GE is commercializing new silicon carbide ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials—combining the high temperature resistance of ceramics with the mechanical toughness normally associated with metals—developed by scientists at GE Global Research, GE Aviation and GE Energy. The new materials could significantly enhance the efficiency of aircraft engines and gas turbines,... Read more →

Chemists at United Environment and Energy LLC have developed an energy-efficient, high throughput continuous flow fixed-bed reactor technology for cost-effective algae oil biodiesel production. A report on what they termed “the first economical way to produce biodiesel from algae oil” was presented at the 237th National Meeting of the American... Read more →

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) plans to construct and operate a hydrogen fuel production plant and vehicle fueling station at the Yeager Airport in Charleston, W.Va. The facility will use grid electricity to split water to produce pure hydrogen fuel. The... Read more →

Business must do even more for climate protection, even in difficult times, said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the Bosch board of management, an a talk at the Baden-Württemberg sustainability congress held in Stuttgart on 25 March (Nachhaltigkeitskongress Baden-Württemberg 2009). The acute economic and financial crisis must not, he said, be... Read more →

China’s Yitai Group’s 160,000 tonne/year coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has produced qualified diesel oil and naphtha in its trial run. Construction of this indirect coal liquefaction project started in 2006 with a combined investment of near 2.7 billion yuan (US$395 million). Zhang Shuangwang, chairman... Read more →

Fisker Automotive has appointed its first group of 32 US retailers to market and service its luxury plug-in hybrid vehicles, beginning with the $87,900 Karma sedan later this year. The number puts the carmaker close to its goal of having 40 locations across the country by the end of June... Read more →

A cross-party resolution adopted by the European Parliament (EP) calls for measures to support job creation in the European automotive industry, and to encourage the development of “green technologies”, with which there is “significant potential for job creation...in the automotive sector”. The resolution was adopted by 413 votes to 44... Read more →

Leftlane News will provide live streaming video coverage of the launch of the Tesla Model S electric vehicle on Thursday, 26 March, powered by Ustream.Tv. The video feed will be available here; bookmark the page or copy and save the URL. A link will also be available from the Leftlane... Read more →

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow Limited Energy Storage Resources (LESR)—which includes battery and flywheel technologies—to provide the “regulation” service needed to balance electrical supply and demand on the grid. Energy storage can play a valuable role in the... Read more →

For about a year, more than 150 Daimler AG trainees at the Sindelfingen Mercedes-Benz plant and dual education system students worked on the overall concept, development, assembly, and completion of an F-CELL Roadster. The F-CELL Roadster. Click to enlarge. This project involved junior employees from the fields of automotive mechatronics,... Read more →

The newly developed and modified four-cylinder powerplants have a higher output, despite the reduction in displacement. Click to enlarge. Mercedes-Benz is offering five newly developed and modified engines—four of them with direct injection—for the new E-Class Coupé, offering more power with lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions than their predecessors.... Read more →

Toyota Motor, Aisin Seiki Co., Kyocera and Osaka Gas will jointly develop a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) small enough to fit in apartments, and are targeting commercialization early in the next decade. The residential SOFC units will be fueled with city gas and produce power, heat and hot water.... Read more →

Nikkei. Sapporo Breweries Ltd. and Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, will collaborate on testing an anaerobic fermentation process for producing biohydrogen from sugar cane dregs and other biomass. The Sapporo Holdings Ltd. unit is testing a technology in Japan that generates hydrogen from the fermentation of bakery waste. Petrobras will... Read more →

Transparent view of Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid. Battery pack and hydrogen tank are at the rear. Click to enlarge. Mazda Motor Corporation has begun commenced commercial leasing of the Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid (earlier post), a hydrogen hybrid vehicle that offers substantially improved performance due to the addition... Read more →

Hyundai will reveal a new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) concept car, the Blue-Will, at the Seoul Motor Show which opens on 2 April. The BLUE-WILL concept is powered by an all-aluminium Gasoline Direct Injected 1.6-liter engine which is coupled to a Continuously Variable Transmission and a 100 kw electric motor which... Read more →

The US Secretary of Transportation today announced the availability of $100 million in federal funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009 (ARRA 2009) for the Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction grant program. Projects will compete for a portion of the funds on the basis of... Read more →

Europe must dramatically cut its water consumption and use water more efficiently if it is to avoid the worst impacts of water shortage, the European Environment Agency (EEA) warns in a new report, “Water resources across Europe—confronting water scarcity and drought”. “The balance between water demand and availability has reached... Read more →

by Bill Cooke The olivine structure of one of Valence’s lithium iron magnesium phosphate materials. The view is looking along an axis of the crystal structure. The polyhedra aid the eye in seeing the ions grouped as (green) Fe/Mg-enclosing octahedra and (yellow) phosphate tetrahedra. The (blue) oxygen ions are made... Read more →

Kia Motors has introduced its new environmental brand “Eco Dynamics” and an LPI Hybrid based on its Korean market Forte saloon. The Eco Dynamics brand was unveiled at Kia Motors’ domestic sales headquarters in Apkujeong-dong, Seoul, along with the company’s blueprint for developing low-emission, fuel-efficient vehicles. Hyundai Motor is also... Read more →

Nano-Terra, Inc., a surface engineering and nanotechnology co-development company and Exide Technologies, one of the world’s largest producers and recyclers of lead-acid batteries, have formed an alliance to develop innovative energy storage solutions. Nano-Terra will use its expertise in surface chemistry and surface engineering to create a number of innovative... Read more →

A study by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) concludes that wide single tires are more fuel efficient than duals on heavy trucks. More than 700,000 real-world miles were driven by six instrumented tractors and 10 trailers over the course of the four-year test. Michelin X One... Read more →

Canadian energy companies Suncor Energy Inc. and Petro-Canada have agreed to merge. Upon completion of the transaction, the combined entity will operate corporately and trade under the Suncor name, while maintaining the brand presence of Petro-Canada in refined products. In addition to having the largest oil sands resource position in... Read more →

GS Yuasa Corporation and Honda signed a joint venture contract to establish a new joint venture company for manufacturing, sales and R&D of Lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles. (Earlier post.) The new company, Blue Energy Co., Ltd., is scheduled to be established 1 April 2009. Since the signing of a... Read more →

India-based Ashok Leyland reports it has successfully developed a 6-cylinder, 6-liter 92 kW (123 hp) BS-4 (equivalent to Euro-4) engine for operation with Hythane in association with Eden Energy, Australia. (Earlier post.) Hythane is a blend of natural gas and hydrogen (usually 20% hydrogen by volume). The addition of hydrogen... Read more →

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company and Ensyn Corp. have launched a joint venture, Envergent Technologies, LLC, to offer technology and equipment to convert second-generation biomass into pyrolysis oil for power generation, heating fuel and for conversion into transportation fuels. Honeywell and Ensyn announced their intention to form the joint venture... Read more →

A new paper from the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center concludes that while a market-based mechanism (e.g. cap and trade or a carbon tax) is a likely key part of a US strategy to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, such a market-based approach alone will not induce the investments in... Read more →

Linde North America, a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company, is introducing ionic compression systems for hydrogen for lift refueling in North America. Linde has used the Ionic Compressor system extensively in Europe for cars and buses. Unlike conventional mechanical systems, the Ionic Compressor uses... Read more →

Portions of three natural fungal cellulase enzymes that have been recombined to produce a synthetic, thermostable cellulase are denoted by blue, green and red coloring. The recombined cellulase enzyme modeled here functions at higher temperatures than any of the three parents. Source: Caltech. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the California... Read more →

The Urban Cruiser. Click to enlarge. Toyota is applying its gasoline and diesel “Optimal Drive” technology in the new B-segment hatchback crossover Urban Cruiser, unveiled as a design preview at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show (earlier post) and in a production version at the Paris Motor Show in October 2008... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency has submitted a proposed endangerment finding on greenhouse gas emissions to the White House. According to a statement from EPA Press Secretary Adora Andy: As directed by the US Supreme Court, EPA has prepared and sent to the White House for review a proposed finding... Read more →

The Renault-Nissan Alliance, through Nissan, and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), the utility company operating in the San Diego, Calif., region, are forming a partnership to promote the development of an electric vehicle (EV) charging network. Mule with new Nissan EV system. The production version will have a unique... Read more →

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $1.2 billion in new science funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for major construction, laboratory infrastructure, and research efforts sponsored across the nation by the DOE Office of Science. Secretary Chu made the announcement during a visit to the Brookhaven National Laboratory.... Read more →

The Tata Nano. Click to enlarge. Tata Motors held the commercial launch of the low-priced Tata Nano—the much-anticipated Rs 1-Lakh (about US$2,000) “People’s Car”. (Earlier post.) The Tata Nano is BS-III compliant and comes with an all-new 2-cylinder aluminium MPFI 624 cc petrol engine mated to a four-speed gear box... Read more →

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) has signed separate agreements with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) as the companies prepare to collaborate on building multiple GEH-designed nuclear reactors to help meet India’s goals to expand electricity generation from nuclear energy more than tenfold... Read more →

SEM images of particle morphology of 3M NMC cathode materials. Source: 3M. Click to enlarge. 3M has entered into a strategic relationship and an agreement with China-based Amperex Technologies Ltd. (ATL) that will expand the use of nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries targeted at consumer electronics and automotive... Read more →

Infineon Technologies AG and Robert Bosch GmbH are widening their cooperation to include power semiconductors. By working with Bosch, Infineon is not just expanding its share of the semiconductor market in the automotive segment, it will also be Bosch’s preferred supplier of power semiconductors. Meeting environmental regulations and new limits... Read more →

GE Water, a business unit of GE Energy, and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have signed an agreement to establish the NUS-GE Singapore Water Technology Center on the campus of NUS. Together, GE and NUS are investing US$100 million (SGD$150 million) in the NUS-GE Singapore Water Technology Center. The... Read more →

Automated bumper recycling process. Click to enlarge. Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a world-first recycling technology which enhances the process it uses to recycle used bumpers from vehicles whose useful life has ended into raw plastic resin for use in new vehicle bumpers. The new technology is the first to... Read more →

The Nikkei reported that Toshiba Corp. will begin its promised mass-producution of compact direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) for devices such as cellular phones and notebook computers starting as early as next month. The Japanese firm, said to be first to turn out portable fuel cells on such a scale,... Read more →

AllAboutPrius’ Editor in Chief John Voelcker speculates that the Toyota Auris Hybrid, targeted for Europe in 2010 (earlier post), could serve as Toyota’s reportedly planned low-cost response to Honda’s Insight. The Auris is a European and Asian hatchback model built on the same platform as the 2009 Toyota Corolla. In... Read more →

Correlation/calibration plots of FFA content in (a) soybean-oleic acid (standard deviation = 0.12 (titration) and 0.44 (1H NMR)) and (b) standard biodiesel-oleic acid (standard deviation = 0.29 (titration) and 0.18 (1H NMR)). Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. A team of researchers from the National Chemical Laboratory in India have developed... Read more →

The government of China is targeting an average 10% growth for automotive industry production and sales in the next three years, according to an online government document providing details on the support package for the automotive industry, announced in January. The government expects 10 million units in both vehicle production... Read more →

The US Department of Energy is offering a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc. to support the company’s construction of a commercial-scale manufacturing plant for its proprietary cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels. Solyndra is the first company to receive an offer for a DOE loan guarantee under Title XVII of... Read more →

The Government of Canada and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) has awarded a cellulosic ethanol project led by Lignol Energy Corporation’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Lignol Innovations Ltd. up to C$1.82 million (US$1.5 million) in additional funding contributions from SDTC. This award is in addition to the C$4.42 million awarded to date... Read more →

Wise Gas, Inc. and Altech-Eco have signed an exclusive agreement to bring EPA-certified dedicated and bi-fuel (gasoline/compressed natural gas) retrofitted Ford Focus vehicles (MY 2008 and 2009) to Florida consumers. The bi-fuel CNG Ford Focus has the ability to run on CNG or gasoline and comes with a manufacturer-rated CNG... Read more →

Statesman.com. The State of Texas will submit a bid to become the headquarters for an advanced battery consortium that is seeking $1 billion in Federal stimulus money to develop technology for the next generation of hybrid electric vehicles. The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, which formed in... Read more →

Xinhua. North China’s Hebei Province, the major water supplier to Beijing, has over-extracted its groundwater, causing major subsidence according to a water conservancy official. “Water shortage has become a big problem facing the province’s social and economic development,” Li Qinglin, director of Hebei’s water conservancy department, told a forum marking... Read more →

Singapore-based Ecospec Global Technology Pte Ltd, earlier this year unveiled CSNOx, a single system it claims can reduce NOx, SO2, CO2 and PM emissions from ships. Chew Hwee Hong, Managing Director and Founder of Ecospec, said that results of a CSNOx pilot test, performed on board an ocean-going supertanker in... Read more →

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) and the University of Oregon have shown photobiological hydrogen production from one type of cyanobacteria (Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803) encapsulated in a solid state system at levels comparable to or exceeding cells suspended in liquid media. A paper on their work was published earlier... Read more →

Launched at the British International Motor Show in July 2008 (earlier post) and voted Electric Car of the Year at the Green Fleet awards, the MyCar electric vehicle is now on sale at evstores in London. The MyCar. The two-seater MyCar CV.2 is developed and manufactured by EuAuto Technologies in... Read more →