J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., one of the largest supply chain solutions providers in North America, announced a long-term, strategic alliance with Waymo Via that will advance efforts to integrate commercial autonomous driving technology in transportation and logistics, with ultimate plans to complete fully autonomous transport in Texas in the... Read more →

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is one promising approach to converting methane and carbon dioxide into chemical feedstock or syngas. However, DRM needs a stable and highly active catalyst for its commercialization. Metal-supported zeolites are widely used for this purpose, due to their microporous structure and chemical stability. In particular,... Read more →

Nuro has introduced its third-generation electric autonomous delivery vehicle. This new vehicle improves on the previous design and is ready to be produced at scale, the company said. The new vehicle is approximately 20% smaller in width than average passenger cars, giving bicyclists and pedestrians more room to maneuver alongside... Read more →

Hyzon Motors reported that it delivered 87 fuel-cell-powered heavy-duty vehicles in 2021 under commercial sales agreements. Eight dump trucks that were deployed under trial leases in Foshan, a UN Hydrogen Demonstration City in China, are not included in the 87 vehicle deliveries. The 2021 shipments exceeded the forecast of 85... Read more →

Chile’s Ministry of Mining awarded China-based BYD a contract to extract up to 80,000 tons of metallic lithium. BYD won the contract—one of two awarded by the Ministry—with an offer of $61 million. The other lithium extraction contract, also for 80,000 tons, went to Chile-based Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del... Read more →

BHP, a world leading resources company, has invested US$40 million into Kabanga Nickel in Tanzania. The money will be used to accelerate the development of the Kabanga Nickel Project—the world’s largest development-ready nickel sulfide deposit. In parallel, BHP has invested US$10 million into Lifezone Limited to advance the roll-out of... Read more →

Talon Metals Corp., through its US subsidiary Talon Nickel (USA) LLC, entered into an agreement with Tesla for the supply and purchase of nickel concentrate to be produced from the Tamarack Nickel Project in Aitkin County, Minnesota. The execution of the agreement follows an extensive and detailed due-diligence period performed... Read more →

Battery Resourcers, a vertically integrated lithium-ion battery recycling and engineered materials company, plans to open a commercial-scale, lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Covington, Ga. When the 154,000-square-foot facility is fully operational in August 2022, it will be North America’s largest battery recycling facility with capacity to process 30,000 metric tons... Read more →

Indaba Renewable Fuels will build two greenfield refineries in California and Missouri to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) utilizing Topsoe’s HydroFlex technology. The facilities are expected to begin production of SAF in 2024, with a capacity of 6,500 barrels per day at each location. Topsoe will also provide its H2bridge... Read more →

LanzaJet, a sustainable fuels technology company and renewable fuels producer, has secured financing for its Freedom Pines Fuels plant in Soperton, Georgia (earlier post), through the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund. The Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund has made a $50-million investment to support the construction of LanzaJet’s (and the world’s) first... Read more →

Blue Biofuels, Inc. reports that it has achieved full conversion ( 99% + ) of king grass cellulosic material to water soluble sugars on a repeatable basis. This conversion occurs with a reaction time of less than one minute. This achievement was accomplished with the company’s upgraded 4th generation CTS... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), in collaboration with the Algae Foundation and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, announced a new AlgaePrize competition for high school through graduate students studying at a US-based high school, college, community college, university, and/or graduate school. Student teams will compete... Read more →

Lexus will debut the NX PHEV OFFROAD Concept and hydrogen-engined ROV (Recreational Off highway Vehicle) Concept at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2022 held at Makuhari Messe (Chiba City) this weekend. The NX PHEV OFFROAD Concept is based on Lexus’ first PHEV model that went on sale in November 2021, the... Read more →

Albemarle Corporation, a global leader in advanced lithium materials, and 6K, developer of microwave-controlled plasma technology, signed a joint development agreement (JDA) to explore the use of 6K’s patented UniMelt advanced, sustainable materials production platform (earlier post) to develop novel lithium battery materials through potentially disruptive manufacturing processes. Albemarle is... Read more →

Researchers at MIT have identified, quantified, and modeled a major reason for the poor performance of electroreduction processes to convert CO2 to fuel or other useful chemicals. The findings could spur progress on developing a variety of materials and designs for electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion systems. A paper on their... Read more →

CALSTART has released a new report, Zeroing in on ESBs, an inventory of electric school buses (ESBs). As of September 2021, there were 1,738 ESBs funded, ordered, delivered, and deployed across the US. In total, there are some 480,000 school buses in the US—more than 95% powered by diesel. While... Read more →

Volvo Trucks North America continues to lead in the deployment of sustainable Class 8 zero-tailpipe emission vehicles for the North American trucking industry with ongoing deliveries of its Volvo VNR Electric model to fleets across the country. The company announced that production of the enhanced Volvo VNR Electric model will... Read more →

Vicinity Motor, a North American supplier of commercial electric vehicles, and Proterra announced a new collaboration to power Vicinity’s electric transit buses and work trucks with Proterra’s battery technology. Under a new, multi-year supply agreement, Proterra battery systems will power the Vicinity Lightning 28-foot electric transit bus and Vicinity’s strip... Read more →

Testing of the the first Russian-made articulated electric bus has begun in Moscow. After the test drive, the city plans to purchase such vehicles to service routes with high passenger traffic. The electric bendy bus has space for 135 passengers and a range of 90 kilometers; charging of the battery... Read more →

BASF has signed a joint development agreement with China BlueChemical Limited Company, a leading natural gas producer, and the chemical engineering company Wuhuan Engineering Co., Ltd. to promote low-carbon development and utilization of marine gas resources. In the Dongfang Industrial Park of Hainan Province, China BlueChemical extracts large quantities of... Read more →

Vertimass and European Energy have completed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to integrate technologies for capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into hydrocarbon products around the world. This combination takes advantage of European Energy’s expertise in capturing carbon dioxide from waste sources (carbon dioxide produced from anaerobic digestion, power production,... Read more →

Volkswagen drove forward its transformation into a sustainable, software-centric mobility group in 2021 and approximately doubled its deliveries of battery-electric vehicles (BEV) year-on-year to 452,900 units. These now account for 5.1% of total deliveries, up from 2.5% in the previous year. The Group is the European market leader for battery-electric... Read more →

In 2021, the Volkswagen brand delivered more electrified vehicles worldwide than ever before, handing over to customers more than 369,000 electric cars (+73% versus 2020), comprising approximately 106,000 PHEVs (+33%) and 263,000 all-electric vehicles (+97%). In a very short time, we have reached a top position for all-electric vehicles in... Read more →

The BMW Group posted year-on-year sales growth of 8.4% last year, with a total of 2,521,525 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles delivered to customers worldwide. BMW sales reached a new all-time high of 2,213,795 units (+9.1%) last year, with the brand leading the global premium segment. The company more than... Read more →

On 11 November 2021, Johnson Matthey announced its intention to pursue the sale of all or parts of its Battery Materials business with the ultimate intention of exiting. (Earlier post.) Although demand for battery materials is accelerating, so is competition from alternative technologies and other manufacturers, the company said at... Read more →

Polestar, the Swedish premium electric car company founded by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding, delivered on its global sales target of 29,000 vehicles in 2021, representing year-on-year growth exceeding 185%. Polestar has produced two electric performance cars. The Polestar 1 was built between 2019 and 2021 as a low-volume electric... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will evaluate whether emissions from piston-engine aircraft operating on leaded fuel contribute to air pollution that endangers public health and welfare. The agency plans to issue a proposal for public review and comment in 2022 and take final action in 2023. EPA has been... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) selected four new projects to receive up to $8.4 million to establish new geothermal energy and heat production from abandoned oil and gas wells. With this funding, DOE is partnering with existing well owners and operators to use their idle or unproductive wells to... Read more →

Global oil consumption outpaced oil production for the six consecutive quarters ending with the fourth quarter of 2021 (4Q21), which has led to persistent withdrawals from global oil inventories and significant increases in crude oil prices. Crude oil production remained restrained as a result of curtailments by OPEC+ members, investment... Read more →

by Brent Wilson, CEO of Galvanic Energy. Perhaps the most common argument against electric vehicles (EVs) has been the lack of recharging infrastructure. Many people think EVs are great for commuting or for driving around town, but take one on a road trip and things can get dicey. Who wants... Read more →