The Detroit News reports that Cerberus Capital Management LP founder Stephen Feinberg, who is a driving force behind the negotiations to combine GM and Chrysler LLC, is pushing for a rapid deal—preferably before the presidential election on 4 November. GM President Frederick Henderson and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz also want... Read more →

A study by researchers from the University of Alcalá (Spain) shows that if “super-polluters”, the highest-polluting vehicles such as older buses and trucks in poor condition, were removed from urban streets, pollution from nanoparticles could be reduced by up to 25% and 48%, depending on the parameter analysed. Sign of... Read more →

EU-15 greenhouse gas emissions and projections for the Kyoto period 2008–2012. Click to enlarge. Source: EEA The EU-15 should meet its collective target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 8% for the period 2008–2012, according to a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA). A large part of this... Read more →

A pig train will prepare the pipeline for ethanol transport. Click to enlarge. Source: KMP Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP), the largest independent owner/operator of refined products pipelines in the US, recently successfully completed a series of tests to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of transporting batched denatured ethanol is the... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 20 project proposals for funding following its Nanomanufacturing for Energy Efficiency 2008 Research Call. The projects promise to make revolutionary improvements in a broad range of catalysts, coatings and other nanostructured materials for use in energy production, storage, and consumption applications that... Read more →

The Star. Malaysia-based Genting Bhd is acquiring one million shares of US-based Synthetic Genomics, Inc (SGI) for US$8 million from founder Dr. J. Craig Venter. One of Genting’s subsidiaries is collaborating with SGI on the sequencing of the oil palm genome. (Earlier post.) Genting said the one million SGI shares... Read more →

Des Moines Register. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) may use rural development money to assist ethanol plants that have suffered losses in the volatile corn futures markets. “Some plants are under pressure because they’ve been speculating on corn,” [Agriculture Secretary Ed] Schafer told reporters after speaking at the World... Read more →

Nissan Motor India Private Limited (NMIPL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ennore Port Ltd (EPL) to export its vehicles through Ennore Port in Tamil Nadu. NMIPL, the Indian affiliate of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., will be the first automaker to utilize this eastern gateway port of India as... Read more →

The MINI E. The zero-emission MINI will sport a plug logo in Interchange Yellow. Click to enlarge. The BMW Group will introduce its battery-electric MINI E (earlier post) at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. BMW says that it will deploy a fleet of some 500 of the all-electric... Read more →

The Nikkei reports that Ford Motor Company has requested that five leading non-life insurers, including Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group Holdings Inc., buy some of its shares in Mazda Motor Corp. Ford holds 33.4% of Mazda’s stock. Also considering a stake in Mazda, according to the... Read more →

A research team led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and coordinated by the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) has begun a project to design, manufacture, demonstrate, and evaluate a hydrogen fuel cell transit bus that will be operated by the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA)... Read more →

Researchers at the US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are refining an integrated method of producing cellulosic biobutanol that could make it more competitive with ethanol as an alternative to gasoline. (Earlier post.) Research team leader Nasib Qureshi began investigating the production of cellulosic biobutanol from wheat straw in 2003. His... Read more →

Box plots of combined policy VKT reductions by time horizon. Click to enlarge. Source: Rodier (2008) A review of modeling literature on land use, transit and auto pricing policies designed to reduce vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) found that an aggressive combination of land-use, enhanced transit, and pricing policies compared to... Read more →

Clemson University will lead a $1.2 million bioethanol research project to find the best way to produce plant-based fuels in South Carolina and the region. The US Department of Energy awarded the grant to Clemson, which will collaborate with DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken. The purpose of the... Read more →

UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband committed the UK to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050. The prior target was 60%. In a wide-ranging Commons statement, his first since being appointed to the new Department of Energy and Climate Change,... Read more →

Potential impacts of land-use and transit strategies on greenhouse gas emissions in California. Click to enlarge. Source: ARB, Rodier (2008) The California Air Resources Board (ARB) released its proposed Scoping Plan to reduce California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. In June, ARB had released a discussion... Read more →

The diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Diatoms have profound influence on the climate, producing 20% of atmospheric oxygen by capturing atmospheric carbon and in so doing, countering the greenhouse effect. An international team of researchers led by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and the Ecole Normale Supérieure... Read more →

Honda is beginning sales in Japan of the all-new Odyssey minivan. The new Odyssey is equipped with a 2.4-liter DOHC i-VTEC engine and torque converter-equipped CVT, a combination that enables the vehicle to achieve performance and class leading fuel economy of 13.2 km/L in 10-15 mode (31 mpg US, 7.6... Read more →

China Daily. Shanghai will adopt a less stringent version of Beijing’s re-instituted traffic restrictions (earlier post) in an effort to reduce congestion, emissions, and petroleum consumption. Starting next month, vehicles belonging to the government or State-owned enterprises will be banned from the roads on one out of five weekdays in... Read more →

Scheme of the gasification process with air using two reactors. Click to enlarge. Credit: ACS Researchers in Italy are proposing a new dual-bed configuration for coal gasification that, in laboratory simulations of Coal-to-Liquids production, is 71.1% more energy efficient; increases the mass yield of synthetic fuel by 39.4%; and releases... Read more →

Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has ordered 3,125 natural gas buses equipped with Cummins Westport Inc.’s (CWI) B Gas Plus engines. The 5.9-liter, six cylinder 230 hp (172 kW) B Gas Plus engines, powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), are licensed by CWI and manufactured by Cummins India Ltd. (CIL). The... Read more →

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. has received an initial $540,000 order for four hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) demonstration battery packs from DesignLine International. The HEV battery packs will be utilized in buses for three city transit customers, and one HEV battery pack will be used for a modular testing program. Altair will... Read more →

The National Governors Association (NGA) announced partnerships between General Motors Corporation (GM) and 10 states to enhance access to E-85 ethanol for flex-fuel vehicles. Under these new public-private partnerships, Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin will each work with GM to advance location selection, development... Read more →

Temperature increases, a near-record loss of summer sea ice, and a melting of surface ice in Greenland are among some of the evidence of continued warming in the Arctic, according to the Arctic Report Card 2008 issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its university, agency,... Read more →

Ener1, Inc., the parent of US-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel, is acquiring an 83% interest in Enertech International, one of South Korea’s leading lithium-ion battery cell producers. The acquisition, which follows the recent announcement of the company’s plans to expand EnerDel’s manufacturing capacity, is intended to be immediately synergistic, and... Read more →

Hybra-Drive Systems LLC, a developer of hydraulic hybrid systems, was awarded $3.35 million by Michigan 21st Century Jobs Fund—the largest single award given during the nearly $29.7 million round of commercialization funding for 2008. In May, the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF), a government-corporate partnership led by CALSTART, selected Hybra-Drive... Read more →

UK Transport Minister Andrew Adonis outlined plans to take a more cautious approach to biofuels, as part of the Government’s response to concerns about the indirect environmental and social impacts of producing them. Adonis published a consultation taking forward key findings from the Gallagher Review (earlier post), including the proposal... Read more →

Elon Musk, chairman of the board and product architect of Tesla Motors, is taking over as CEO of the electric car company. Ze’ev Drori, the now former CEO, will stay on the board of directors as vice-chairman. Musk announced the change in a blog post today. At Tesla, we have... Read more →

EDF and PSA Peugeot Citroën have formed a partnership to support the development and future marketing of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. The cooperative agreement covers several technological programs, including: The definition of business models capable of driving the commercial development of electric vehicles. New energy storage technologies, such as... Read more →

A preliminary analysis of a feedstock-flexible biomass waste/residue thermochemical pathway for liquid fuel production by researchers at Purdue University suggests that such a “flexible carbon to liquid” fuel (FCTL) process could replace 15%-20% of transportation fuels consumed in US and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% compared with... Read more →

Representatives of industry, the research community and the European institutions launched the €1 billion (US$1.357 billion) Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) (earlier post) at an event in Brussels, Belgium on 14 October. Over the next six years, the European Commission and industry will invest almost €500 million... Read more →

Mazda Motor Corporation has delivered the first of approximately 30 RX-8 Hydrogen RE (Rotary Engine) vehicles to Norway’s HyNor project as a validation vehicle. This marks the first time that a Mazda hydrogen rotary vehicle has been put into regular use on public roads outside Japan. Mazda signed a memorandum... Read more →

UQM Technologies has introduced two high voltage DC-to-AC inverters with continuous output ratings of 3 kW and 5 Kw. The high-efficiency inverters, which have an output efficiency of up to 93%, convert input voltages ranging from 250 to 450 volts into a nominal output voltage of 120 volts AC (60... Read more →

Fiat has introduced the Grande Punto Natural Power, a new dual fuel (gasoline/natural gas) model. The Grande Punto Natural Power. The new dual-fuel model offers a 1.4-liter 8v Fire unit that is Euro 5 compliant. Range from its 84-liter natural gas tank is 310 km (192 miles). The 45-liter (12... Read more →

Water consumption (left stacked bars read on left axis) and withdrawal (right stacked bars read on right axis) in gallons of water per mile (gal/mile) for various fuels for light duty vehicles. Water use from mining and farming is designated differently from that used for processing and refining. Click to... Read more →

Airbus and Pratt & Whitney have launched joint flight testing of the PurePower PW1000G Geared Turbofan engine (earlier post) with the first on an Airbus-owned A340 test aircraft in Toulouse, France. The PW1000G engine uses a state-of-the-art gear system allowing the engine’s fan to operate at a different speed than... Read more →

The DuPont-Danisco cellulosic ethanol joint venture (earlier post), DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE), has broken ground for its first pilot-scale biorefinery and state-of-the-art biofuels research and development facility in Vonore, Tenn. The joint venture has partnered with the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, through Genera Energy LLC, to develop... Read more →

Amyris is engineering yeast to produce renewable hydrocarbon fuels. Click to enlarge. Brazil’s Votorantim Novos Negócios (New Business) has made a strategic equity investment in Amyris, a synthetic biology company focusing on renewable hydrocarbon fuels (earlier post). This investment supports the Amyris’ objective of commercializing renewable diesel fuel produced via... Read more →

CTTRANSIT’s fuel-cell hybrid bus. Click to enlarge. A report on the results of a preliminary evaluation of a prototype plug-in fuel-cell hybrid bus at Connecticut Transit (CTTRANSIT) in Hartford by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that while the experience for operators and riders with the fuel cell bus... Read more →

In response to continuing depressed demand across the industry and structural changes in the company’s core markets, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) will discontinue its Sterling Trucks product line, effective March 2009. DTNA will make additions to the Freightliner and Western Star product ranges to address the market segments that... Read more →

VL6P power vs. energy during 10s pulses at various temperatures. Click to enlarge. Source: JCS Johnson Controls-Saft (JCS) will be providing lithium-ion batteries for production versions of BMW’s 7 Series ActiveHybrid car, currently being showcased at the Paris motor show. (Earlier post.) The ActiveHybrid is a mild hybrid configuration. JCS... Read more →

Peterbilt Motors Company will offer three new liquefied natural gas (LNG) configurations on its Models 387, 386 and 367 in 2009. The factory-installed LNG system is part of a joint agreement between Peterbilt and Westport Innovations Inc. to provide natural gas versions of select Peterbilt aerodynamic and vocational vehicles. Peterbilt... Read more →

Electrovaya is partnering with Tata Motors and Miljø Grenland/Innovasjon to manufacture batteries and electric cars in Norway, beginning in 2009, using Electrovaya’s Lithium Ion SuperPolymer battery technology. The first vehicle to be produced will be the Indica EV, based on Tata’s Indica, due to launch in Europe in 2009. (Earlier... Read more →

Researchers in Europe have investigated the surface structure of an individual metal-organic framework (MOF) microcrystal grown on a functionalized surface for the first time in air and vacuum using high-resolution atomic force microscopy. Among their other potential uses, MOFs are being investigated for hydrogen storage applications. Images of the MOF... Read more →

At this week’s Hybrid Truck Users Forum in South Bend, Ind., Navistar unveiled an additional hybrid truck configuration—the International DuraStar Hybrid tractor—which targets general freight haulers and food/beverage distributors. The new hybrid tractor. The diesel-electric hybrid Class 7 tractor can deliver fuel savings from 20-25% in a standard in-city pickup... Read more →

The Detroit News reports that Cerebus Capital Management LP began considering offers for Chrysler less than a year after acquiring it. Following the surfacing last week of the GM-Cerebus talks, Chrysler Chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli sent a note to employees confirming that the company was talking to potential partners.... Read more →

Australia-based Linc Energy has successfully produced the first hydrocarbon liquids from its Chinchilla demonstration facility which introduces underground coal gasification (UCG) synthesis gas into a Fischer-Tropsch reactor that produces high quality synthetic fuel. (Earlier post.) Linc’s stock rose on the news, closing up more than 10% on the day of... Read more →

The UK government is putting £100 million (US$175 million) into a new £200 million investment program, jointly funded by government and business, to speed up the introduction of new low carbon vehicles onto Britain’s roads. The Low Carbon Vehicle Integrated Delivery Programme will co-ordinate the UK’s low carbon vehicle activity... Read more →

The number of E85 stations in the US has now exceeded 1,800, according to The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC). There are currently 1,802 private and public refueling stations across the US—a 28% growth since October 2007. E85 pump growth. Click to enlarge. Source: NEVC Currently, the states with the... Read more →

A portion of the current biofuels component of GM’s roadmap to improved energy diversity and reduced emissions. Click to enlarge. GM has been steadily building a global advanced biofuels program as one element of its efforts to reduce the use of petroleum and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. The company’s approach... Read more →