MAHLE is successfully establishing itself as a supplier for e-mobility. One bestseller for the company in this area is the electric A/C compressor, for which Mahle has already secured numerous series orders in the passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors. The total order volume is approximately €1.4 billion. Most recently,... Read more →

Canadaa-based Prairie Lithium has commissioned the third iteration of its Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) pilot plant at the Emerald Park testing facility. The DLE pilot is designed to process deep subsurface brines sourced from Prairie Lithium’s Fall 2022 drilling program when 600 m3 of lithium rich brine was reserved for... Read more →

The CIRCLES (Congestion Impacts Reduction via CAV-in-the-loop Lagrangian Energy Smoothing) Consortium, comprising Vanderbilt University, UC Berkeley, Temple University and Rutgers University-Camden, in coordination with Nissan North America and Tennessee Department of Transportation, recently concluded a five-day open-track experiment testing an artificial-intelligence-equipped cruise control system designed to increase fuel savings and... Read more →

LanzaTech and Sumitomo Riko Company have entered into a joint-development agreement to reuse rubber, resin and urethane waste for the production of a key chemical intermediate, isoprene. Isoprene is produced by plants, and along with its polymers, is the main component of natural rubber. Natural rubber is widely regarded as... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SK On to secure a supply of EV batteries in North America. Under the MOU, both parties will cooperate to provide SK On batteries to the Group’s plants in the US after 2025 for the EV production. Further details on... Read more →

Rio Tinto is planning to invest a further $600 million in renewable energy assets in the Pilbara as part of the company’s efforts to decarbonize its Western Australian iron ore operations. The investment will fund the construction of two 100MW solar power facilities as well as 200 MWh of on-grid... Read more →

Nissan Motor signed a ¥200-billion (US$1.4-billion) syndicated green loan agreement arranged by Mizuho Bank. Nissan will utilize the loan to support its clean mobility and related projects to progress its long-term electrification and carbon neutrality ambitions. The loan contract period will be five and seven years. As the first funds... Read more →

Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC’s) Ministry of Hydrocarbons signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) 2022 Conference & Exhibition to develop existing synergies across their respective upstream, downstream, energy infrastructure and logistics sectors. The... Read more →

Nissan launched the fully-revamped Serena in Japan. Sales of gasoline-powered models will start this winter, and e-POWER models are to start in spring. The Serena features the second-generation e-POWER system, now equipped with an all-new, specially developed 1.4 L engine. The system delivers more powerful and smooth acceleration with less... Read more →

Rolls-Royce and easyJet report the world’s first run of a modern aero engine on hydrogen. The ground test was conducted on an early concept demonstrator using green hydrogen created by wind and tidal power. It marks a major step towards proving that hydrogen could be a zero carbon aviation fuel... Read more →

The technology group Wärtsilä has entered into a joint development agreement with Hycamite TCD Technologies, a privately-owned Finnish company specializing in the development of technology for the thermo-catalytic decomposition (TCD) of methane to produce clean hydrogen and solid carbon. The two companies will work together to enable cost-effective production of... Read more →

Fusion Fuel and Electus Energy have entered into an exclusive joint venture agreement to develop a large-scale green hydrogen project in Bakersfield, California. The proposed project is a roughly 75 MW solar-to-hydrogen facility using Fusion Fuel’s HEVO technology (earlier post), capable of producing up to 9,300 tons of green hydrogen... Read more →

Hyundai Mobis plans to invest $926 million in an Electric Vehicle (EV) Power Electric system plant in Bryan County that will eventually employ at least 1,500 people. The EV Power Electric system plant will expand Hyundai Mobis’ current footprint in Georgia. Hyundai Mobis has operated a manufacturing facility with almost... Read more →

Finland-based Keliber’s long-planned lithium project is progressing into the construction phase, as preparatory work on the lot of the lithium hydroxide refinery will be kicked off before Christmas. The refinery will be built in Kokkola Industrial Park (KIP), and it will produce lithium hydroxide. Starting the construction of the refinery... Read more →

A UK consortium has been awarded £7.7 million (US$9.3 million) from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) of the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to develop a hydrogen storage demonstrator, in which hydrogen is absorbed on a depleted uranium bed, which can then release the... Read more →

All-electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) traveled a combined 19.1 billion miles on electricity in 2021, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). This includes all miles traveled in EVs and the electric portion of miles traveled in PHEVs. Total electric miles were still less than... Read more →

Using only inexpensive earth-abundant raw materials, a team from Rice’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Syzygy Plasmonics Inc. and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment have created a scalable photocatalyst that can convert ammonia into hydrogen fuel. The research is published in Science. We show that plasmonic photocatalysis can... Read more →

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently adopted a five-year, statewide, $1-billion transportation electrification program. The decision provides a unified policy-driven funding structure for utility transportation electrification efforts through 2030, and prioritizes investments in charging infrastructure for low-income, tribal, and underserved utility customers. Under the decision, 70% of the funds... Read more →

CNOOC Petroleum Brasil Ltda. has paid Petrobras R$ 10.3 billion (US$1.9 billion) for a 5% share in production from the Búzios field in the pre-salt of Santos Basin. (Earlier post.) Búzios field is a large ultra-deepwater oil field located in the Santos Basin, about 230 km (140 mi) off the... Read more →

Norway-based research organization SINTEF is currently heading a major EU-funded project called HARARE, which aims to use hydrogen to recover copper and aluminum from copper slag and bauxite residues (red muds), respectively. HARARE stands for “Hydrogen As the Reducing Agent in the REcovery of metals and minerals from metallurgical waste”.... Read more →

Business Finland has awarded €2.3 million in R&D funding to Elomatic Oy’s project development company Green NortH2 Energy. With the loan, the Finland-based company is developing a green hydrogen and ammonia production concept. Green NortH2 Energy intends to set up the first green ammonia production plant in Naantali. Green NortH2... Read more →

Desktop Metal, a leader in mass production additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, received a $9-million order from a major German automaker for binder jet additive manufacturing systems used for mass production of powertrain components. This is the second order from the same automaker in less than 12 months, bringing the total... Read more →

Neste and CIM, part of NOVEN Group in France, the leading independent French group of companies providing oil storage and supply services, are collaborating to enable the supply of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel into France. The collaboration enables fuel marketing companies to comply with the French mandate for sustainable... Read more →

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued Venezuela General License (GL) 41, authorizing Chevron Corporation to resume limited natural resource extraction operations in Venezuela. GL 41 authorizes: Production and lifting of petroleum or petroleum products produced by the Chevron JVs, and any related... Read more →

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, will expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) (earlier post) London-wide. The expansion will come into effect on 29 August 2023 and will operate across all London boroughs up to the existing Low Emission Zone boundary for large and heavy vehicles. On 8 April... Read more →

Vietnam-based EV manufacturer VinFast held a ceremony to mark its first batch of exports of electric vehicles: 999 VF 8s headed to the United States. This batch is being transported by the Silver Queen—a Panamanian charter ship—and is expected to arrive in a California port about 20 days after departing... Read more →

The BMW Group is building a high-voltage battery assembly for the vehicles of the NEUE KLASSE at its site in Hungary. The battery assembly will be located on the site of the Debrecen vehicle plant, which started construction about six months ago. The BMW iFACTORY is also about ensuring short... Read more →

ABB has secured its first order from COSCO Shipping, China’s largest shipping company, for in-line permanent magnet shaft generator systems. Compared with traditional diesel generator sets (single unit), the permanent magnet shaft generator system will yield fuel savings of up to 17%. Permanent magnet shaft generators are small, light, and... Read more →

Buick will introduce its first electric vehicle in China developed on GM’s Ultium platform later this year. Deliveries of the five-seat SUV will begin in the first half of 2023. It will be followed by a second Ultium-empowered EV, also next year. The announcement came shortly after GM announced plans... Read more →

A Siemens Energy-led consortium has begun work in Newcastle, UK on a new £3.5 million (US$4.24 million) ammonia cracker prototype designed to produce green hydrogen at industrial scale. The prototype will use ammonia to deliver 200kg of hydrogen a day—enough to power around 5-10 hydrogen fuel cell-electric buses. The ammonia... Read more →

Volta, an electric vehicle (EV) charging and media company, announced that a project application it collaborated on with Imagen Energy, a developer of compact high-power EV chargers, was awarded a $12-million grant from the US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). (Earlier post.) The project seeks to develop... Read more →

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) will start using 30 electric trucks to make “last mile” deliveries to local customers in Belgium. The first five vehicles will go out today in the Antwerp area. Through a key partnership with Renault Trucks, the beverage manufacturer is electrifying one-fifth of its truck fleet and... Read more →

Fusion Fuel has entered the centralized electrolyzer market with the introduction of its HEVO-Chain solution. Rather than relying on a traditional cell-stack, the HEVO-Chain builds off Fusion Fuel’s proprietary HEVO architecture (earlier post), enabling the system to operate at higher efficiency—roughly 49 kWh / kg of hydrogen—and avoid the losses... Read more →

Airbus is developing innovative cryogenic hydrogen storage tanks to support future aircraft fueled by liquid hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen needs to be stored at -253 °C. In its simplest terms, says Airbus, there are two main technologies that enable an aircraft to fly directly with hydrogen. You can power an engine... Read more →

At its Dakar debut in January 2022, the Audi RS Q e-tron (earlier post) series hybrid set standards in efficiency and competitiveness of e-mobility in motorsport. In the next step, the three desert prototypes with electric drive and energy converter will run in the 2023 Dakar Rally with an innovative... Read more →

Rolls-Royce has been awarded a contract to supply and install a large-scale mtu EnergyPack QG battery storage system on a turnkey basis to the Dutch energy company Semper Power in Vlissingen. The order also includes general contractor services, as well as the construction of the building and other infrastructure. Semper... Read more →

Aral is piloting two new fuels in Germany: Aral Futura Super 95 and Aral Futura Diesel. Both fuels reduce CO2 emissions compared to pure fossil fuels by at least 25% and contain at least 30% of high-quality renewable components, including a significant share of advanced renewable components. They are now... Read more →

A team led by Raymond Borges Hink at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a method using blockchain to protect communications between electronic devices in the electric grid, preventing cyberattacks and cascading blackouts. The work is summarized in a new technical report from ORNL. The... Read more →

In a letter sent to US Senate and House leadership, a broad coalition of energy and agriculture organizations called on Congress quickly to adopt legislation that would resolve inconsistent fuel volatility regulations. Specifically, the groups expressed support for legislation that would result in equal regulatory treatment for all gasoline blends... Read more →

Rio Tinto has shown the effectiveness of a low-carbon iron-making process using ores from its mines in Australia in a small-scale pilot plant in Germany, and is now planning the development of a larger-scale pilot plant to further assess its potential to help decarbonize the steel value chain. The process,... Read more →

Eden, a company developing novel techniques to increase permeability and characterize geologic reservoirs, has been selected as part of a project team to receive $3,517,450 in federal funding from the US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) for a project titled “Integrated Electro-Hydraulic Fracturing and Real-Time Monitoring for... Read more →

Niron Magnetics, a developer of high-performance, rare earth-free permanent magnets (earlier post), announced that the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) has awarded the company a $17.5-million grant as part of its Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program.... Read more →

Neste delivered more than 500,000 gallons (1,500 metric tons) of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This SAF delivery was made possible by a close cooperation with LAXFUEL, the consortium of the airlines operating at LAX providing the jet fuel supply infrastructure for the planes... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’ (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) is awarding $100 million to eight clean energy technology projects through the Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program. SCALEUP (earlier post) provides a path to market for previously funded ARPA-E projects... Read more →

Phoenix Motor, a manufacturer of all-electric, medium-duty vehicles, signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with leading battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) for the co- development of batteries for Phoenix Motorcars’ product lines. The MOU will support the long-term supply of battery solutions and related products for Phoenix’s commercial electric... Read more →

Mazda Motor Corporation is planning to complete the electrification of all vehicle models by 2030 and is currently working together with various partner companies on a range of electrification-related research projects that are also designed to stimulate the local economy and contribute to the development of local industry and innovation.... Read more →

LG Chem today has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the state of Tennessee to establish a new cathode manufacturing facility in Clarksville with an investment of US$3.2 billion. The new Clarksville plant will be the largest of its kind in the United States, covering 420 acres with a... Read more →

In Japan, JERA concluded memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) related to cooperation in transporting fuel ammonia for the Hekinan Thermal Power Plant, expected to begin commercial operation in the late 2020s. JERA is a 50-50 joint venture between TEPCO Fuel... Read more →

ZF is presenting new electric drives for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. This latest generation of e-drives advances power density and energy efficiency due to numerous innovations at both the component and system level. These include the compact design of the drives, power electronics, and a resource-saving use of... Read more →

Geely Holding Group’s premium electric mobility brand ZEEKR recently debuted its SEA-M architecture. The SEA-M architecture is a high-tech mobility solution from ZEEKR refined from the original Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) (earlier post) to support a range of future mobility products including robotaxis, multi-purpose vehicles, and logistics vehicles, laying a... Read more →