipeline setback involves a pipeline that is intended to connect Alberta to Texas. Introduction...

Iran's northern Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests are maintained by moisture captured from the Caspian Sea by the Alborz Mountain Range.

Seeking Rainfall from Inland Seas

By Harry Valentine 2018-08-25 21:55:42

The nations that border the Caspian Sea recently held a convention where they began to negotiate the resolution of long-standing differences and concerns that include access to sea floor resources as well as fishing. However, windblown evaporation from both the Caspian Sea and Black Sea blows over mountains located south of the Black Sea and southwest of the Caspian and provides an important source of water for regions such as Eastern Turkey, Syria, Iraq, northwestern Iran and even Kuwait. The...

The Evolution of the Oceanic Tug-Barge

By Harry Valentine 2018-08-18 18:45:10

Tug barges are widely used in the North American Atlantic and Pacific Coastal service, carrying bulk freight. While present generation tug-barges involve a tug coupled to the stern of the barge pushing and navigating the assembly, one company with interest in LNG transportation seems poised for a possible breakthrough in tug-barge propulsion. Introduction While railway lines that run parallel to the North American coast line connect many coastal cities, a segment of the bulk freight transportation market prefers to move...

Australia’s Drought and Oceanic Opportunities

By Harry Valentine 2018-08-05 19:09:54

While Australia presently endures a drought, their weather history includes previous prolonged periods of drought. In response, authorities built the controversial Wonthaggi desalination plant in Melbourne. While it was expensive to build and is expensive to operate, it can supply Melbourne with up to one third of the requirements for potable water. There are numerous other and perhaps less costly oceanic opportunities for Australia. Food Production Prolonged periods of drought seriously curtail agricultural production in areas of fruit, vegetables and...

Fast Container Transfers Involving Winged Boats

By Harry Valentine 2018-07-12 20:21:26

There may be scope to adapt Boeing’s concept of a container carrying aircraft that can lower itself to pick up a load of 14 containers, to a wing-in-ground (WIG) winged boat that could carry a substantially greater payload of containers at lower transportation cost. The concept would involve the convergence of several related technologies that includes tandem wing and semi-submersible vessel technologies to produce a potentially workable concept. Introduction While ships that sail at comparatively low speed carry the majority...

Mega-sized Winged Ships as Heavy Plane Mobile Airports

By Harry Valentine 2018-07-07 21:57:41

A researcher connected with Boeing envisioned a commercial jet aircraft capable of carry high priority containers, except that most commercial airports restrict the landing weight and wingspan of large aircraft. Advancing research into wing-in-ground effect vessels could develop a winged ship mobile airport capable of carrying heavy freight aircraft that would be banned from commercial airports. Introduction While mega-size container ships offer the lowest transportation cost per container per ton-n.m. on extended length voyages, there is a segment of the international...

Port of Djibouti as a Future African Trading Gateway

By Harry Valentine 2018-06-14 17:32:30

At the present time, a group of African governments assisted by China are planning future trans-African transportation corridors. Should some of these plans come to fruition many years into the future, the Port of Djibouti could emerge as an important African trading gateway. Introduction For several decades beginning during in the early 1970’s, the Government of China reached out to several African nations with the purpose of establishing cordial diplomatic relations and especially so with the post-colonial government of the...

Winged-boat Aircraft Carrier for Commercial Transportation

By Harry Valentine 2018-06-09 19:12:04

While aircraft carriers were initially developed for military service, there may be commercial application for fast wing-in-ground effect vessels designed to carry an onboard payload was well as an aircraft. Introduction There are military transport aircraft that due to their weight, are required to take off from runways carrying minimal fuel compliment. However, once the large aircraft is airborne at its cruising altitude, a military tanker aircraft flying ahead of it extends a fuel line to transfer a massive volume...