Valence Technology, a provider of phosphate lithium-ion battery systems, has partnered with plug-in hybrid (PHEV) conversion company EnergyCS to deliver a converted PHEV Prius to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for evaluation of its fuel economy and fleet adaptability. SMUD recently completed its first 1,000 miles of testing and... Read more →

Enova Systems has entered into an evaluation project with Smith Electric Vehicles, a division of The Tanfield Group Plc (TAN) and the world’s largest producer of road-going commercial electric vehicles. Enova is supplying its 120kW Electric Drive System to power Smith vehicles on a trial basis. The first operational Smith... Read more →

Mascoma Corporation, a cellulosic biomass-to-ethanol company (earlier post), has raised $30 million in its second round of venture funding. The financing was led by General Catalyst Partners, with additional participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Vantage Point Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, and Pinnacle Ventures, as well as existing investors... Read more →

Hydrogen Engine Center (HEC, earlier post) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ITM Power Plc (ITM), developers of a low-cost electrolyzer technology, jointly to develop products for power-generation systems. HEC anticipates that ITM can offer an assured supply of hydrogen using ITM’s low-cost electrolyzer technology. ITM anticipates that... Read more →

A cutaway diagram of Infinia’s 55-W free-piston Stirling generator. Open Energy Corporation and Infinia Corporation (formerly Stirling Technology Company) plan to integrate Sterling engines and solar concentrators to create a new solar-powered electric generation system. The engineering teams at Infinia and Open Energy believe that the Suncone CSP solar concentrating... Read more →

New Zealand’s largest coal mining company, government-owned Solid Energy New Zealand Ltd., will survey potential land-based carbon dioxide storage sites in Otago and Southland as part of a project exploring carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Solid Energy is investigating a NZ$1 billion (US$685 million) Coal-to-Liquids project of which CCS... Read more →

Global CO2 emissions gap. Click to enlarge. Source: GCP. The global growth in the rate of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels was 4 times greater in the period between 2000 to 2005 than in the preceding 10 years, according to an analysis by the Global Carbon Project, a component... Read more →

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has issued a “winter weather advisory” for fleet managers, petroleum distributors and other consumers in response to fuel quality testing results that the trade association shared at a NBB-led industry meeting last week. A national fuel quality testing project, co-funded by NBB and the National... Read more →

Manitoba Hydro (canada) recently launched a research and development project to review the potential of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and the possible impact that the new technology could have on future Manitoba Hydro electrical load growth and energy markets. Manitoba Hydro worked with EnergyCS to convert a 2005 Toyota... Read more →

New Century Lubricants (NCL) has entered into an exclusive worldwide agreement with National Chemical Laboratory (NCL-India), a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India, to demonstrate and commercialize NCL’s new transesterification catalyst and process for the production of biodiesel fuels and biolubricants. The new ENSEL... Read more →

CHS Inc., one of the US’ leading energy and grain-based foods companies, and US BioEnergy Corporation, a producer and marketer of ethanol and distillers grains, today jointly introduced Provista, a new ethanol and biodiesel marketing joint venture. Provista will market 450 million gallons of ethanol from seven plants at the... Read more →

The fuel-economy of the hybrids surpassed that of the diesel and CNG buses. Click to enlarge. The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has published the final version of a study comparing 10 new compressed natural gas (CNG) and next-generation diesel series-hybrid electric bus propulsion systems operated... Read more →

The new smart fortwo coupé. DaimlerChrysler unveiled the new gasoline- and diesel-powered smart fortwo city cars yesterday evening in Stuttgart, Germany. The company said it will introduce a micro-hybrid version (starter/generator with stop-start capability) on one of the models in 2007. The new smart fortwo coupé and smart fortwo cabrio... Read more →

The hybrid Model 335. Peterbilt, a division of PACCAR, will display a production-representative, hybrid-electric medium-duty truck—outfitted with a fully integrated bucket lift body—at the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF) National Meeting in San Diego next week. The hybrid Model 335 is targeted for municipal and utility applications and will be... Read more →

In the context of reporting an almost doubling of its net losses for the third quarter to C$9 million (US$8 million) from C$4.6 million the prior year, hybrid powertrain manufacturer Azure Dynamics said that it will focus on four core products and curtail other activities. Azure attributed the increased loss... Read more →

Comparison of NOx emissions for conventional diesel and B20 for each vehicle tested and each cycle. Click to enlarge. A recent study by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes that vehicles using a B20 biodiesel blend (20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) do not produce... Read more →

Odyne Corporation has landed new orders for heavy-duty hybrids, one for a CNG hybrid, and another for plug-in diesel hybrids. The new customers, Keyspan Energy Delivery Long Island and the Town of Oyster Bay, received partial funding from the Greater Long Island Clean Cities Coalition as part of its Round... Read more →

New light-duty vehicle technology shares in WEO 2006 scenarios. Click to enlarge. The International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2006 outlines an alternative policy scenario that reduces global energy demand by 10% in 2030, thereby avoiding the worse affects of the “dirty, insecure and expensive” business-as-usual reference scenario. (Earlier... Read more →

Optare will apply the hybrid system to the Tempo platform. The Optare Group, a leading British independent bus maker, is to be the first UK producer to offer the GM Allison two-mode diesel-electric hybrid system in its vehicles. GM Allison introduced the hybrid system in Europe last month at the... Read more →

AutoWeek reports that General Motors may soon introduce a series-hybrid prototype as a step in its development path to future electric vehicles. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told AutoWeek in an interview that GM executives believe that electric vehicles are the future, and that the company’s work on fuel-cell vehicles... Read more →

Valence Technology, providers of Saphion lithium-ion phosphate rechargeable batteries, reported record revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007 (ending 30 Sept.) of $6.4 million, an increase of 15.5% over the second quarter of fiscal 2006, and an increase of 101.3% over first quarter of fiscal 2007. The substantial... Read more →

Financial Express. India plans to introduce the mandatory blending of 10% ethanol (E10) into gasoline across the entire country from June 2007, according to Shri M. S. Srinivasan, Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The use of 5% ethanol blends, currently in three Indian states, will spread... Read more →

People’s Daily. China’s first hydrogen refueling station opened Wednesday at the Zhongguancun Yongfeng High-Tech Industrial Base in the Beijing Hydrogen Park. BP operates the station, which is in the Beijing suburbs. It is BP’s largest hydrogen station yet. BP has invested a total of US$3.5 million in the Sino-British joint... Read more →

ADM sees the potential demand for ethanol (E10 nationwide) outstripping current and announced production capacity. Click to enlarge. Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) outlined its strategy to be the global leader in bioenergy while expanding its premier position in the agricultural processing value chain during its Analyst Day Meeting today... Read more →

Altair Nanotechnologies, makers of an advanced lithium-ion battery, reported third-quarter revenues of $750,000, a 28% increase from $585,000 in the prior year quarter. Net loss for the quarter was $4.05 million, compared to a net loss of $2.17 million in the prior year. For the nine-month period, revenues increased 11%... Read more →

ASTM International recently released a new standard for biodiesel that will help ensure that biodiesel blends of up to 20% (B20) will be compatible with future diesel exhaust emissions technology. The new standard, D 6751-06a, adds new limits on calcium and magnesium, which can be introduced during the biodiesel manufacturing... Read more →

Volvo’s FlexiFuel system. Click to enlarge. Volvo Cars is launching FlexiFuel models into eight new European markets this fall and is also extending its range of E85 models. Even Volvo’s new C30 will be offered as an E85 flex-fuel model. Three of Volvo’s nine models—the C30, S40 and V50—are now... Read more →

According to data provided by the Renewable Fuels Association, US ethanol production is currently averaging nearly 4.7 billion gallons a year, a 20.5% increase from the 3.9 billion gallons produced in 2005. In August, US producers averaged 329,000 barrels per day (bpd)—a record for daily production average and an increase... Read more →

Protective chromium-nitride surface layer. Click to enlarge. The Department of Energy has awarded $4.5 million to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and its partners to further the development of nitrided metallic bipolar plates for automotive PEM fuel cells. The award is a follow-on to an earlier $1.65-million project designed to... Read more →

Kerala. India plans to produce 60 million tonnes (MT) of biodiesel per year by 2030, according to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Addressing farmers who grow jatropha, President Kalam said during his one-day visit to Chhattisgarh that biodiesel could transform India’s oil scenario. “Jatropha is a vital tree for bio-diesel, farmers... Read more →

Microbiologists at Nanologix, Inc., a nano-biotechnology company engaged in the research, development and commercialization of technologies for alternative sources of fuel, have succeeded in increasing the output from their hydrogen bioreactors by using a new nutrient mix. NanoLogix uses a fermentative approach to the microbial production of hydrogen. In a... Read more →

Energy Conversion Devices has been awarded a cost-shared contract by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to continue its work on small hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines. The estimated total cost of the project is approximately US$1.7 million, with DOE providing $1.2 million toward the project. Under the contract, ECD Ovonics... Read more →

Methanex and China’s XinAo Group have entered into a long-term arrangement under which Methanex will, beginning in late 2007, supply an initial quantity of approximately 300,000 tonnes per annum of methanol to XinAo. This methanol will be used in a new 200,000-tonne dimethyl ether (DME) production facility that XinAo is... Read more →

In its just-released World Energy Outlook (WEO-2006), the International Energy Agency forecasts that under a business-as-usual reference scenario, world primary energy demand would increase by 53% between now and 2030, and global carbon dioxide emissions would reach 40 Gt, a 55% increase over today’s level. More than 70% of the... Read more →

FuelCell Energy and Enbridge are beginning production of their first multi-megawatt hybrid power product, which generates clean electricity while recovering energy normally lost during natural-gas pipeline operations. The Direct FuelCell-Energy Recovery Generation (DFC-ERG) system combines a 1.2 MW Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plant with a 1 MW unfired gas expansion... Read more →

Toyota Motor and Isuzu Motors have signed a memorandum of understanding stating they will start studying the synergic effects of business collaboration. To “enable this business collaboration to move forward smoothly,” Toyota is purchasing 100 million shares of Isuzu from Mitsubishi (60 million shares) and ITOCHU (40 million shares) and... Read more →

Enova Systems is partnering with Norway-based Inspire investment group and its newly acquired investment Think Group to provide Power Control Units (PCU) for the resurrected Th!nk Electric Vehicle. Their goal is to prepare for the production and introduction of the second-generation Th!nk City model which Ford Motor Company and Th!nk... Read more →

This macrophotograph compares commercial nickel-based Alloy 600 (left) and Argonne’s new alloy after 5,700 hours of exposure to the same metal-dusting environment at 593°C. Click to enlarge. New alloy materials developed by scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory could enable a complete redesign of reforming systems... Read more →

Greenhouse gas emissions 1990-2005. Click to enlarge. Nikkei. Japan is at risk of falling well short of its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, with fiscal 2005 combined discharges of all greenhouse gases having increased 8.1% from fiscal 1990 levels. Carbon dioxide emissions rose 13.3% to... Read more →

The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program has issued a competitive grant solicitation for the research, development and demonstration of biofuel energy conversion technologies and refineries using lignocellulosic biomass (such as agricultural and forest residues, and urban waste), food waste, beverages, waste grease, purpose-grown or energy... Read more →

Korea Times. Hyundai Motor’s head of hybrid research has requested that the South Korean government give subsidies to manufacturers and buyers of hybrid vehicles because Korean companies are about 10 years behind Japanese makers. Kim Min-jin, Senior Vice President of Hyundai, said that hybrid cars will become a market standard... Read more →

This image portrays the water-splitting catalytic cycle with the Mn4Ca structure in the middle. An international team of researchers has derived the precise structure of a catalyst composed of four manganese atoms and one calcium atom (Mn4Ca) that drives the sunlight-powered water-splitting reaction that is the cornerstone of photosynthesis. Their... Read more →

Quantum’s TriShield storage tank. Click to enlarge. Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. has received a multi-million dollar purchase order from GM for hydrogen-storage systems to be used in GM’s recently announced Chevrolet Equinox Fuel-Cell vehicle program. (Earlier post.) GM will begin building and deploying a 100-vehicle fleet of Equinox... Read more →

Four views of the SAX-40. Click to enlarge. Researchers from Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have unveiled their revolutionary concept for a “silent aircraft”: the SAX-40 (Silent Aircraft eXperimental). Originally conceived in 2003 to make a huge reduction in the noise experienced by people in the... Read more →

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that Toyota Motor plans to introduce E85 flexible-fuel vehicles in North America starting with the Tundra pickup truck as early as 2008. Currently, all of Toyota’s gasoline engines can run on fuel that contains 10% ethanol. Toyota is also considering rolling out a gasoline-electric hybrid... Read more →

by Rafael Seidl Energy and propulsion options for AutoTram. Click to enlarge. Fraunhofer engineers are now testing a prototype of the AutoTram: a rubber-wheeled, trackless, flywheel-hybrid tram. (Earlier post.) The basic version of the AutoTram is a three-axle diesel-electric hybrid. A 245 hp (183 kW) V8 Euro-3 diesel powering three... Read more →

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that Toyota Motor projects a 17% increase in consolidated operating profit to about ¥2.2 trillion (US$18.6 billion) for the fiscal year through March 2007 on brisk overseas sales of fuel-efficient cars as well as the weaker yen. This would mark the first time that a... Read more →

Shell Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions (self-reported) from oil sands operations. Shell has set a reduction target by 2010. Click to enlarge. Shell Canada has decided to proceed with the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) Expansion 1. (Earlier post.) This is a 100,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) expansion of oil sands mining and upgrading... Read more →

Basic design of a free-piston engine as generator (not the engine modeled). Click to enlarge. Source: Prof. Valeri Golovitchev, Chalmers Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, are exploring the development of a two-stroke, free–piston compression-ignited engine employing uniflow scavenging as a genset in hybrid applications. Free-piston engines (engines without... Read more →

Changes in atmospheric radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases and the 2005 NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI). Click to enlarge. In 2005, the globally averaged concentrations of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) reached new highs with CO2 at 379.1 parts per million (ppm)—up 0.53%... Read more →