The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) and the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) have published a new guidance document, “Measuring Recycled Content of Automotive Products.” The guidance document was produced through a collaborative process by the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment’s (SP) Materials Efficiency Work Group, whose members include... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) reached a settlement agreement with American Honda Motor Corporation, Inc. (Honda) of Torrance, California for $6.9 million for violations of CARB’s air quality regulations. This is the second enforcement action against Honda in the past two years. In 2019, CARB testing revealed several small... Read more →

Cummins Inc. announced approval of its entire line of diesel generator sets for use with paraffinic fuels (EN15940), including hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), when used in standby applications. This announcement comes as part of Cummins overall commitment to develop innovative solutions that enable decarbonization, and proactively advance the company’s current... Read more →

Toyota Motor North America has selected Greensboro-Randolph Megasite as the location for Toyota’s new $1.29-billion automotive battery manufacturing plant, to be named Toyota Battery Manufacturing, North Carolina (TBMNC). When it comes online in 2025, TBMNC will have four production lines, each capable of delivering enough lithium-ion batteries for 200,000 vehicles—with... Read more →

Canada-based Sigma Lithium Corporation (earlier post) has begun construction on site to build the foundation and infrastructure installation of its greentech dense media separation production plant, at its wholly owned Grota do Cirilo project in Brazil. The company has secured 38 critical long-lead items required for the project and begun... Read more →

Workplace charging stations are private charging stations that are designated for employees only. From the last quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2021, the number of workplace chargers increased by 28% to a total of 9,894 chargers,, according to data gathered by the US Department of Energy (DOE)... Read more →

Alstom and MOL, Hungary’s leading oil and gas company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to structure cooperation in examining the use of hydrogen technology in rail transportation. MOL Group already produces and utilizes almost 150,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year. As part of its National Hydrogen Strategy, Hungary has... Read more →

A new technology for rare-earth elements chemical separation has been licensed to Marshallton Research Laboratories, a North Carolina-based manufacturer of organic chemicals for a range of industries. Developed by scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory in the Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI), the technology... Read more →

Using a microscopic method for measuring electrical potential, a team of scientists at Sandia National Laboratories may have discovered how to identify rate-limiting processes in solid-state batteries. The findings are detailed in a paper in American Chemical Society Energy Letters. The performance of solid-state electrochemical systems is intimately tied to... Read more →

Power management company Eaton’s Vehicle Group has demonstrated cylinder deactivation (CDA) as an effective technology for meeting future global emissions requirements for diesel-engine powered commercial vehicles. To date, the technology has been evaluated with a close-coupled selective catalytic reduction (SCR) aftertreatment system with and without a 48-volt electric heater. New... Read more →

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) will work together with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) to deploy a Small Modular Reactor (SMR)—the BWRX-300—at the Darlington new nuclear site, the only site in Canada currently licensed for a new nuclear build. OPG and GE Hitachi will collaborate on the SMR engineering, design, planning,... Read more →

Iberdrola and H2 Green Steel (H2GS, earlier post)have signed an agreement to build a plant with an electrolysis capacity of 1 GW. Green hydrogen from the new plant will power a direct reduced iron (DRI) furnace with a capacity to produce around 2 million tonnes per year of pure pig... Read more →

ABB has launched ABB Ability Smart Melt Shop, the first smart factory digital application of its kind for the metals industry. It is designed to increase melt shop productivity, save energy and improve employee safety, with payback within six months. Based on advanced digital algorithms, the new solution is unique... Read more →

United recently operated the first commercial flight using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). United also recently announced the second round of corporate participants in the airline’s Eco-Skies Alliance program to contribute collectivelytowards the purchase of SAF. United is the leading airline in the usage and support for the development of... Read more →

A new study by researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeking to identify the reasons that cause the performance of fast-charged lithium-ion batteries to degrade in EVs has found interesting chemical behavior of the anode as the battery is charged and discharged. An open-access paper... Read more →

British Airways and Phillips 66 Limited have entered into a multi-year supply agreement for sustainable aviation fuel produced at the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery, making the airline the first in the world to use SAF produced in the UK. SAF can reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by over 80% compared to... Read more →

Gaussin has acquired a worldwide license (outside France) from Bluebus, a Bolloré Group subsidiary, for its 6-meter LMP bus. The vehicle will be renamed Cit-e and manufactured through Gaussin’s current and future network of licensees. The royalty-bearing license is valid for 20 years and will allow Gaussin to provide the... Read more →

The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) signed five agreements with leading French companies, including an agreement to explore a hydrogen-powered vehicle business with Gaussin, a pioneer in clean and intelligent transport solutions. The agreement between Aramco and Gaussin aims to establish a modern manufacturing facility for on-road and off-road hydrogen... Read more →

Researchers at the at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) report the mechanocatalytic synthesis of ammonia over a cesium-promoted iron catalyst under mild conditions—room temperature and pressures down to 1 bar. Ammonia synthesis via the Haber-Bosch process normally requires temperatures of 400-500 °C and pressures of... Read more →

In late November, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) announced the start of development of the vast Jafurah unconventional gas field, the largest non-associated gas field in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Company has awarded subsurface and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts worth $10 billion, with capital expenditure... Read more →

Following in the footsteps of the Mercedes‑Benz eVito Tourer, the eVito panel van will also receive a comprehensive update of its electric powertrain and a new battery with an usable capacity of 60 kWh from the beginning of December. The locally emission-free van replaces the model successfully launched on the... Read more →

Lexus revealed a new ROV (Recreational Off-highway Vehicle) Concept, a hydrogen-engined vehicle offering near zero-emissions driving combined with extreme off-road capability. It reflects a commitment by Lexus to ensure exhilarating driving can co-exist with a carbon-free society centered on responsible mobility. While tackling its carbon neutrality goals, Lexus is passionate... Read more →

Kongsberg has tested and verified a full-scale, full-size, zero-emissions drivetrain powered by hydrogen fuel cells designed for ships and ferries. The program is the third and final part of the EU-funded project HySeas (HySeas III) which has been running since 2013 to prepare and demonstrate a scalable hydrogen system for... Read more →

The Wall Street Journal reported that China will create one of the world’s largest rare-earths companies with the aim of maintaining its dominance in the global supply chain of the strategic metals as tensions deepen with the US. Citing unnamed “people familiar with the matter”, the WSJ said that the... Read more →

Lithium prices continued to rise in November, with Chinese battery-grade prices surpassing the RMB 200,000/tonne (US$31,395/tonne) mark, according to Benchmark’s Lithium Price Assessment. Source: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence The rise in lithium carbonate prices could increase production costs of lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells by at least 16%, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence... Read more →

Toyota showcased its experimental hydrogen-powered combustion engine technology in the multiple award-winning GR Yaris. The hydrogen fuel, fuel tanks and refueling process of the experimental vehicle are the same as found in the Mirai, Toyota’s commercially available flagship fuel cell electric vehicle. 2022 GR Yaris Hydrogen While the Mirai employs... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $35 million in funding for twelve projects focused on developing technologies to reduce methane emissions in the oil, gas, and coal industries. DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year (REMEDY) program (earlier post) was unveiled... Read more →

The Federal Highway Administration is inviting public comment on the development of guidance for two new electric vehicle charging station programs included in the recently enacted $1-trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The National Electric Vehicle Program or EV Charging Program will provide funding to the States to deploy EV... Read more →

After several years of development, Bosch is now starting volume production of silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors to supply automotive manufacturers worldwide. In the future, an increasing number of production vehicles will feature these chips. Picture: Bosch The future for silicon carbide semiconductors is bright. We want to become a... Read more →

TI Fluid Systems (TIFS), a leading global supplier of automotive fluid systems technology, has launched high volume production supply of various fluid products for the global Mercedes-Benz AG programs C-Class, GLC and E-Class hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). TIFS will also supply products for Mercedes-Benz AG’s internal combustion engine (ICE) variants... Read more →