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[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]
Proposed Federal CEDA Designed to Help Risky Breakthrough Technologies Cross the “Valley of Death”; Working with $10+ Billion Fund
July 07, 2009
by Bill Cooke
Green Car Congress recently attended the Renewable Energy Finance Forum - Wall Street (REFF- Wall Street) conference sponsored by Euromoney Energy Events and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). One of the highlights to the conference was an overview of a potential new government organization called the Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA), which is designed to help promising, although risky, breakthrough technologies with commercial appeal cross the “valley of death”.
In March of 2009, Chris Van Hollen (Democrat-Maryland) introduced legislation for the Green Bank which shared many characteristics with CEDA. CEDA was proposed in two parallel bills: H.R. 2212 in the House, and S.B. 949 in the Senate. The House version was combined with the Green Bank legislation and ended up in the giant Waxman-Markey energy and cap-and-trade bill (Sec. 186 of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009), which passed the House on 29 June and is now under consideration by the Senate. (Earlier post.) S.B. 949 was referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 30 April 2009.
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New Comprehensive Lifecycle Energy and Emissions Inventory Includes Non-Operational Components; Large Aircraft Can Perform Better than Light Rail
June 09, 2009
| Energy consumption and GHG emissions per PKT (passenger kilometer travelled). The vehicle operation components are shown with gray patterns. Other vehicle components are shown in shades of blue. Infrastructure components are shown in shades of red and orange. The fuel production component is shown in green. All components appear in the order they are shown in the legend.). Chester and Horvath (2009). Click to enlarge. |
A new comprehensive lifecycle energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and selected criteria air pollutant emissions inventory by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley that includes vehicles, infrastructure, fuel production, and supply chains found that find that total life-cycle energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions contribute an additional 63% for onroad, 155% for rail, and 31% for air systems over vehicle tailpipe operation.
Inventorying criteria air pollutants showed that vehicle non-operational components often dominate total emissions. Life-cycle criteria air pollutant emissions are between 1.1 and 800 times larger than vehicle operation. Ranges in passenger occupancy can easily change the relative performance of modes, with large aircraft performing better than light rail in some of the areas investigated. The study was published 8 June in the open access IOP journal Environmental Research Letters.
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Researchers Propose a Renewable Energy Cycle Based on Co-electrolysis of Water and CO2 to Produce Syngas
May 21, 2009
| Schematic illustration of a generic liquid-fuel energy cycle utilizing a renewable electrical source. Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at Northwestern University are proposing, and have begun experimental validation of, a renewable liquid-fuel energy storage cycle based on the co-electrolysis of H2O and CO2 using a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) powered by renewable electricity to produce syngas. The syngas is then in turn converted into liquid fuels (e.g., methanol or synthetic hydrocarbons) which could be used in a direct fuel cell.
The direct fuel cell produces electricity, with water and CO2 as byproducts of the oxidation of the liquid fuel in the fuel cell. These would be captured and recycled back into the co-electrolysis process.
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The Long View from SAE 2009 World Congress
April 29, 2009
by Bill Cooke
On 20 April, the opening day of the SAE 2009 World Congress, the AVL Technology Leadership Theater presented a forum on “Green Mobility—The Long View”. Organized by Shane Chang at Honda Research Institute USA Inc., the session counted among its panelists:
Professor John Heywood, Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Sloan Auto Laboratory at MIT. Dr. Heywood recently co-authored a study called “On The Road in 2035—Reducing Petroleum Consumption and GHG Emissions.”
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Study Finds Regional Variations in Irrigation Practices Can Push Corn Ethanol Water Requirements 3x Higher Than Earlier Estimates; Need to Account for Regional Specifics in Mandates
April 08, 2009
| Top: County-level corn production and ethanol facilities in 2007. The graph illustrates the proximity of ethanol facilities to corn production. Bottom: EWe and TCW of each state as of 2007. The foreground bar height indicates the EWe of each state, with the portion of ground and surface water indicated by color. The TCW, as measured by a state’s EWe and ethanol production (seen in the background), illustrates local and regional ethanol-induced impacts. Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have estimated state-level field-to-pump water requirements of corn ethanol production across the US. Their results find that corn ethanol’s water requirements can range from 5 to 2,138 L per liter of ethanol depending on regional irrigation practices. Prior studies have estimated that corn ethanol requires 263-784 L L-1of water from corn farm to fuel pump.
Based on their calculations using state-level water use data, Sangwon Suh and colleagues also found that the national ethanol-production-weighted average water requirement in the US was 142 L L-1 in 2007— much lower than what was previously estimated in other studies. The new paper is scheduled for the 15 April 15 issue of the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
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SCOPE Biofuels Project Releases Assessment on Environmental Effects of Biofuel Technologies
April 03, 2009
The SCOPE (Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) International Biofuels Project, has published the full proceedings of its Rapid Assessment workshop on the environmental effects of biofuel technologies, 22-25 September 2008. SCOPE is part of the International Council for Science.
While noting that most recent studies based on lifecycle analysis show that even first generation biofuels can result in “a substantial reduction” in net greenhouse gas emissions (80% to greater than 100% for sugarcane ethanol, 30% to 50% for corn ethanol), papers in the study express concerns over what they contend are potentially undercalculated N2O greenhouse gas effects; the exacerbation of hypoxia from run-off; the need for inclusion of indirect land use effects in greenhouse gas assessments; water use and quality; and other environmental and social effects.
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Bosch Chairman Says Business Must “Do More” for Climate Protection, Even in Difficult Times
March 26, 2009
Business must do even more for climate protection, even in difficult times, said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the Bosch board of management, an a talk at the Baden-Württemberg sustainability congress held in Stuttgart on 25 March (Nachhaltigkeitskongress Baden-Württemberg 2009). The acute economic and financial crisis must not, he said, be allowed to function as a pretext for slackening efforts to combat climate change.
Fehrenbach said that the “green economy” also offered opportunities for overcoming the crisis. According to Fehrenbach, every third euro of sales generated by Bosch now comes from products that conserve resources and/or protect the environment. In 2008, the Bosch Group achieved sales of some € 45 billion (US$61 billion).
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Mazda Develops New Automated Recycling Technology for End-of-Life Vehicle Bumpers
March 23, 2009
| Automated bumper recycling process. Click to enlarge. |
Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a world-first recycling technology which enhances the process it uses to recycle used bumpers from vehicles whose useful life has ended into raw plastic resin for use in new vehicle bumpers.
The new technology is the first to enable recycling of used bumpers from different manufacturers—which can vary considerably in composition—at the same time. Additionally, by automating processes to remove metal attachments, it significantly increases recycling efficiency.
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Business Leaders Call for Linking Water, Energy and Climate in Global Talks
March 19, 2009
| Log scale plot of illustrative water consumption by energy-related activity. In the examples cited in the report, biomass for biofuels has the largest and widest ranging footprint: from 24,000 m3 per 1,000 GJ in the Netherlands to 143,000 m3 per 1,000 GJ in Zimbabwe. Data: WBCSD (2009). Click to enlarge. |
Business leaders from some of the world’s biggest companies called for water, energy and climate change issues to be linked in global negotiations, such as the international climate talks due to culminate in Copenhagen in December.
The business leaders were speaking at the launch of a report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul. The report, Water, Energy and Climate Change: A contribution from the business community says water, energy and climate change are inextricably linked. The World Water Forum is expected to produce a ministerial statement calling for proactive policies on water issues.
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Report Finds Water Stress Rapidly Becoming Key Strategic Risk to Commerce; Impending Water/Energy Collision
March 17, 2009
by Jack Rosebro
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| Water consumption or withdrawals per unit of energy produced, by energy type, in the United States. Source: DHI Group. Click to enlarge. |
A Pacific Institute report commissioned by Ceres, whose Investor Network on Climate Risk advises investors with more than US$7 trillion in assets, concludes that impacts of declining water quality and availability will be “far-reaching” for business and industry in the developed as well as the developing world, and that companies which address water stress as a key strategic risk will be better positioned to adjust to negative effects such as reduced water allotments, rising water costs, community opposition, and increased public scrutiny of corporate water practices.
Among the increasing challenges is that while the sourcing, processing, and delivery of clean water is becoming more energy-intensive, the extraction and refining of fossil fuels and their substitutes is trending towards increasing water requirements per unit of fuel produced as energy companies work with progressively lower grade resources.
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California Headed Toward “Worst Drought Ever Recorded”; Governor Declares State Of Emergency
March 01, 2009
by Jack Rosebro
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| Mountain snowpack in the Great basin and major water supply basins for California. Source: USDA. Click to enlarge. |
Faced with three straight years of drought and an uncertain agricultural water supply, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday, announcing that statewide water rationing could be instituted as early as the end of next month. “Despite the recent rain and snow,” the governor’s office warned, “cumulative water deficit is so large that there is only a 15% chance that California will replenish its water supply this year.”
Just 2.47 million acre-feet (MAF) of natural inflows are projected to reach the state’s Shasta Reservoir in 2009, less than half the 6.1 MAF average of the past half century (1956-2005). Major reservoirs such as Oroville, Folsom, and San Luis, as well as Shasta, are already two-thirds or more below capacity.
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GM’s Burns Calls for New US Public/Private Partnership for Rapid Commercialization of Electrically Driven and Connected Vehicle Technologies; the New Automotive DNA
January 14, 2009
During his speech at the Chairman’s Luncheon of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 88th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, Larry Burns, GM vice president for Research & Development and Strategic Planning, called for the creation of a new public/private partnership to rapidly commercialize US automotive technologies in two strategic and converging areas: electrically driven vehicles and connected vehicles.
Burns said the partnership should include the US government, auto manufacturers and suppliers, the energy and infrastructure industries, and other key stakeholders. He said its focus should be on enabling technologies for electrically driven vehicles such as advanced batteries, electric motors, power electronics, fuel cells, hydrogen infrastructure and storage systems; and connected vehicle technologies such as sensors, actuators, wireless communications and GPS systems.
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Monsanto Moves Closer to Launch of First Drought-Tolerant Corn Product
January 07, 2009
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| Five years of field trials have shown yield improvements delivered by the drought-tolerant corn. Source: Monsanto. Click to enlarge. |
Monsanto Company’s first-generation drought-tolerant corn product has moved to the fourth and final phase of development before an anticipated market launch early in the next decade, according to Monsanto’s annual update of its Research and Development (R&D) pipeline. Monsanto has submitted the product to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for regulatory clearance.
Drought-tolerant corn is designed to provide farmers yield stability during periods when water supply is scarce by mitigating the effects of drought—or water stress—within a corn plant.
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Seasons Greetings from GCC
December 24, 2008
We would like to take this holiday opportunity to thank you all for your interest in, contributions to, feedback on and ongoing support for Green Car Congress. GCC will close out 2008 with more than 8.25 million page views for the year, with a lifetime total of about 22.250 million. In the coming year, we’ll keep the editorial moving forward, and also are looking at adding other features to provide more support for the community.
GCC will not publish on 25 December or 1 January, and will be on a lighter publishing schedule than usual for the week in between.
Happy Holidays to all, and a Happy New Year!
| Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)Toyota to Increase ‘Ecological Plastic’ in Vehicle Interiors, Starting with New Hybrid
December 19, 2008
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| Conceptual diagram of carbon neutrality of Toyota Ecological Plastic. Click to enlarge. |
Toyota Motor (TMC) plans to increase use of plant-derived, carbon-neutral plastics in more vehicle models, starting with a new hybrid vehicle next year. The TMC newly developed plastics, collectively known as “Ecological Plastic”, are to be used in scuff plates, headliners, seat cushions and other interior vehicle parts.
Within 2009, TMC aims for Ecological Plastic to account for approximately 60% of the interior components in vehicles that feature it.
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Brookings Report Concludes US Drop in VMT Signals a Permanent Shift Away from Cars; Implications for Transportation Policy
December 17, 2008
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| US VMT per capita, annualized and real gasoline pump prices, Jan 1991–Sep 2008. Click to enlarge. Source: Puentes and Tomer |
The US is experiencing its longest and steepest drop in driving, signaling a permanent shift away from reliance on the car to other modes of transportation, according to a new Brookings Institution report. This shift will have far reaching implications for transportation, environmental, energy, and land-use planning, the authors said.
The report—The Road…Less Traveled: An Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled Trends in the US—shows that national vehicle miles traveled (VMT), began to plateau as far back as 2004 and dropped in 2007 for the first time since 1980. Per capita driving followed a similar pattern, with flat-lining growth after 2000 and falling rates since 2005. These recent declines in driving predated the steady hikes in gas prices during 2007 and 2008.
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Report Concludes That 19% of World’s Coral Reefs Already Lost
December 11, 2008
The world has lost 19% of its coral reefs, according to the 2008 global update of the world’s reef status. The Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008 report is the 5th global report since the GCRMN (Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network), was formed in 1996 as an operational network of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).
Estimates assembled through the expert opinions of 372 coral reef scientists and managers from 96 countries are that 15% of reefs are seriously threatened with loss within the next 10–20 years, and 20% are under threat of loss in 20–40 years. The latter two estimates have been made under a ‘business as usual’ scenario that does not consider the threats posed by global climate change or that effective future management may conserve more coral reefs.
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European Parliament Backs Regulations for Quieter, More Energy-Efficient Tires
December 05, 2008
The European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection has voted to support proposed amended legislation that would make tires quieter and more energy efficient. The legislation, originally proposed by the European Commission in May, will set harmonized minimum noise and rolling resistance standards for tires. Tires not meeting the requirements will note be able to be sold; tires belonging to stocks prior to the dates of new requirements and falling short of the new requirements would still be permitted to be sold.
The new regulation replaces a number of directives, is directly applicable in the Member States and reflects car safety standards harmonized by the United Nations.
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Global Recycling Company Recupyl Obtains €14.5M Investment
November 28, 2008
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| Overview of Recupyl’s process for recycling Li-ion batteries. Click to enlarge. |
France-based Recupyl SAS, a global recycling company, has received a commitment for a €14.5-million (US$18.7 million) capital injection from investors including its original backer Aloe Private Equity, as well as new investors, led by AGF Private Equity, to fund the next stage of its commercial development. Seed investor INPG Enterprise SA also maintained its shareholding.
Recupyl, originally established in 1993 to commercialize Dr. Farouk Tedjar’s work at INPG (Grenoble Institute of Technology) in the treatment of used batteries, has built up a portfolio of more than 10 patents for processes to treat a broad range of waste products based on hydrometallurgy. RECUPYL continues to develop new waste treatment technologies.
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U-M Researchers Developing Interactive Tool to Assess Viability of Transportation GHG Reduction Technologies and Policies; PHEVs as Test Case
November 25, 2008
Researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) are launching a project to develop a Web-based, interactive modeling tool that can be used to analyze the likely impact and potential viability of proposed technologies and policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the light-duty vehicle sector. As a test case for the development of the tool, the researchers are using President-elect Barack Obama’s proposal to put a million US-made plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) getting 150 mpg on the road by 2015.
The U-M Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute is providing $365,000 in seed money for the project, which is an adjunct to a four-university, $1.9-million project funded though the National Science Foundation MUSES program (Materials Use: Science, Engineering and Society). The goal of the MUSES project is to produce modeling tools and methods that can be used to analyze changes in materials flows that would result from policy instruments aimed at reducing GHG emissions from passenger cars and light trucks. (Earlier post.)
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Nissan/Renault CEO: “We Need Another Planet”
November 19, 2008
by Jack Rosebro
Addressing journalists at a markedly subdued Los Angeles Auto Show, Nissan chairman and Renault SA co-chairman Carlos Ghosn acknowledged that “there is no book to follow” for automakers as they struggle with this year’s global financial crisis, and predicted that “we are going to see fewer actors” in the auto manufacturing industry.
Ghosn cautioned, however, that the greater long-term challenge will be the delivery of zero-emission vehicles in time to satisfy customer demand, especially from emerging economies, and that such demand could see the global vehicle population quadruple from 600 million vehicles today to as much as 2.5 billion vehicles by 2050.
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Researchers Assess Lifecycle Water Intensity of a Range of Light-Duty Vehicle Fuels
October 15, 2008
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| Water consumption (left stacked bars read on left axis) and withdrawal (right stacked bars read on right axis) in gallons of water per mile (gal/mile) for various fuels for light duty vehicles. Water use from mining and farming is designated differently from that used for processing and refining. Click to enlarge. Credit: ACS |
Building on their prior studies (earlier post, earlier post), researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have assessed the lifecycle water intensity in “gallons of water per mile traveled” for light duty vehicle (LDV) travel using selected fuels based upon petroleum, natural gas, unconventional fossil fuels, hydrogen, electricity, and two biofuels (ethanol from corn and biodiesel from soy).
Carey King and Michael Webber analyzed the amount of water withdrawn (used and returned directly to its source) and consumed (not directly returned to its source) during the production and use of different fuels. Their findings suggest that producing alternative fuels could strain already limited water supplies in some regions of the country.
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Nissan Develops Bee-Inspired Biomimetic Car Robot Drive for Crash Avoidance
September 27, 2008
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| The BR23C Biomimetic Robot Car. Click to enlarge. |
Based on joint research with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, engineers at Nissan Motor’s Advanced Technology Center have developed the Biomimetic Car Robot Drive, or BR23C. BR23C is a robotic micro-car that recreates bee characteristics with the goal of producing a system that prevents collisions altogether.
Nissan will unveil the project at CEATEC, Cutting-edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition, 30 September to 4 October at Makuhari Messe outside Tokyo.
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Toyota Releases “Sustainability Report 2008”, Looks to “Liquid Peak”
September 02, 2008
By Jack Rosebro
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| Blueprint of Toyota propulsion and fuel technology development, 2008-2030+. Click to enlarge. |
Concurrent with the release of its annual financial report, Toyota has published Sustainability Report 2008: Towards a New Future for People, Society, and the Planet. The report, which is the third since Toyota switched from environmental to sustainability reports in 2006, is structured around three themes: sustainable mobility (products), sustainable plant initiatives (manufacturing), and contributing to the development of a sustainable society—also referred to as “nurturing society.”
The themes constitute the foundation of Toyota’s vision of the global corporate image that it wants to achieve by 2020. Global Vision 2020 was developed last year on the occasion of the company’s 70th anniversary, and envisions a society in which “cycles of nature” operate in harmony with “cycles of industry”, leading to, in the words of Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe, a “prosperous, low-carbon society”.
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Behind Food, Energy and Climate Crises Looms Water and Sanitation
August 24, 2008
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| Modes of sanitation for the global population. Click to enlarge. Data: SIWI. |
The World Water Week in Stockholm concluded with 2,400 scientists, leaders from governments and civil society declaring that slow progress on sanitation will cause the world to badly fail the Millennium Development Goals while weak policy, poor management, increasing waste and exploding water demands are pushing the planet towards the tipping point of global water crisis.
This theme of the 2008 World Water Week was “Progress and prospects on water: for a clean and healthy world”. Eight workshops had two parallel directions. One set were sanitation-related and referred to safe handling of human excreta; the other related to water-carried pollutants and how to address water pollution abatement, wrote Professor Malin Falkenmark of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) in a summary of the week.
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Researchers Urge Revamp of Methodologies for Carbon Footprint Calculations
August 16, 2008
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are urging companies to adopt new, broader and more consistent methods for calculating their carbon footprints.
Accepted frameworks for tracking industry carbon emissions rely on tiers of increasingly broad scope. Tier one generally includes emissions by the company’s own activities, such as burning gasoline in fleet vehicles or natural gas in its facilities. The second tier boundary expands to include emissions from electricity and steam purchased by the company. Tier three includes all other emissions, including the entire supply chain of goods and services. In practice, most companies reporting their greenhouse gas emissions opt to use only the tier one or the tier two boundary.
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Study Shows Global Marine Dead Zones Increased by One-Third Since 1995
August 15, 2008
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| Cumulative increase in dead zones through time reported in the scientific literature. Systems are grouped by decade of first documented account. Click to enlarge. Credit: AAAS |
A global study led by Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS), College of William and Mary, Professor Robert Diaz shows that the number of “dead zones”—hypoxic areas of the seafloor that cannot sustain marine life—has increased by a third between 1995 and 2007. The study appears in the 15 August edition of the journal Science.
The study tallies 405 dead zones in coastal waters worldwide, affecting a total area of more than 245,000 km 2 (95,000 mi2)—an area about the size of New Zealand. The largest dead zone in the US, at the mouth of the Mississippi, covers more than 22,000 km2 (8,500 mi2), roughly the size of New Jersey. A dead zone also underlies much of the main-stem of Chesapeake Bay, each summer occupying about 40% of its area and up to 5% of its volume. (Earlier post.)
