A new study from University of Michigan researchers challenges the assumption that crop-based biofuels such as corn ethanol and biodiesel are inherently carbon-neutral—i.e., that only production-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to be tallied when comparing them to fossil fuels. In an open-access paper published in the journal Climatic Change,... Read more →

Using commercially available solar cells and none of the usual rare metals, researchers at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have designed an intrinsically stable and scalable solar water splitting device that is fully based on earth-abundant materials, with a solar-to-hydrogen... Read more →

Technip has signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with BTG BioLiquids B.V. (BTL) to provide EPC (engineering, procurement and construction services) for its modular pyrolysis plants. The plants will be based on BTL’s Fast Pyrolysis Oil (FPO) technology which converts biomass to oil through a rapid pyrolysis process. The fast pyrolysis... Read more →

In Europe, the new Volkswagen Tiguan can now be ordered with two new top engines: the new 2.0 TDI biturbo diesel with 176 KW / 240 PS; and the 2.0 TSI engine with output of 162 kW / 220 PS familiar from the Golf GTI. Both engines come with 4Motion... Read more →

Using an engineered strain of the phototropic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris as a biocatalyst, a team from the University of Washington, Utah State University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have reduced carbon dioxide to methane in one enzymatic step. The work demonstrates the feasibility of using microbes to generate... Read more →

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. began accepting applications in Japan for custom orders of the all-new NSX hybrid supercar (earlier post), which underwent a full redesign for the first time in 26 years since the introduction of the original NSX. Customer delivery will begin on 27 February 2017. Pricing starts at... Read more →

nuTonomy launched the first public trial of a robo-taxi service. The trial, which will continue on an on-going basis, is being held within Singapore’s one-north business district, where nuTonomy has been conducting daily autonomous vehicle (AV) testing since April. Earlier this month, nuTonomy was selected by the Singapore Land Transport... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems announced that the company’s subsidiary, Protonex, received notification from the US Department of Commerce that its family of fuel cell propulsion systems are now designated as EAR99 (Export Administration Regulations 99) compliant, creating a path for commercial export and deployment in a variety of civilian unmanned vehicle... Read more →

Researchers from Zhejiang University; SINOPEC’s Fushun Research Institute of Petroleum and Petrochemicals; Nanjing Tech University; and Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry have developed an “atom-economic” approach to produce renewable drop-in aviation-range hydrocarbons and aromatics from oleic acid (C18H34O2, a fatty acid that occurs naturally in various animal and... Read more →

by Rakesh Upadhyay for Oilprice.com It’s possible that OPEC is crying wolf with hints of an output freeze next month in Algiers; but it’s also possible that they are ramping up production to take the sting out of a freeze. This is a delicate balancing act that the Saudis need... Read more →

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. announced a new addition to its Traveo automotive microcontroller (MCU) family with more memory for program code and graphics to support hybrid instrument cluster applications. The new, highly integrated devices in the S6J32xE series provide a single-chip solution that can drive graphics on head-up displays or traditional... Read more →

Enerkem Inc., a waste-to-biofuels and chemicals producer, has obtained certification from the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) system for the biomethanol production of its Enerkem Alberta Biofuels full-scale facility in Edmonton, Canada. This biorefinery therefore becomes the first ISCC-certified plant in the world to convert municipal solid waste into... Read more →

Orange EV announced that businesses and organizations with fleets in California can receive a preliminary voucher of $95,000, increasable up to $120,000, toward the purchase of a new T-Series battery-electric Class 8 terminal truck with extended duty battery pack. Orange EV electric terminal trucks have been operating up to 24+... Read more →

Stanley Engineered Fastening (SEF), which offers a broad portfolio of fastening solutions, such as stud-welding systems (SWS) and plastic fasteners, is bringing its next-generation self-pierce rivets (SPRs) to the North American market for the first time. Demand for SPRs, which already are well-established in Europe, is on the rise in... Read more →

A team at the Ohio State University has developed a membrane that regulates bi-directional ion transport across it as a function of its redox state and that could be used as a programmable smart membrane separator in future supercapacitors and redox flow batteries. Described in a paper published in the... Read more →

Opel will introduce the Ampera-e at the upcoming Paris Motor Show in September. Ampera-e is the European cousin to the Chevy Bolt (earlier post), as the Ampera was to the Chevy Volt. In the run-up to the world premiere, Opel is touting the performance of the battery-electric vehicle. With maximum... Read more →

Researchers at MIT have produced the first assessment of the annual costs of IQ losses from aircraft lead emissions in the US. Their study, published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, found that that atmospheric lead pollution attributable to leaded aviation gas (avgas) contributes to US$1.06 billion (the... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued the 2017 Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Phase I Release 1 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), including two subtopics focused on hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. DOE had released the original relevant topics in July. (Earlier post.) The... Read more →

The Nikkei reports that Honda’s Suzuka factory has begun production of hybrid motors for smaller cars. Honda developed with Daido Steel a magnet that does not require heavy rare-earth elements. (Earlier post.) Honda will mass-produce the motors, which will debut in the redesigned Freed minivan next month, helping to ensure... Read more →

Tesla’s latest Model S version, the P100D with Ludicrous mode, is the third-fastest accelerating production car ever produced, with a 0-60 mph time of 2.5 seconds. The 100 kWh battery also increases range substantially to an estimated 315 miles (507 km) on the EPA cycle and 613 km (381 miles)... Read more →

A Los Alamos National Laboratory team, in collaboration with Yoong-Kee Choe at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan and Cy Fujimoto of Sandia National Laboratories, has discovered that fuel cells based on a new phosphate-quaternary ammonium ion-pair membrane can be operated between 80 °C and... Read more →

X Energy, LLC, a developer of high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed small modular reactors, and a subsidiary of Southern Nuclear Operating Company (Southern Nuclear) have entered into a memorandum of understanding as a step toward commercializing and deploying X-energy’s High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR): the Xe-100. Using unique core and fuel designs,... Read more →

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leader in the global specialty chemicals industry, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate conversion assets and supporting business functions currently operated by Jiangxi Jiangli New Materials Science and Technology Co. Ltd. The transaction includes manufacturing assets located in... Read more →

Speaking at the Hot Chips conference in Cupertino, California, NVIDIA revealed the architecture and underlying technology of its new Parker processor, which is suited for automotive applications such as self-driving cars and digital cockpits. Hot Chips, a symposium on high performance chips, is sponsored by the IEEE Technical Committee on... Read more →

Mobileye and Delphi Automotive PLC are partnering to develop a complete SAE Level 4/5 automated driving solution. The program will result in an end-to-end production-intent fully automated vehicle solution, with the level of performance and functional safety required for rapid integration into diverse vehicle platforms for a range of customers... Read more →

Daimler has extended its portfolio of new energy vehicles (NEV) with the introduction of the DENZA 400, the company’s “Made in China, for China” electric vehicle from joint venture Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co., Ltd. (BDNT). The DENZA 400 features improved battery density achieved through an upgraded production process... Read more →

Globally, the use of methanol as an alternative fuel has attracted interest because of its low production cost, renewable capacity, and good combustion-related properties (higher thermal efficiency, higher engine power, and lower regulated emissions). In China in particular, there are abundant coal resources, and the technology of using coal to... Read more →

Quanergy Systems, Inc., a leading provider of solid-state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing solutions (earlier post), raised $90 million in Series B funding at a valuation well over $1 billion. Sensata Technologies, Delphi Automotive, Samsung Ventures, Motus Ventures and GP Capital participated in the round. This investment brings the company’s... Read more →

With funding from Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been working with industry-partner LanzaTech to convert alcohols derived from captured carbon monoxide, a byproduct in the production of steel, into synthetic paraffinic kerosene, a non-fossil-based jet fuel. The technology not only provides a viable source of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has compiled figures showing that although most electric vehicles (EV) have shorter ranges than gasoline vehicles, there are EVs with ranges equal to or greater than some gasoline-powered models. Further, the median range for plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) is 440 miles (708.11 km)—longer than... Read more →

The government of British Columbia recently unveiled its Climate Leadership Plan, targeting the reduction of net annual greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 million tonnes below current forecasts by 2050 and the creation of up to 66,000 jobs over the next ten years. BC’s target is to reduce 2050... Read more →

Together with Volkswagen Automatic Transmission Tianjin (VWATJ), Audi is inaugurating a new transmission plant in the northern China harbor city of Tianjin. The plant will supply highly efficient 7-speed S tronic transmissions for the new Audi A4 L and other locally produced models. Audi will produce 240,000 transmissions annually at... Read more →

Nel Hydrogen Solutions has secured a repeat-order for two new CAR-200 hydrogen stations from an undisclosed European customer. Nel Hydrogen Fueling, formerly known as H2 Logic A/S and a division of Nel ASA (Nel), has initiated production of CAR-200, the latest generation H2Station. Customer feedback for the fueling station has... Read more →

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made 11 awards totaling $55 million aimed at building research capacity to develop new innovations at the intersection of food, energy and water systems and to address fundamental questions about the brain. The cooperative agreements are through NSF’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research... Read more →

HARMAN has developed a layered 5+1 automotive cybersecurity framework which consists of a series of layers that protects the car’s head unit from being compromised and used as a portal into the in-vehicle network. At the deepest level, a secure hardware platform provides a safe place to store cryptographic keys... Read more →

Three startups from the West Coast—Zendrive (earlier post), PolySync (earlier post) and Civil Maps (earlier post)—will join TechLab at Mcity this fall, moving resources to develop their driverless vehicle technologies in Ann Arbor. The move is part of an expansion of an innovative program designed to drive the future of... Read more →

AK Steel launched NEXMET, an new family of high strength steels for use in automotive lightweighting applications. These products are specifically designed to assist automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in meeting 2025 US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) targets. AK Steel’s NEXMET family of products will offer high strength, greater... Read more →

A study by researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology has found that the “persistent diesel dogma” of “the higher the cetane number (CN) the better” relative to the soot-NOx trade-off is valid in neither conventional or low temperature combustion operation. The open-access study, published in the journal Fuel also reported... Read more →

A team from the Texas A&M University campus in Qatar (TAMU-Qatar) and Caltech has developed a new way to make synthetic rubber; once this material is discarded, it can be easily degraded back to its chemical building blocks and reused in new tires and other products. The researchers will present... Read more →

A new study suggests that focusing on a gasoline-fueled vehicle’s cold start is the best target for future design changes to reduce emissions of criteria pollutants. The researchers are presenting their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Philadelphia. Although the... Read more →

A team of researchers University of South Florida is using naturally occurring fungi to drive an environmentally friendly recycling process to extract cobalt and lithium from tons of waste batteries. The researchers presented their work at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Philadelphia.... Read more →

Electrochemists at TU Graz have used single crystalline acceptor-doped Si—as ubiquitously used in the semiconductor industry—as anode material for rechargeable Li-ion batteries. In an open access paper in the journal Scientific Reports, the team suggests that the use of such patterned monocrystalline Si (m-Si) anodes directly shaped out of the... Read more →

A team from the University of Vaasa (Finland) and UPM-Kymmene Corporation has examined how the blends of fossil and renewable diesel produced from crude tall oil (CTO) affect the performance and exhaust emissions of the modern common-rail off-road diesel engine. The study, published in the journal Fuel, used four different... Read more →

Kenworth has been awarded three government grants totaling $8.6 million that will support low emissions projects involving Kenworth T680 Day Cabs targeted for use as drayage tractors in Southern California ports. The first two projects are funded at $1.9 million each by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of... Read more →

At this year’s IAA commercial vehicles in Hannover, AKASOL, a Germany-based provider of high-performance Li-ion battery systems (earlier post), will introduce the AKASystem OEM. The modular and compact lithium-ion battery system is targeted for use in commercial vehicles such as buses, trucks, construction, or other special vehicles. The base unit... Read more →

Total motor gasoline deliveries—a measure of consumer gasoline demand—in the US in July moved up 2.4% from July 2015 to average nearly 9.7 million barrels per day, according to figures from the American Petroleum Institute (API). Compared with June 2016, total motor gasoline deliveries increased 0.3%. For year-to-date, total motor... Read more →

The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) has issued a request for information (DE-FOA-0001607) on lower-grade waste heat recovery technologies. Consistent with the agency’s mission, ARPA-E is seeking clearly disruptive, novel technologies, early in their R&D cycle, and not integration strategies for existing technologies. In 2015, 59.2 quadrillion BTU... Read more →

At Monterey Car Week, Mercedes unveiled the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6. Designed as an electric car, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, which measures almost six metres in length, features all-wheel drive provided by its four compact permanent magnet synchronous electric motors. The output of the drive system is 550 kW (750 hp).... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found that the EPA has not met certain statutory requirements to identify environmental impacts of Renewable Fuel Standard. In a newly released report, the OIG said that EPA’s Office of Research and Development has not complied with the requirement... Read more →

Cadillac revealed the Escala Concept, introducing the next evolution of Cadillac design and previewing the craftsmanship and technology being developed for many future models. Following a series of private previews, Escala will be displayed this weekend at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The Escala Concept previews the design and... Read more →