Syntroleum Corporation and Sustec AG, a private company based in Basel, Switzerland, have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding that provides for exclusive joint business development of projects that will integrate Sustec’s gasification technology (from its Future Energy GmbH portfolio company) with Syntroleum’s Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology. The joint venture is... Read more →

The British government has published the official report from an international conference on climate change held in February 2005—Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, also known as the Exeter Conference (earlier post)—as a book. The book, which is also entitled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, pulls together 41 peer-reviewed papers that try to... Read more →

BEST Locations The BEST (BioEthanol for Sustainable Transport) project officially launched in Stockholm last week at a three-day conference for all participants. BEST is a four-year project, partly funded by the European Union (EU), in which three vehicle manufacturers, ten locations, five ethanol producers and four universities will cooperate cross-functionally... Read more →

Nikkei. Honda Motor said Tuesday that it intends to reduce production from April to December at its minivan and sport utility vehicle factory in Alabama due to falling demand caused by rising gasoline prices. The plant, which manufactures the Odyssey minivan and Pilot SUV has an output capacity of 300,000... Read more →

The new compact inline-six Volvo has introduced a new high-efficiency, compact six-cylinder engine to accompany its all new Volvo S80. The new six-cylinder engine, designed by Volvo, is of an all-new, compact design. Its main structure is made entirely of aluminium and has a larger displacement than its predecessor, 3.2... Read more →

Scheme for a biodesulfurization process. Click to enlarge. Energy & Environmental Partners, a privately held technology company led by the former President and COO of Clean Diesel Technologies, has launched a new commercial licensing program for US and Canadian patents covering the use of microorganisms for the desulfurization of high-sulfur... Read more →

One of the pair: the C4 diesel hybrid. As promised, PSA Peugeot Citroën unveiled two prototypes featuring diesel-electric parallel hybrid powertrains, the Peugeot 307 and the Citroën C4 Hybride HDi. The hybrids deliver average combined city and highway fuel consumption of 3.4 liters per 100 kilometers (69 mpg US), with... Read more →

Sanyo Electric and Volkswagen will jointly develop next-generation Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). Sanyo has already provided HEV batteries for Ford’s Escape Hybrid and Honda’s Accord Hybrid on the North American market. The agreement with Volkswagen is the company’s first HEV partnership with a European... Read more →

Hybrid school bus prototype. IC Corporation, North America’s largest school bus manufacturer and a subsidiary of International Truck and Engine, is working with Enova Systems to introduce the nation’s first hybrid school bus. (Earlier post.) The two companies have developed a prototype school bus with a hybrid diesel-electric drivetrain that... Read more →

Use of the neural network (NN) controller (right) reduces heat release in lean operation (shown) and with high EGR. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla are developing a neural-network-based engine controller in an attempt to increase engine efficiency while reducing NOx emissions. Artificial neural networks are adaptive... Read more →

Bills that would create a new program within the US Department of Energy to be focused on leading the way to reducing dependence on petroleum have been introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Advanced Research Projects Energy (ARPA-E) program is modeled on the Defense Advanced... Read more →

Sales of new diesel cars in Europe continue to increase. The latest quarterly pricing survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and eurocarprice.com finds that diesels accounted for 49% (7,415,198 units) of the total European car market at the end of 2005. That represents a 7% increase in annual sales volume over the... Read more →

Mercosur. Honda launched consumer sales of its Civic Hybrid in the Mexican market; Mexico is the first Latin American country in which hybrids are offered to consumers. Last week the company entered into an agreement with the Mexican government for the testing of 500 Civic hybrids. (Earlier post.) Honda Mexico’s... Read more →

The US Army has awarded SatCon Technology, a developer and manufacturer of power electronics and motors for alternative energy markets, a contract to develop an Integrated Starter/Generator (ISG) for hybrid powertrain military vehicles. SatCon currently sells a line of subsystems to hybrid vehicle integrators such as Azure Dynamics, among others... Read more →

Diesel Particulate Matter (DPM). Source: CT DEP The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has presented a Clean Diesel Plan to the state General Assembly that would significantly reduce the emissions of PM 2.5 diesel particulate matter from buses and construction equipment. The DEP developed the plan in response to... Read more →

Enhanced aerosol concentrations can make the clouds more opaque and emit more thermal energy to the surface. Two scientists from Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Brookhaven National Laboratory have measured the impact of a significant anthropogenic source of warming: aerosol concentrations in Arctic clouds. The research is published in the... Read more →

Only slightly more than 50% would use their cars less if fuel prices hit €2/liter ($9.18/gallon) A European Commission survey of 24,930 consumers in the 25 Member States as well as the acceding and candidate countries determined that 77% of citizens pay attention to the energy consumed by cars (59%... Read more →

Liquid water content of an operating PEM fuel cell. Red color is more water, blue is less. Source: Sandia. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are working to understand water management and performance degradation in hydrogen-fueled PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells—two key areas that need to be addressed before PEM... Read more →

Writing in the journal Science, a group of scientists from the UK and the USA said that using biomass rather than oil or coal to produce fuels and chemicals could play an essential role in reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. The scientists from Imperial College London, Georgia Tech... Read more →

American Biofuels (ABF) plans to quadruple its soy biodiesel production capacity to 40 million gallons per year (mgpy) in 2006. The company is planning a new 20-mgpy East Coast facility to supply New York State and surrounding states and expects this facility to be in production by late 2006. ABF... Read more →

US Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) today asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether big oil corporations are knowingly restricting consumer access to alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel as a result of company policies. According to an internal memorandum from a major petroleum company... Read more →

The Cummins ISB Cummins and India-based Tata Motors have signed an agreement that will allow their joint venture in India, Tata Cummins Ltd. (TCL), to begin manufacturing the ISB diesel engine in the near future. TCL currently produces approximately 69,000 Cummins B Series engines a year. Under the agreement, TCL... Read more →

The Petronas E01e Bernama. Malaysia’s national automaker, Proton, has signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) with Malaysia’s national oil company, Petronas, to develop larger engines and natural gas engines for use by Proton. The MOI will see both parties collaborating and exploring the possibilities of further developing Petronas engines—particularly the... Read more →

The Virent 10kW APR/HICE demonstration system, in service with MG&E. In a demonstration of the capability of its Aqueous Phase Reforming (APR) process, Virent Energy Systems announced the successful startup of a 10kW power generation system that converts sugars and glycerin directly into hydrogen and natural gas as fuel for... Read more →

MyCar Via WorldChanging comes news of a microcar designed in Italy, manufactured in China and headed for European markets at a price of about €6,500 (US$7,000). Competitive microcars sell for €8,500 to €15,000. Like other microcars, the MyCar is meant only as a short-range city street vehicle—and is regulated by... Read more →

Scatterplot of Net GHG and Net Energy Value results from the EBAMM model. Note Cellulosic ethanol to the right. Click to enlarge. A new analysis by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley concludes that the production of ethanol from corn uses less petroleum energy than the production of gasoline.... Read more →

Veridium Corporation and Mean Green BioFuels are planning a joint venture on the conversion of fats from livestock and poultry facility wastes into biodiesel fuel. Veridium and Mean Green are both portfolio companies of GreenShift Corporation. (Greenshift holds about 65% of Veridium.) GreenShift is transferring its stake in GreenShift Industrial... Read more →

Results for GM Automotive Operations. Click to enlarge. General Motors reported a 2005 calendar-year loss, excluding special items, of $3.4 billion compared with net income of $3.6 billion in 2004. The size of the operational loss was bigger than analysts’ estimates. GM’s automotive operations reported an adjusted loss of $5.3... Read more →

MC2600 General Hydrogen Corporation has placed a 200,000 unit, three-year, purchase order for Maxwell ultracapacitors to enhance performance and energy management in its Hydricity Pack fuel-cell technology for industrial vehicles, especially forklifts. (Earlier post.) Each Hydricity system incorporates 30 to 120 Maxwell BOOSTCAP MC2600 2,600-farad ultracapacitor cells. General Hydrogen anticipates... Read more →

Quantum’s hydrogen injector Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide has delivered five hydrogen-fueled Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles to the City of Santa Ana, California. This is part of a larger South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) program to develop and demonstrate 30 hydrogen hybrid vehicles to fleets in Southern California.... Read more →

Two haul trucks empty their load of oil sand into the top of a double roll crusher in the Syncrude project. Photo: Syncrude. Companies participating in Canada’s oil-sands boom just turned in some hefty financial results. Annual profits at Canadian Oil Sands Trust (COST) jumped 63 per cent to C$831... Read more →

The price of ethanol futures has been rising. Note that the Y axis scale begins at $1.60, not 0. GM, continuing its new push on E85 and flexible-fuel vehicles (earlier post), today launched a national advertising and marketing campaign to build awareness and market acceptance for E85 vehicles. The campaign,... Read more →

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of $3 million in grants for projects aimed at reducing diesel emissions on the West Coast. This program is part of the West Coast Collaborative which has awarded more than $2.6 million in grants for 28 projects since 2004. This year... Read more →

The components of the SkySails system. Click to enlarge. Beluga Shipping GmbH, a Bremen, Germany-based shipping company, has purchased a new towing-kite propulsion assist system from SkySails, a start-up company in Hamburg, Germany. The SkySails towing-kite propulsion system uses offshore wind power (a kind of “wind hybrid” propulsion assistance) to... Read more →

Fabrication of catalyst coating for PEMs Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today kicked off the Washington Auto Show by announcing $119 million in funding and a research roadmap aimed at identifying and overcoming the technical and manufacturing challenges associated with the further development of commercially available hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The... Read more →

Escape Hybrid E85 At the Washington Auto Show, Ford unveiled the Ford Escape Hybrid E85, a version of its Escape hybrid with a flexible-fuel engine capable of running either gasoline or ethanol blends of up to 85% (E85). The research vehicle is the first from a major car company to... Read more →

The XH hybrid architecture. Click to enlarge. Ricardo will join AFS Trinity to design, test and develop AFS Trinity’s Extreme Hybrid drivetrain (earlier post) and to build the initial systems for licensing by AFS Trinity to carmakers worldwide. The Extreme Hybrid plug-in promises fuel economy in the 200–250 mpg US... Read more →

A joint program between the Minnesota Corn Growers, AgStar Financial Services, and the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition is designed to promote leasing of flexible-fuel vehicles that can burn gasoline or ethanol blends of up to 85% (E85). The “Flex for the Future” program offers a set of 3- and 5-year... Read more →

B-Series engine Cummins Inc. and KAMAZ Inc., the largest vehicle manufacturer in Russia, signed a joint venture agreement to produce Cummins B Series engines (120–275 horsepower) in Russia under the name ZAO Cummins Kama. The engines will be produced in two stages to comply with Euro 2 and Euro 3... Read more →

With a launch event in Washington DC, Plug-In Partners today kicked off a national campaign to urge automakers to accelerate development of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV). An initiative of the City of Austin, Texas, Plug-in Partners is a grassroots coalition of cities including including Austin, Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles, San... Read more →

The rear-midship layout of the i. Mitsubishi Motors Corporation today launched its new i minicar at Mitsubishi dealerships throughout Japan. Using a newly developed platform with an original rear-midship layout that mounts the engine forward of the rear axle line, the new i series includes 2WD and 4WD models. The... Read more →

Mexico’s National Institute of Ecology (INE) and Honda have signed an agreement for the joint environmental evaluation of 500 Civic Hybrid sedans in Mexico City, notable for its high altitude, heavy pollution and high fuel consumption. According to Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, José Luis Luege Tamargo, who... Read more →

Firefly Energy, the developer of a new graphite-foam lead-acid battery technology (earlier post), is slated to received a $2.5-million appropriation from the 2006 defense spending bill to further develop its battery technology for military applications. Firefly Energy will use the funds to develop prototypes of its advanced lead-acid battery to... Read more →

HyRadix and France’s IFP (Institut Français du Pétrole) announced a joint multi-year development program to extend the capability of HyRadix’ autothermal reforming (ATR) technology to process liquid hydrocarbon feed stocks. Initial work will focus on the production of hydrogen from ethanol. HyRadix currently offers a range of system for the... Read more →

The Sacramento Business Journal reports that PEM fuel-cell maker Anuvu has hit the skids. The company has cut its staff to three, stopped product development and is negotiating for debt relief with its major creditor. Anuvu, founded in 1994, was the developer of the Power-X fuel cell, and in 2004... Read more →

In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Chrysler Group President and CEO Tom LaSorda called for government and industry leaders to address two major current issues facing the automotive industry: currency and energy. On the energy front, LaSorda described the key forces shaping energy policy at the national level... Read more →

Ford Motor today announced details of a plan to restore profitability to its automotive business in North America no later than 2008. Ford’s North American auto operations suffered a $3-billion drop in revenue compared to 2004, posting a $1.6-billion loss for 2005. (Earlier post.) The plan outlines sharp cuts in... Read more →

ENERPULSE, an ignition products company, announced today that its prototype pulse plug (Pulstar), has demonstrated a 2.7% improvement in spark-ignition engine vehicle fuel efficiency over spark plugs in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tests. Pulstar is the first capacitor-enhanced spark plug. The drop-in replacement for spark plugs uses the capacitor to... Read more →

Valence Technology has announced eight new models of its large-format lithium-ion batteries based on its proprietary Saphion technology. (EDrive Systems uses Valence Saphion batteries in their plug-in Prius conversions. (Earlier post.) Four new U-Charge XP Power Systems are capable of peak power rates of 500 to 1,700 continuous watts, depending... Read more →

Ford Auto Operations, 2004–2005. Click to enlarge. Ford Motor released its financials for 2005 today, reporting company-wide full-year after-tax income from continuing operations of $2.5 billion, a drop of 42% from the $4.3 billion in 2004. Its North American auto operations was the most troubled unit, reporting a pre-tax loss... Read more →