Researchers from QUILL—the Queen’s University (Belfast) Ionic Liquid Laboratories—will display a novel process for removing toxic mercury from natural gas using ionic liquids at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition. There, QUILL researchers also will show a new process for trapping carbon dioxide from power plants and gas fields. The... Read more →

Mitsubishi Motors’ iMiEV Evolution III all-electric racecars (earlier post) took first and second place in the the Electric Modified Division of the 2014 edition of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. With a time of 9 minutes 08 seconds 188, Greg Tracy won the Electric Modified Division honors and 2nd... Read more →

Greenkraft truck. Click to enlarge. Efficient Drivetrains, Inc. (EDI), a producer of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and continuously variable transmission (CVT) solutions (earlier post), is partnering with Greenkraft, CALSTART, and the California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop a Class-4 vehicle that combines the benefits of compressed natural gas (CNG)... Read more →

Audi will introduce new, lightweight suspension springs made of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) in an upper mid-size model before the end of the year. The GFRP spring is some 40% lighter than a steel spring. The GFRP spring (left), which Audi developed in collaboration with an Italian supplier, even looks... Read more →

The University of Sunderland (UK), working with a consortium of five other research partners from Italy, Spain and Germany, has been selected for funding by the €1-billion (US$1.4-billion) Graphene Flagship research initiative in Europe (earlier post) for their iGCAuto proposal. The researchers will explore the properties of graphene to determine... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems signed a definitive agreement for the sub-license of intellectual property (IP) to M-Field Energy Corporation, a sustainable energy company, for material handling systems to be deployed in Europe. Ballard will also provide M-Field with engineering services support into early-2015 through Dantherm Power A/S, the company’s subsidiary in... Read more →

The new Ford Focus ST (in the new dark gray paint option) is offering a choice of an EcoBoost or diesel engine. Click to enlarge. The new Focus ST made its global debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK. The most advanced Focus ST yet offers new... Read more →

Jordan’s Council of Ministers on Sunday endorsed all agreements prepared by the national electricity company with Estonian company Enefit which will carry out a mega oil shale energy project in the Kingdom. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Mohammad Hamed briefed the cabinet on the project to produce electricity through... Read more →

Mermaid Marine is offering the Citius series of heavy-duty marine engines from AGCO SISU Power—the only common rail engine available approved to run on 100% biodiesel with no compromise in performance. The importance of biodiesel is continuously increasing with biodiesel such as rapeseed accepted as an alternative fuel for use... Read more →

In October 2014, a car charing service featuring 70 Toyota i-ROAD and COMS ultra-compact electric vehicles and around 30 charging stations developed and managed by EDF’s subsidiary Sodetrel will be open for service for a period of three years through a unique partnership between the City and the Metropolitan Area... Read more →

General Motors is increasing its renewable energy use with 3 acres of new solar arrays at two Michigan facilities. The company’s processing center in Swartz Creek and engine plant in Flint will feature 150 kW ground-mount solar arrays expected to generate a combined 400,000 kWh of renewable energy per year... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has issued a request for applications (RFA DTFH6114RA00014) for assistance in establishing a future certification environment for connected vehicle devices and applications. Estimated funding is up to $2 million. DOT currently is assessing applications that realize the full potential of... Read more →

Honda Aircraft Company announced that the first production HondaJet (earlier post) achieved its initial flight, marking another milestone toward aircraft certification and entry into service in 2015. The event took place at the company’s world headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. During the 84-minute flight, the aircraft climbed to 15,500 feet... Read more →

Damen Shipyards of the Netherlands, German engine manufacturer MTU Friedrichshafen, a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, and Denmark’s SVITZER have teamed up to bring the first Reverse Stern Drive (RSD) Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) tug to the market, with a planned introduction in 2016. The new RSD CNG tug combines... Read more →

Aluminum and water react exothermically to form aluminum hydroxide and hydrogen; this basic property has lured numerous researchers interested in generating hydrogen from the aluminum-water reaction for modern transportation systems for at least 35 years. (Earlier post.) However, among the barriers to the practical application of this reaction are the... Read more →

Scientists at DLR Göttingen have shown the deformation of an aircraft propeller blade during flight. They developed a special camera that can resist the enormous forces exerted during rotation. Their findings could not only help to improve aircraft propellers, but also helicopter rotors and wind turbines. Click image to view... Read more →

New NASA satellite images released this week demonstrate the reduction of air pollution across the US. After ten years in orbit, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite has been in orbit sufficiently long to show that people in major US cities are breathing less nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen... Read more →

The Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler AG are significantly expanding their cooperation with joint development of premium compact vehicles and joint production in Mexico. Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn and Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche announced today that their companies have agreed to establish a 50:50 joint venture, the business entity that will... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board took two actions to support the development and deployment of advanced vehicle technologies, provide incentives for clean-cars and improve existing vehicle retirement and replacement programs. ARB approved a funding plan for FY 2014-2015 that will increase investments in cleaning up emissions from freight and goods... Read more →

2015 Ram ProMaster City. Click to enlarge. Chrysler’s Ram brand introduced the 2015 Ram ProMaster City commercial van. The Ram ProMaster City is based on the Fiat Doblò, a two-time International Van of the Year winner with more than 1.3 million units sold. The new, smaller van joins the ProMaster... Read more →

Schematic of ORBAT. Click to enlarge. Scientists at USC have developed a novel water-based Organic Redox Flow Battery (ORBAT) for lower cost, long lasting large-scale energy storage. An open access paper on their work is published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. ORBAT employs two different water-soluble organic redox... Read more →

In the US Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2014 (AEO2014) Reference case, more-stringent vehicle fuel economy standards contribute to a decline in motor gasoline consumption through 2040. At the same time, growth in heavy-duty vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is greater than increasing heavy-duty vehicle fuel economy, contributing to rising... Read more →

Haldor Topsoe A/S is in the process of establishing a production facility in Brazil. The facility will focus on manufacturing catalysts that can removeNOx as well as particulates and hydrocarbons from the engine exhaust of diesel vehicles such as buses and trucks. Recently Topsoe leased two buildings in an industrial... Read more →

Infineon Technologies AG plans to invest €290 million ($395 million) to expand its Austrian site in Villach. Core emphasis is the on the expansion of expertise for the manufacturing of the future as well as research and development (R&D). Sabine Herlitschka, CEO of Infineon Technologies Austria AG, said that with... Read more →

The Italian city of Pisa and Deutsche Telekom have launched a smart city pilot project to test an intelligent parking system and to analyze historical traffic data via a “big data” service. The system, which will integrate into Pisa’s intelligent transport system (ITS), will help motorists in Pisa find a... Read more →

Ford’s 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine (earlier post) was named 2014 International Engine of the Year for the third consecutive year. Available in Ford Fiesta and the upcoming 2015 Focus, the 1.0L EcoBoost was also named Best Engine Under 1.0-Liter for third year in a row. The Best Green Engine Award this... Read more →

One-pot process for conversion of cellulose to hexane, a gasoline component. Credit: ACS, Liu et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan have developed a one-pot process to convert cellulose to n-hexane in the presence of hydrogen gas. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), unleaded... Read more →

Android Auto made its debut at the 2014 Google I/O annual technology conference in San Francisco as the first innovation resulting from the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA)—a coalition of tech companies and auto industry leaders launched in January by Google, NVIDIA, Audi, GM, Honda and Hyundai committed to bringing the... Read more →

Ford and Intel are researching new opportunities for the connected car, including giving drivers the ability to remotely peer into their car using a smartphone, or a vehicle that could identify its owner using facial recognition software. The joint research project, called Mobile Interior Imaging, or Project Mobii, explores how... Read more →

The Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and General Motors (GM) are partnering on a multi-year, multi-million dollar joint effort to accelerate the reduction of automotive fuel cell stack costs through fuel cell material and manufacturing research and development (R&D). Most major automakers, including GM, have made significant progress... Read more →

Sample images of urban driving and screen-captures of the Autonomoous SRX’s tracking system’s results. The images in the first row show detection and tracking results from an arriving area of Pittsburgh international airport. The other two images in the second row show those of an urban street. Cho et al.... Read more →

Velocys plc, the UK-based developer of technology for smallers-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) production, has acquired Pinto Energy LLC (a project developer of smaller scale GTL in North America) and its 2,800 barrels per day (bpd) Ashtabula GTL project near the Port of Ashtabula, Ohio. The project will have access to abundant... Read more →

H2 Logic A/S and Air Liquide have concluded a joint investment in their joint venture hydrogen fuel company, Copenhagen Hydrogen Network A/S (CHN). The company is already operating a hydrogen refueling station in Copenhagen that will be followed by four more stations during 2014. This will make Denmark will be... Read more →

Toyota’s Mitsuhisa Kato briefs the media in Japan on the timing and pricing of the FCV, and outlines the company’s view of the role of fuel cell vehicles. Click to enlarge. Toyota Motor Corporation revealed the exterior design and Japan pricing of its hydrogen fuel cell sedan, first unveiled as... Read more →

Navistar, Inc. announced that its International ProStar linehaul and regional haul tractors are now available with the company’s 13-liter engine and Eaton Fuller Advantage Series Automated 10-speed transmission. The new ProStar offering delivers up to 5% in fuel economy improvement. Additional benefits of the ProStar with the 13-liter engine and... Read more →

2015 Edge. Click to enlarge. Ford has revealed the all-new 2015 Edge. The newest version of its crossover sport utility vehicle will go on sale in North America early next year with an expanded range of smart technology. Sales in South America, Europe—to include Western Europe—and Asia Pacific will follow.... Read more →

GE Oil & Gas has received an order for the offshore oil and gas industry’s first 20,000-psi (20-ksi)-rated deepwater blowout preventer (BOP) stack and riser systems from Maersk Drilling. The equipment, due to enter service in the first half of 2018, is being supplied for Maersk and BP as part... Read more →

Scientists are expecting an average, but still large, hypoxic or “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico this year, and slightly above­average hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay. NOAA­-supported modeling is forecasting this year's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone to cover an area ranging from about 4,633 to 5,708 square miles... Read more →

Automakers took the top four slots in the 50 Best Global Green Brands list for 2014, published by Fortune magazine in conjunction with the consulting firm Deloitte and Interbrand. Ford bumped last year’s leader, Toyota, to take the top spot. Toyota came in second, followed by Honda and Nissan. Panasonic... Read more →

Researchers in Singapore report the first use of TiNb2O7 as an insertion-type anode in a lithium-ion hybrid electrochemical capacitor (Li-HEC) along with an activated carbon (AC) counter electrode derived from a coconut shell. The Li-HEC delivers very high energy and power densities of approximately 43 Wh  kg-1 and 3 kW  kg-1, respectively.... Read more →

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) announced funding for a new joint research projects to advance clean emission technologies. Funding through the organizations’ Connecting through Research Partnerships (“Connect”) program has been granted for $125,000 for this project. One of the main groups of... Read more →

GM is almost two-thirds of the way through a $16.6-million project ($6 million in funding support from the DOE) to design and to build a next-generation power inverter capable of 55 kW peak/30 kW continuous power. The inverter is to improve the cost of the power electronics to $3.30/kW produced... Read more →

Toshiba Corporation will supply the battery for the United Kingdom’s first 2MW scale lithium-titanate battery based Energy Storage System (ESS) to support grid management. The company’s 1MWh SCiB battery will be installed in a primary substation in central England in September. Large-scale ESS are seen as a versatile solution in... Read more →

BorgWarner is supplying its Pressure Sensor Glow Plug (PSG) for Volkswagen’s all new diesel engines starting with the 1.4-liter version and then adding the 1.6-liter and 2.0-liter versions later this year. Based on the new modular diesel engine system (MDB) (earlier post), the fuel-efficient, low-emission engines offer power ratings ranging... Read more →

Neste Oil and Renewable Algae Energy (RAE), a US-based algae biomass producer, have signed a contingent commercial algae oil off-take agreement. Algae oil is one of the alternatives being researched by Neste Oil for use as a feedstock for producing NEXBTL renewable diesel in the future. Cooperation with RAE is... Read more →

China Yuchai International Limited announced today that new-energy buses running on engines supplied by the company’s main operating subsidiary, Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Company Limited (GYMCL), have been launched in Fushun City, Liaoning Province located in Northeast China. As a national pilot city for new-energy buses, Fushun has made its first... Read more →

Chrysler Group is offering fuel-saving Engine Stop-Start (ESS) technology as standard equipment on certain models of the award-winning 2015 Jeep Cherokee mid-size SUV and 2015 Chrysler 200 mid-size sedan. Chrysler 200 customers who opt for the 2.4-liter Tigershark I-4, and Jeep Cherokee customers who choose the available 3.2-liter Pentastar V-6,... Read more →

GM is offering magnetic ride control on the 2015 GMC Sierra Denali; it’s the first time the advanced, electronically controlled damping system has been offered on a full-size truck. GM offers magnetic ride control on a number of other vehicles, including Cadillacs, Corvettes and Buicks. Magnetic ride control provides more... Read more →

Doosan Engine, a licensee of MAN Diesel & Turbo technology, has confirmed delivery of the world’s first dual-fuel, low-speed ME-GI (main engine, gas injection) engine to the American National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) shipyard in San Diego. The new engine is capable of operation on LNG and/or bunker C... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $100 million in the second round of funding for Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs); research supported by this initiative will enable fundamental advances in energy production, storage, and use. The 32 projects receiving funding were competitively selected from more than 200 proposals.... Read more →