Since 2008, Statoil and its partners have worked with Framo Engineering to develop technology for compressing wet gas on the seabed. Statoil has now decided to take the concept a step further on the Gullfaks South subsea field. This could increase production from the field by three billion cubic metres... Read more →

The European Commission selected an eMobility project, “Greening European Transportation Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles” proposed by a coalition of eight partners led by Better Place as the first and only project to be funded to date under the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport’s (DG MOVE) new de-carbonization infrastructure category. The... Read more →

The rate of sea level rise along the US Atlantic coast is greater now than at any time in the past 2,000 years and shows a consistent link between changes in global mean surface temperature and sea level, according to a new open-access study published in the journal Proceedings of... Read more →

A new Boeing 747-8 Freighter landed at Paris Le Bourget Airport after completing the first transatlantic flight of a large commercial airplane powered on all engines by a sustainable aviation jet fuel. 747-8 Freighter landing in Paris. Click to enlarge. The airplane, piloted by Boeing pilots Capt. Keith Otsuka and... Read more →

NMKV Co., Ltd, a new joint venture formed by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation to develop minicars for the Japanese market, provided an overview of its future business plans. The new 50:50 joint venture was established and commenced operations on 1 June 2011, with 35 employees. NMKV... Read more →

Honeywell and Safran have signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture company to deliver an innovative new electric taxiing system for new and existing aircraft. Honeywell and Safran expect it to be installed on new aircraft and retrofitted on to existing planes, beginning in 2016. Honeywell and... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting its 16th annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award ceremony tonight in Washington, DC. The awards recognize pioneering chemical technologies developed by leading researchers and industrial innovators who are making significant contributions to pollution prevention in the United States. This year’s awards marks... Read more →

The BladeBoost demonstrator was the third iteration of the compressor for a vehicle application. Click to enlarge. UK-based clean technology developer Lontra has released performance results of the BladeBoost supercharger demonstrator—an efficient, variable mass flow, positive displacement supercharger for heavily downsized engines—following the conclusion of a development project supported by... Read more →

Global Bioenergies, a France-based startup that has engineered a series of bacterial strains that can produce isobutene—a key chemical building block that can be converted into transportation fuels, polymers and various commodity chemicals—by transforming glucose in vivo (earlier post) successfully carried out an IPO on the French Alternext stock market... Read more →

The US Navy recently successfully demonstrated Solazyme’s 100% algal-derived jet fuel, Solajet HRJ-5, in an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter test flight in a 50/50 blend with petroleum-derived jet fuel. This marks the first military aircraft to fly on an algal-based jet fuel. The test flight preceded the announcement by ASTM International... Read more →

Renault and Better Place formed a strategic partnership in Australia, expanding their global relationship. Under this agreement, Renault will import the first electric car equipped with a switchable battery, the Fluence Z.E. (earlier post), into Australia, and Better Place will provide the electric car charging network and services that make... Read more →

A core group of airlines has signed letters of intent with Solena Fuels, LLC for a future supply of jet fuel derived exclusively from biomass to be produced in northern California. Solena’s “GreenSky California” biomass-to-liquids (BTL) facility in Northern California (Santa Clara County) will utilize post-recycled urban and agricultural wastes... Read more →

Independent testing has shown that Navistar’s IC Bus brand CE Series school buses have up to a 4.5% advantage over competing buses in fluid economy—a measurement of diesel fuel plus liquid urea consumed by the vehicle’s emissions reduction system. Comparisons of type C buses have typically been centered on fuel... Read more →

A first of its kind combination of experiment and simulation at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is providing a close-up look at the lignin molecule that complicates next-generation biofuels. Lignin, a major component of plant cell walls, aggregates to form clumps, which cause problems during... Read more →

Repsol and Alliance Oil Company have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form a joint exploration and production (E&P) venture that will serve as a growth platform for both companies in the Russian Federation, the world’s largest oil and gas producer. (Russia was the largest producer of crude oil in... Read more →

For the first time, observed Southern Hemisphere greenhouse gas (GHG) data can be easily accessed by the public on a new CSIRO website. The site shows the levels of greenhouse gases measured in the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere for the past 35 years. The data are updated monthly from analyses of... Read more →

A fleet of 225 car2go smart “car2go edition” vehicles in Vancouver, British Columbia, is now ready for use in the free-floating carsharing service. Vancouver is Canada’s first city to host the car2go service, in which cars have no reservations time limits, and members are allowed to make one-way trips instead... Read more →

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of American Adults think it is at least somewhat likely they will purchase a car that runs on something other than gasoline in the next 10 years. Forty-eight percent (48%) say they are not likely to do so. These findings... Read more →

Refinery insertion points. NABC is pursing insertion points 2 and 3. Source: NABC. Click to enlarge. The National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC) is pursuing two insertion points for leveraging existing refinery and fuel distribution infrastructure to produce finished fuels from biomass. The refinery insertion partners, BP and Tesoro, will test... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is offering a conditional commitment for a $150-million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies, Inc. for the development of a multicrystalline wafer manufacturing project. The project will be capable of producing approximately 700 to 1,000 megawatts (MW) of silicon-based wafers annually using a novel manufacturing... Read more →

The Michigan Biotechnology Institute (MBI) will use $4.3 million in US Department of Energy (DOE) funding to scale up the AFEX (ammonia fiber expansion) biomass pretreatment process developed by Bruce Dale, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at Michigan State University (MSU) from lab bench scale to a 100-fold... Read more →

An EU consortium is two years into a 3-year, €3.5 million (US$5 million) research project to create a new class of fast rechargeable zinc-polymer batteries for hybrid and small electric vehicle applications. The PolyZion (Fast rechargeable zinc-polymer battery based on ionic liquids) received funding of €2.4 million (US$3.4 million) under... Read more →

Shutting down reactors in high risk earthquake or tornado zones, or in areas with populations of more than 10 million would result in 24,728 MW lost capacity, an added annual cost of $ 4.7B, 166.73 additional MT of CO2 and 0.52 MT additional SO2, according to the model. Click to... Read more →

The team from Virginia Tech University received top honors as overall winners of EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge after designing and building an extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) using E85 (ethanol). Virginia Tech competed against 15 other universities to take home the top prize of the three-year competition sponsored by the Department... Read more →

(A) Energy storage potential (ESP) based on annual production of the elements. The elements in brackets at the right side of the labels are the limiting elements in each couple. (B) ESP based on the reserve base of the elements. *ESP well beyond the limit of the figure. (C) Extraction... Read more →

Ener1, Inc. and Russia’s JSC Mobile GTES (MGTES), a whole-owned subsidiary of the Federal Grid Company (FGC) of Unified Energy System, have signed a strategic framework agreement to contemplate the manufacture of lithium-ion-based uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems as part of a five-year engineering and framework agreement. The contemplated UPS... Read more →

Neste Oil will take part in the Paris Air Show this June to showcase its NExBTL renewable aviation fuel. The fuel meets the stringent quality standards demanded for aviation use and is compatible with all existing aircraft engines. In addition, said Neste, it can also be produced in industrial volumes.... Read more →

Mazda Motor Corporation has signed formal agreements and begun preparations to establish a Mazda vehicle production facility in Mexico and a sales company in Brazil, in alliance with Sumitomo Corporation. Through the new joint ventures, Mazda and Sumitomo intend to combine their individual strengths in order to enhance both companies’... Read more →

20Ah SCiB cell. Click to enlarge. Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has selected Toshiba Corporation’s SCiB battery (earlier post) to power two new models of electric vehicles (EV), the i-MiEV and MINICAB-MiEV. In July 2010, the two companies had announced they were working together to bring the SCiB batteries to EVs. (Earlier... Read more →

Xinde Technology Company, a China-based designer and manufacturer of internal combustion engines and parts primarily for the market in China, is developing a common rail electrically-controlled fuel injection system in cooperation with engineers at Tianjin University. Our confidence in this very significant home-grown product is supported by the supply letter... Read more →

Ford Motor Company’s passenger car joint venture in China, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile (CFMA), broke ground for a new engine plant in Chongqing. The US$500-million investment will more than double CFMA’s annual engine production capacity in China to 750,000 units when it comes online in 2013. These engines will equip... Read more →

Amyris, Inc., a developer of integrated renewable products, plans to establish a collaboration with Wilmar International Limited, one of the largest global agribusiness groups. The collaboration will focus on the development and worldwide commercialization of a family of surfactants derived from Amyris Biofene for use in a range of products,... Read more →

Gevo, Inc. , a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Gevo Development, LLC, has entered into a joint venture transaction with Redfield Energy, LLC of Redfield, SD to retrofit Redfield’s existing ethanol plant into an isobutanol plant with an expected production capacity of approximately 38... Read more →

Honeywell Green Jet Fuel is powering the first transatlantic biofuel flight for the Paris Air Show. When it lands in Paris, the Honeywell-owned Gulfstream G450 will become the first aircraft to fly from North America to Europe with a 50:50 blend of camelina-derived biofuel and petroleum-based jet fuel. This flight... Read more →

Conductive and insulating materials company NAMICS Corporation is developing all-ceramic multi-layered rechargeable batteries based on a patent applied for with IOM Technology Corporation and Iwate University (Prof. Mamoru Baba at Faculty of Engineering). Voltage and charge/discharge for 100-cell battery. Click to enlarge. A key feature of the battery is that... Read more →

Annual worldwide NEV sales by region, 2011–2017. Source: Pike Research. Click to enlarge. The total number of neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs)—low-speed street-legal electric vehicles—on the world’s roadways will grow from 479,000 in 2011 to 695,000 by 2017, a 45% increase, according to a new forecast by Pike Research. During that... Read more →

The first plenary meeting of the ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP) will take place on 20–21 June 2011 in Detroit to initiate work on a strategic roadmap identifying the standards and conformity assessment programs needed to enable the widespread acceptance and deployment of electric vehicles and associated infrastructure in... Read more →

Boeing sees the Asia Pacific region dominating travel growth. Source: Boeing. Click to enlarge. Boeing forecasts a $4-trillion market for new aircraft over the next 20 years with a significant increase in forecasted deliveries. That’s according to the Boeing 2011 Current Market Outlook (CMO) released in Paris. The company’s annual... Read more →

Fit Shuttle Hybrid. Click to enlarge. Honda’s all-new Fit Shuttle and Fit Shuttle Hybrid are now on sale in Japan. The compact station wagons leverage the advanced packaging technologies that Honda developed for the Fit. The Fit Shuttle features a 1.5-liter i-VTEC engine and offers fuel economy of 18.6 km/liter... Read more →

Genomatica has successfully produced Bio-BDO (1,4-butanediol) from its first demonstration-scale fermentation on schedule. The fermentation was performed in a 13,000 liter tank in Decatur, Ill., at the facility of partner Tate & Lyle. (Earlier post.) BDO is an intermediate chemical with a $4-billion market worldwide. This achievement comes just three... Read more →

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., (MHI), has developed Japan’s first cargo container-type large-capacity energy storage system using Li-ion batteries. The system is capable of providing power of up to one megawatts (MW), and its mobility makes the system suitable for a wide range of applications, including emergency use. The actual system... Read more →

Various combinations of commercially available technologies could greatly reduce fuel consumption in passenger cars, sport-utility vehicles, minivans, and other light-duty vehicles over the next 15 years without compromising vehicle performance or safety, according to a newly published report by the Committee on the Assessment of Technologies for Improving Light-Duty Vehicle... Read more →

The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung or BMBF) intends to fund a new pilot plant for the development and optimization of lithium-ion cells in Ulm. The battery pilot plant will be operated by Kompetenznetzwerk Lithium-Ionen Batterien (KLiB) (Lithium-Ion Battery Competence Network). KLiB’s 25... Read more →

Maxwell Technologies, Inc. is introducing a 12-volt ultracapacitor module that ensures reliable engine starting for commercial trucks and other heavy vehicles. The new product, designed to complement batteries, was first displayed in March at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY. Maxwell developed the engine start module incorporating its patented... Read more →

Researchers at Princeton University have concluded that the prominent upswing in the detection of North Atlantic tropical storms beginning in the mid-20th century is attributable predominantly to changes in observing systems that enabled the detection of “shorties”: tropical cyclones with durations of less than 2 days. Their paper is published... Read more →

On average, human activities put out in just three to five days the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide that volcanoes produce globally each year, according to Terrance Gerlach of the US Geological Survey (USGS). Gerlach based his findings on a review of five published studies of present-day global volcanic carbon... Read more →

BYD Company Limited has signed a Letter of Intent (LO”) with the city of Frankfurt, Germany to introduce BYD’s all-electric eBUS-12 (earlier post). BYD will supply three eBUS-12 units, two DC charging stations and technical support in the first quarter of 2012. These electric buses will be used as shuttles... Read more →

The KLD Energy Technologies motor system, which uses an innovative nanocrystalline composite material (earlier post), will be featured in a new line of electric scooters for the Malaysian market. The scooters are being brought to market by Malaysian vehicle manufacturer Eclimo Sdn Bhd. Eclimo is one of the first vehicle... Read more →

Chrysler Group LLC will invest $114 million in new equipment at its Trenton Engine Complex to support increased production of the Pentastar engine. The investment will be used to repurpose about one-fifth or nearly 400,000-square feet of the Trenton North Engine Plant, which ceased operations in May 2011, for the... Read more →

For 2012, Chevrolet Cruze models with the 1.4L turbo and six-speed automatic transmission will deliver 2 mpg better fuel economy. The Cruze Eco with an automatic transmission will deliver as much as 39 mpg (6.0 L/100km) on the highway compared with 37 mpg for the current model. The most popular... Read more →