During a speech today focusing on the US international development agenda, President Bush announced that the US will work with other nations “to establish a new framework on greenhouse gas emissions for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.” The President proposed convening a series of meetings of the US... Read more →

The new engine will power the new Mazda2 (Demio). Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a new, naturally aspirated MZR 1.3-liter Miller-cycle gasoline engine, which will power the all-new Demio (Mazda2 in non-Japanese markets) when it goes on sale in Japan in July 2007. In combination with Mazda’s first continuously variable... Read more →

Business Journal. Startup algae biofuels company LiveFuels received $10 million in a first round of funding led by David Gelbaum of the Quercus Trust, which donates to conservation advocacy and environmental organizations. The company says its goal is to cost-effectively produce large amounts of oil derived from algae. In 2006,... Read more →

Air Liquide Advanced Technologies US, LLC will supply five, 700-bar, portable fast-fill hydrogen fueling systems to General Motors (GM) in the US. GM will also have an option to acquire two additional systems. The systems will be built in North America, with proprietary engineering designs from Air Liquide’s Advanced Technologies... Read more →

The EPA yesterday held its second and final public hearing on California’s request for a federal waiver that would allow the state to proceed with implementing its law restricting emissions of greenhouse gases from light-duty vehicles starting in 2009. The eleven other states that have adopted California's measure will also... Read more →

Mitsubishi Electric announced it has achieved a photoelectric conversion efficiency rate of 18.0% in a 150mm square practical use multi-crystalline silicon solar cell, an improvement of 1.2% over previous models and the world’s highest rate to date. The company plans to present its technology at the Fukuoka 17th International Photovoltaic... Read more →

Ynetnews. Executives from Renault and Toyota have been speaking to officials from Israel and Jordan in an attempt to launch a joint venture for a factory specializing in environmentally-friendly electric cars. According to the plan, the location of this factory would be near the border between Israel and Jordan, in... Read more →

Neste Oil officially inaugurated its new €100 million (US$135 million) renewable diesel NExBTL (Next Generation Biomass to Liquid) plant that has been under construction for the last 18 months at its Porvoo refinery in Finland. (Earlier post.) The company is also bringing online a new, more than €700 million (US$943... Read more →

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty today signed a Memorandum of Understanding on climate change. Under the accord, Ontario and California will partner to fight global warming by coordinating policies on low-carbon fuel standards. Ontario will require producers to reduce carbon emissions from transportation fuels by 10%... Read more →

Sandia National Laboratories and Boeing are collaborating on a project to look at the feasibility of using a hydrogen-powered fuel cell to provide backup power in aircraft. Commercial and military aircraft use a variety of techniques to provide backup electrical power to critical subsystems during emergency scenarios. Depending on the... Read more →

New Flyer-ISE gasoline hybrid for Montebello. The Board of the City of Montebello, CA has authorized the purchase of 150 40-foot gasoline hybrid-electric buses, to be supplied by the team of New Flyer and ISE Corporation. This is a Federal Transit Administration pooled procurement program that provides 90% federal funding... Read more →

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed The Next Generation Energy Act (SF538) into law on 25 May, thereby setting the goal of cutting the state’s energy consumption by 25% by 2025. The law also sets the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals at 15% by 2015, 30% by 2025, and 80%... Read more →

Odyne Corporation announced that DUECO, Inc., has issued a purchase order to Odyne for the installation of Odyne’s propulsion technology into an aerial lift truck that will be displayed at the International Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition (ICUEE) on October 16 – 18 in Louisville, Kentucky. Odyne and DUECO had... Read more →

An additional 10 years of continued rapid growth of CO2 emissions and infrastructure may make avoiding dangerous climate change “impractical, if not impossible”, according to a recently published study in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The lead author of the study is James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute... Read more →

Clean Diesel Technologies has signed a non-exclusive license agreement with Combustion Components Associates (CCA), a provider of air pollution control technologies for the power generation and transportation industries. The license covers the Clean Diesel patented ARIS technologies for control of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions using selective catalytic reduction (SCR)... Read more →

AeroVironment (AV) formally announced that it performed a fast charge demonstration of a lithium-ion battery pack for EVs for representatives of the California Air Resources Board (ARB). AeroVironment had earlier described the demonstration in an ARB hearing on the Zero Emission Vehicle program. (Earlier post.) The 35kWh (kilowatt-hour) battery pack,... Read more →

Although lead-acid batteries are ubiquitous in automotive starter-lighting-ignition (SLI) applications, they have, with a few exceptions, been bypassed in favor of NiMH for current hybrid applications and li-ion for applications to come. There are a long list of reasons for that decision: battery weight, limited cycle life in heavy use,... Read more →

Cattlenetwork. The Brazilian government is mulling the hike of an obligatory 23% ethanol mix in all gasoline to 25%, according to an Agricultural Ministry official. Ethanol prices in Brazil are at their lowest point in two years. “With this fall of prices, the ministers that make up the Inter-ministerial Council... Read more →

Beijing Public Transport Holdings, Ltd. (BPT) has ordered 250 Cummins Westport B Gas Plus engines to power Beijing Jinghua Coach Co. buses. These buses will be in addition to the current fleet of CNG-powered buses to showcase next year’s 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. More than 3,000 Cummins Westport natural... Read more →

Drawing showing the position of the retractable drive units. Click to enlarge. African Cats, the Dutch company that last year introduced a hybrid version of one of its lightweight, 43-foot catamarans (earlier post), is developing a full-electric retractable propulsion and generation system for sailing yachts. African Cats plans to use... Read more →

The environmental organization Friends of the Earth Canada is suing the Government of Canada for abandoning its international commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Filed in Federal Court in Ottawa by environmental law organization Sierra Legal, the lawsuit alleges that the federal government is violating Canadian law by failing to meet... Read more →

BioSelect Fuels LLC, a division of Standard Renewable Energy LLC, and Chevron Technology Ventures, a division of Chevron USA, unveiled their biodiesel plant in Galveston, Texas today. (Earlier post.) Galveston Bay Biodiesel, LP (GBB) is the initial project of BioSelect Fuels, a Houston-based developer and operator of biodiesel facilities. The... Read more →

Reuters. India’s Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Prodipto Ghosh, said that the country’s existing energy policy would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25% by 2020, but also warned that pressure to set mandatory targets to curb global warming would hurt economic growth. India... Read more →

Svenska Dagbladet. Sweden is targeting at least a 30% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, beating the European Union goal of a 20% reduction, according to Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren. Carlgren told the Svenska Dagbladet that since Sweden had pushed hard in the recent EU negotiations on the reduction... Read more →

Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) plans to reduce its annual carbon emissions by more than 81,000 tons by replacing 1,300 vehicles with hybrids and making changes in other areas of its corporate fleet. Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is New Jersey’s oldest and largest regulated electric... Read more →

Peabody Energy has entered into agreements with Rentech, Inc. to fund up to $10 million of engineering and development costs for Rentech’s planned coal-to-liquids project in Illinois and to supply the facility with nearly 1 million tons of coal annually. As part of the agreements, Peabody has an option to... Read more →

Chevron Corporation and the Texas A&M Agriculture and Engineering BioEnergy Alliance (Texas A&M BioEnergy Alliance) announced today that they have entered into a strategic research agreement to accelerate the production and conversion of crops for manufacturing ethanol and other biofuels from cellulose. Chevron Technology Ventures, a division of Chevron USA,... Read more →

Process flow for the SCE-Chevron hydrogen station. Click to enlarge. Southern California Edison (SCE) and Chevron Technology Ventures LLC last week dedicated a comprehensive hydrogen energy station evaluation and demonstration program at the utility’s Rosemead headquarters. The five-year demonstration is co-funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) as one... Read more →

The New Twingo. Renault is beginning sales of its revamped New Twingo on 15 June 2007. The New Twingo is the first new vehicle release in an extensive range renewal program under the Renault Commitment 2009 plan, and all New Twingos, regardless of engine choice, are part of Renault’s new... Read more →

The Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten reported that Ford plans to sell its Volvo cars operation and that BMW is a possible buyer. Ford bought Volvo’s automotive operation from the Volvo Group in 1999. The Volvo Group serves the heavy-duty on-road transportation market as well as off-road, stationary, marine and aerospace markets.... Read more →

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) plans to spend ¥209 billion (US$1.72 billion) over five years, beginning in the current fiscal year, to support the development of next-generation powertrains and fuels to cut petroleum consumption and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The plan, called “an initiative to develop next-generation... Read more →

Philippine Star. E-Cane Fuel Corp. (ECF), a bioethanol company based in the US, is building a US$150-million fully-integrated sugarcane ethanol processing facility in Central Luzon. The E-Cane executive said the amount is by far the biggest private investment by a US company in the Philippine biofuel industry....At present, E-Cane has... Read more →

by Jack Rosebro Beginning this Memorial Day weekend, members of the auto industry are rolling out a comprehensive campaign to convince Americans to oppose proposed increases in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, and to pressure their elected officials to vote down such proposals. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers... Read more →

Drawing of the hybrid locomotive. Click to enlarge. GE publicly unveiled a prototype hybrid road locomotive at its Ecomagination event in Los Angeles last week. (Earlier post.) The 4,000 hp locomotive uses a set sodium nickel chloride (Na-NiCl2) batteries to capture and store energy dissipated during dynamic braking as well... Read more →

Yomiuri Shimbun. The Chinese government plans to boost the country’s nuclear power generation capability by between 15 and 20 times its current level by the end of 2030, according to a speech made by a Chinese official close to the plan. Currently, China has 10 nuclear reactors, which are capable... Read more →

Acumentrics Corporation, a developer of solid oxide fuel cells, has shipped a 5 kW fuel-cell generator to the GlashusEtt Environmental Information Center in Stockholm, Sweden, where it will run on biogas. The generator was purchased by ABB Corporate Research in Västerås, Sweden, together with 8 other Swedish companies and organizations... Read more →

People’s Daily. The number of automobiles in Beijing will reach 3 million by June, according to Mayor Wang Qishan. The number of newly registered automobiles in Beijing is growing by 1,000 a day. According to Wang, cars registered in Beijing reached 2.997 million by this past week, of which 2.18... Read more →

Gulf News. The Dubai government announced that it will begin introducing hybrid vehicles into the taxi fleet. The decision follows the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that environmental issues should be given priority, as... Read more →

Ford has added a new line to its wind-powered Dagenham Diesel Centre in the UK—the company’s global center for diesel engineering and manufacturing—to produce the new 1.4- and 1.6-liter Duratorq TDCi turbodiesels developed with PSA. This was the intended outcome of the diesel cooperation with PSA: joint development and launch... Read more →

Lithium hydride storage. Hydrogen (H) atoms are shown in green, lithium (Li) atoms in dark grey, nitrogen (N) atoms in blue and boron (B) atoms are in grey and inside the pyramids. Click to enlarge. UK scientists have developed a new variety of lithium hydride that shows promise as an... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) held a public meeting Thursday and Friday to consider a status report on California’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Program. Members of the Expert Review Panel commissioned by ARB to examine ZEV technologies presented a summary of their report (earlier post), and ARB staff made... Read more →

A slight majority of Members of European Parliament (MEPs) have signed a declaration to establish a Europe-wide hydrogen-based energy economy. Of the EP’s 785 MEPs, 420 (53.5%) signed the declaration to push for a hydrogen-based fuel economy. Among the main goals of the declaration is to increase energy efficiency by... Read more →

On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board announced the names of forty projects that have won grant money to encourage the early adoption of alternative fuels in California. As part of ARB’s 2006-2007 budget, the California Legislature tagged $25 million for the purposes of encouraging the use of biofuels and... Read more →

The LTC PHEV pack for the Prius. Click to enlarge. Lithium Technology Corporation (LTC) has retrofit a Toyota Prius to a plug-in hybrid using a battery pack based on LTC’s new product line of large-format lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells, the largest cells of their kind in the world. (Earlier... Read more →

Three companies exploring development of a North Dakota coal-to-liquids (CTL) co-generation project have established a single company, American Lignite Energy, to evaluate the project. Partners in American Lignite Energy include Headwaters Energy Services, Great River Energy, and The North American Coal Corporation. During the past several months, the American Lignite... Read more →

BMW will begin applying its start-stop and regenerative braking systems—now used in 1- and 5-Series BMW models (earlier post)—to MINI hatch models later this year, with resulting improved performance and efficiency. The MINI Cooper D—already the most fuel efficient of the line—will offer fuel consumption of 3.9 liters/100km (60 mpg... Read more →

China’s medium- and large-scale passenger cars and heavy-duty trucks will maintain fast sales growth, according to a recently published report by CCID Consulting, a China-based market research and consulting firm. In 2006, China’s vehicle output and sales volume reached 7.28 million and 7.215 million units, respectively, up by 27.3% and... Read more →

Mack Trucks has introduced a battery-operated anti-idling system to replace engine idling as a power source for heating and cooling and amenity loads for stationary trucks. The environmental and financial benefits of reducing idling are significant. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates heavy-duty truck idling in the US consumes 960... Read more →

GE and BP have formed a global alliance to jointly develop and deploy technology for at least five hydrogen power plants. The announcement builds from the preliminary agreement reached by GE and BP in 2006. (Earlier post.) These projects first gasify a fossil fuel to convert it into hydrogen and... Read more →

Nikkei. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today called for a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 50% from current levels by 2050. He made the proposal at The Future of Asia, a conference sponsored by Nikkei Inc. Abe’s proposal marked the first long-term global warming initiative by the leader... Read more →