Russia, the world’s second-largest oil producer and exporter, will start building its first major ethanol plant in 2007, according to a regional official speaking at Russia’s first Fuel Bioethanol conference in Moscow. The US$200-250 million plant will produce 300,000 tonnes of fuel ethanol a year (about 380 million liters, or... Read more →

Mazda has leased two more of its bi-fuel hydrogen-gasoline RX-8 Hydrogen RE vehicles (earlier post), one each going to the government authorities of the City of Hiroshima and Hiroshima Prefecture. (Mazda is based in Hiroshima.) In March, Mazda announced its first two such leases, those going to two corporate customers:... Read more →

An Altima Hybrid prototype Nissan has released very preliminary details about the 2007 Altima Hybrid, due to go on sale in the US in early in 2007. The hybrid is based on the just-released redesigned 2007 Altima that goes on sale in the fall of 2006. (Earlier post). The Altima... Read more →

The pipeline run from Nederland, Texas to Patoka, Illinois. Mobil Pipe Line Company (MPLCO), an affiliate of ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, has started delivering Canadian crude to US Gulf Coast refineries through an 858-mile crude oil pipeline that runs from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas. Deliveries to Beaumont, Texas-area refineries began... Read more →

By Jack Rosebro Wind and solar powers the North Sea Cutter platform. Royal Dutch Shell has begun pumping natural gas from its wind- and solar-powered Cutter micro-platform, sited on a marginal-production gas field underneath the southern North Sea. The unmanned platform is supported by a monopost, which is based on... Read more →

The City of Barstow, California has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hythane Company for exploring the use of Hythane (a fuel blend consisting of 20% hydrogen and 80% natural gas by volume, or about 7% hydrogen by energy) as a vehicle fuel for the city’s fleet. Using Hythane further... Read more →

According to an analysis for the European organization Transport and Environment (T&E), new cars sold in Europe in 2005 produced on average 160 grams of CO2 per kilometer, a reduction of only 1% from 2004. Improvements in fuel economy lead to decreases in carbon dioxide emissions. That rate of improvement... Read more →

The N60 ENT G natural gas engine Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FPT), a company of the Fiat Group, will provide 1,000 N60 ENT G natural gas engines to Beijing Public Transport Company. The deal is part of a larger cooperative program among the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory, the... Read more →

A decadal view of forcing data used in the simulations. For clarity, greenhouse gas (GHG) and aerosol forcings are offset by 3 W m-2, and solar forcing by 1 W m-2. Source: Hegerl et. al. A research team led by Duke University scientists has found that while instrumental readings made... Read more →

In its second major manufacturing deal with a Chinese company within a week, Maxwell Technologies has signed a contract with Shanghai Urban Electric Power Investment Development Corporation (SUEP), granting SUEP a license to manufacture and market ultracapacitor products based on Maxwell’s proprietary large cell and multi-cell module technology under its... Read more →

General Motors has reported a preliminary total global operational net loss of $323 million for the first quarter of 2006—about a $1-billion improvement from the first quarter of 2005—and an increase in revenue of 14.1% to a record $52.2 billion. Excluding special items but including the effect of the $681... Read more →

China’s first dimethyl ether bus, made by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Shanghai Daily. A Shanghai, China, chemical company has started producing dimethyl ether (DME) as an alternative fuel for transit buses in the city. Shanghai Coking & Chemical Corp, a unit of Shanghai Huayi Group, put its 5,000-tonne-per-year dimethyl ether... Read more →

Unitel Technologies has designed and built a fully automated computer-controlled pilot plant for making fuel-cell hydrogen from JP8 military fuel. Following mechanical tests at Unitel, this unit will be shipped next month to the US Army Communications Electronics Command at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The US Army Fuel Cell Technology... Read more →

Gasoline demand. Click to enlarge. Since recovering from its sharp drop in the wake of hurricane Katrina last fall, US demand for gasoline has consistently remained slightly above the level for the same period in the prior year, despite an increasing national average price that is currently 24.4% higher than... Read more →

Location of the proposed refinery. Lack of an agreement for crude from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Mexican state oil company, is thwarting the building of the first new US refinery in 30 years—the Arizona Clean Fuels refinery near Yuma (earlier post). As a result, Arizona Clean Fuels is turning to... Read more →

DuPont has formed a new business unit, DuPont Biofuels, to accelerate commercialization of DuPont’s biofuels technologies and pipeline candidates. Specific growth projects across DuPont globally will be consolidated within DuPont Biofuels to capitalize on the market opportunities and technology needs in this industry, including crop-based products and technologies, the biorefinery... Read more →

EPA Midwest Region 5 The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the availability of $1,039,320 in grant monies for projects that reduce diesel emissions from older engines in the Midwest (EPA Region 5) as part of its support for the Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative (MCDI). Of the total funding,... Read more →

Oryx GTL under construction. The cylindrical towers are the reactors. Click to enlarge. Sasol Chevron, the joint venture between Chevron Corporation and South African petrochemical company Sasol Limited, has launched a promotional stunt to showcase its GTL (gas-to-liquid) diesel fuel technology. The Sasol Chevron GTL Challenge will send a team... Read more →

Significant, commercial-scale biodiesel production continues to expand to new countries, with recent announcements highlighting developments in Indonesia, Sweden and China. Indonesia. The Jakarta Post reports that Indonesia will have its first biodiesel plant in 2008 as the result of a joint effort by PT Bakrie Sumatra Plantations and PT Rekayasa... Read more →

The Massive Yet Tiny (MYT) engine A California inventor is developing a new compact and highly efficient engine—the Massive Yet Tiny (MYT) engine—that promises high power output with a very high power to weight ratio (20:1). The inventor, Raphial Morgado, recently won first prize in the 2005 Emhart-NASA Tech Briefs... Read more →

The Financial Times reports that Toyota is planning to sell flex-fuel vehicles in the US by 2008 to address the surge of interest in ethanol as a renewable fuel. In 2005, Toyota indicated that it was developing flex-fuel vehicles targeted toward the Latin American market. (Earlier post.) In the US,... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and BorgWarner have entered into a partnership, formed via a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), to develop newly advanced turbochargers, air management, and electronic sensors for use with clean diesel and high-efficiency gasoline engines. Through the partnership, EPA and BorgWarner will evaluate components... Read more →

The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter GE’s Technology Lending is providing capital to Ocean Power Delivery, Ltd. (OPD), developer of the world’s first commercial facility that will generate electricity from offshore ocean waves. The transaction, made in conjunction with GE Energy Financial Services, extends a loan facility of $2.6 million (£1.5... Read more →

General Motors continued to focus on its national ethanol campaign (earlier post) with plans for the addition of approximately 20 new E85 ethanol fueling sites in the southeast Michigan area through a collaborative partnership with Meijer and CleanFUEL USA. GM made the announcement during an event at the Michigan State... Read more →

Greenhouse gas inventory, 1990–2004, Click to enlarge. Spain’s emissions of greenhouse gases have risen 48% from 1990 to 2004, climbing from 289.4 million metric tons CO2 equivalent to 428 million metric tons, according to a report produced by the Environment Ministry that will be sent to the European Commission. Greenhouse... Read more →

Silicon-oxygen nanoparticles aggregate to form zeolites, capturing other atoms and molecules in the process. The resulting minerals have regularly-shaped, intricate pore and channel systems throughout their structures. Credit: Michael Tsapatsis, University of Minnesota Zeolites are porous, sieve-like minerals that have been used for decades in purifiers, filters and other devices.... Read more →

V. Ramanathan, chief scientist of the Maldives Campaign, and AUAVs. Photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UCSD A research consortium funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has successfully sent a fleet of aerial drones through the... Read more →

Union Pacific is testing technologies to reduce diesel engine emissions in older railroad locomotives. Through collaboration with staff at the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Union Pacific is providing a 3,800-horsepower SD60M locomotive built in January 1992 to serve as the first... Read more →

Korea Times. The South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy has announced a three-level energy saving program that will restrict car use and air conditioning in buildings amid concerns the escalating crisis over Iran’s nuclear program will push oil prices up further. Although oil markets seem to reacting more... Read more →

Maxwell Technologies, has formed a manufacturing alliance with Belton Technology Group, a major Chinese manufacturer of precision components, flex circuits, circuit boards and other products, to meet the forecast growth to multi-million-unit annual volumes for its BOOSTCAP ultracapacitors and multi-cell modules. Maxwell sees the increase in demand being driven by... Read more →

The AES Corporation—one of the world’s largest global power companies, with 2005 revenues of US$11.1 billion—announced plans to invest approximately $1 billion over the next three years to expand the company’s alternative energy business and bring to market new projects and technologies to reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions. Through... Read more →

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC), an alliance of ethanol producers, has joined O2Diesel’s CityHome program. CityHome helps subsidize the adoption of O2Diesel’s ethanol-diesel blend by transit and school bus fleets. (Earlier post.) EPIC’s goal is to reach consumers and key influencers across the country to promote the benefits... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a solicitation worth up to $1.6 million this year for industry studies on the best ways to utilize energy from existing commercial nuclear reactors for the production of hydrogen. DOE will provide up to 80% of the total cost of each study;... Read more →

Canter Eco Hybrid Mitsubishi Fuso is showing to US buyers a parallel-hybrid diesel-electric commercial truck that delivers up to 30% better fuel economy in urban delivery applications (up to 10% on-highway) and up to 60% less emissions than the standard diesel-only model. Mitsubishi Fuso will introduce the Canter Eco Hybrid—shown... Read more →

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that Honda Motor plans to begin manufacturing diesel engines in the UK to meet the rising demand in Europe. Until now, Honda has exported diesel engines from Japan to its British factory for assembly in cars. Honda had indicated last year that it would begin... Read more →

The European Federation for Transport and Environment reports that Germany has called for Euro-6 standards defining limits of oxides of nitrogen to be set now, rather than in the future. Germany’s representative told a meeting of EU competition ministers in March of a growing consensus that the just-published Euro-5 standards... Read more →

In an interview on the BBC4 Today’s Program, Professor Sir David King, the UK’s chief scientist, said that given current trends, a 550 parts per million concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is optimistically the likely level at which the world can settle. Such a concentration—roughly double the pre-industrial level—would... Read more →

The ZENN Feel Good Cars Corporation (FGC) is tuning up for the production of its ZENN low-speed electric vehicle. Of particular note is that in September 2005, FGC entered into an agreement with the taciturn EEStor to acquire worldwide exclusive rights to purchase EEStor’s new Energy Storage Unit—a high-power-density ceramic... Read more →

The Vespa LX50 HyS. Piaggio, the Italian manufacturer of the iconic Vespa scooter, has introduced two plug-in hybrid prototypes based on the standard Vespa LX 50 and X8 125 models. The HyS (Hybrid Scooter) models are parallel hybrids, combining four-stroke combustion engines with electric motors. The electric motor provides power... Read more →

Researchers at Rutgers and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a tandem catalytic system that creates a more efficient Fischer-Tropsch process for the conversion of coal and other carbon feedstocks to synthetic fuels. The two-step chemical process, developed by chemists at Rutgers University in New Jersey... Read more →

85 E85 Tahoes and Suburbans marshall outside Javits for the Driveaway promotional event at the New York International Auto Show. Click to enlarge. GM has rapidly become the most outspoken of the major automakers in its promotion of flexible-fuel vehicles that can burn ethanol blends of up to 85% as... Read more →

BMW is a believer in the future of the combustion engine. Speaking at the North American International Auto Show, Tom Purves, Chairman and CEO of BMW (US) Holding Corp, outlined the short-, medium- and long-term technologies which the company believes will keep the combustion engine relevant into the future. The... Read more →

The Iowa House on Wednesday passed by a vote of 97–1 a Renewable Fuels measure that will require that 25% of motor fuel sold in Iowa by 2020 come from renewable sources. The bill—which creates the most aggressive Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) in the country—now goes to Governor Tom Vilsack... Read more →

The SI-Drive selector Subaru has introduced a new drive system—the SI-Drive—that allows the driver to maximize engine performance, control and efficiency by choosing from among three selectable modes—“Intelligent”, “Sport” and “Sport Sharp”—using a rotary dial on the center console. The SI-Drive controls the electronic throttle system’s response and fuel and... Read more →

J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting projects that global demand for diesel light-duty vehicles will nearly double over the next 10 years, increasing from 15 million sales in 2005 to 29 million in 2015. Although Western Europe has been the key driver in the rapid growth of diesel vehicle demand for the... Read more →

The 2006 Civic GX. Honda will extend retail sales of its all-new compressed natural gas (CNG) 2006 Civic GX to New York this fall. Honda already markets the Civic GX to fleet operators with their own fueling stations, and has begun offering the Civic GX and the Phill home natural-gas... Read more →

The P-50 Integrated Starter Alternator (ISA) motor. Raser Technologies, an R&D company developing and licensing advanced electric motors based on its proprietary Symetron technology (earlier post), announced performance results for its Symetron AC Induction Motor-based P-50 Hybrid Propulsion Integrated Starter Alternator (ISA) Drive System at the 2006 SAE World Congress... Read more →

Farmacule’s plant genetic engineering process. Click to enlarge. Farmacule BioIndustries, a Australian biotechnology company focused on developing a sustainable molecular farming industry, and its research partner Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed new sugarcane plants that can be used for more cost-effective ethanol production without compromising the commercial sugar... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has issued an RFP for a diverse fleet of 14 hydrogen-powered vehicles including light-duty passenger vehicles, cargo vehicles and vans or buses to demonstrate the viability of hydrogen fuel and hydrogen vehicles for transportation. The vehicles will be leased for up to 24 months,... Read more →

The 320 BLUETEC Mercedes-Benz unveiled the previously-announced E 320 BLUETEC—its “50-state ready” clean diesel car (earlier post)—at the New York International Auto Show. The E320 BLUETEC, one of the new-generation of E-Class vehicles being rolled out by Mercedes (earlier post), uses a new 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel engine producing 221 horsepower... Read more →