Gas 2.0

New Fuel-Injection Shock Treatment Increases Mileage

Alex Felsinger — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:08:10 +0000

Existing diesel and gasoline engines could get up to a 10% boost in fuel efficiency from an electrifying add-on.

Researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia have developed an improved fuel-injection system that is simple and affordable enough to use in existing cars. Through a strong electric charge to fuel on its way to the engine’s cylinders, scientists were able to increase the fuel efficiency of a Mercedes-Benz 300D from 32 to 38 mpg. If all the autos the United States installed the apparatus, over 300 million barrels of gasoline and about 150 million barrels of diesel could be saved.

Read more of this story »

Toshiba’s Super-Charged Battery: Nearly Full in 5 Minutes

Karen Pease — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 23:06:53 +0000

A while back, Toshiba unveiled their first foray into advanced lithium ion batteries — the Super-Charge ion Battery, or SCiB. Over the past few days, new information about their cells has emerged. With a 5-minute, 90% charge time and 5000-6000 charge cycles with minimal loss of capacity, it seems a solid competitor to AltairNano’s much vaunted nano-titanate cells.

Toshiba has already demonstrated a laptop that does just that, charging to 90% capacity in 5 minutes. This compares favorably to lithium iron phosphate technology, which should not be charged faster than 15-20 minutes. A partnership with Schwinn is to ship an electric bicycle (”Tailwind”) early next year using an SCiB pack to give a 30 minute recharge time (assumedly slower to avoid the need for a cooling system on the larger pack).

Read more of this story »

Renewable Energy is Homeland Security (Opinion)

Anthony Cefali — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:33:18 +0000

I have my pet peeves. I really hate roller-bags, people not walking down escalators, and discovering that Flex Fuel has been around for over 20 years and nobody bothered to implement it. My feelings are not limited to Flex Fuel, but all abandoned fuel economy technologies all together. The fact that a nation as wealthy as ours has not been implementing fuel saving technology does not bode well for our collective energy future.

Read more of this story »

Eco-Libris: An Interview with Bill Roth, Author of the New Book “On Empty (Out of Time)”

Raz Godelnik — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:05:44 +0000

This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on September 28.

Bill Roth is the author of the new and important book “On Empty (Out of Time)“, which readers have described as “America’s final “wake-up call”" and “A must read if you want freedom from high pump prices!”.

We reviewed the book at the beginning of the month and I felt afterwards that this issue is way too important and requires an interview with the author to learn more about his views and thoughts on the energy issues we’re facing.

Firstly here’s a little background of the author (see also photo below): Bill Roth has a solid experience in the energy sector, with a career that included posts such as senior VP of marketing and sales with PG&E Energy Services and COO of Texaco Ovonics Hydrogen Solutions. Currently he is the President of NCCT, a San Francisco-based consulting firm helping businesses define and integrate Sustainability into their strategies, performance metrics, branding/marketing and business processes.. He is also Entrepreneur.com’s Green Business Coach.

Read more of this story »

Chevy Volt Now $7,500 Cheaper Thanks to Economic Bailout

Adam Shake — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:53:47 +0000

The 700 Billion dollar bailout bill just passed the house, and automakers got $25 billion in low interest government loans, and plug-in tax credits have now been passed by both the House and the Senate, making the Chevy Volt $7,500 cheaper.

Read more of this story »

Report - U.S. Lacks Standards to Keep Biofuel Industry From Harming The Environment

Adam Shake — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:32:37 +0000

A report from the Office of Biobased Technology from the University of Michigan says that the United States lacks the standards to ensure that producing biofuels from cellulose won’t cause environmental harm.

As governments the world over move to make biofuel mandates, concessions and tax breaks for corn farmers and biofuel industry leaders, a group of scientists is calling for sustainable practices in an industry that that is being driven as an alternative to fossil fuel independence.

Read more of this story »

Jatropha: From Haitian Voodoo to Biodiesel Holy Grail

Nick Chambers — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:22:56 +0000

Jatropha is a nondescript and rather ugly desert shrub, but its appearance belies a huge potential as a major source of oil for biodiesel production on land that doesn’t compete with food crops — and the whole world is taking notice.

Jatropha has the potential to produce 4 times the amount of biodiesel as soybeans and 1.5 times the amount of even a dedicated oil crop such as canola. This alone has been enough to make people sit up and take notice, but jatropha’s true beauty lies in the fact that it can be grown on literal wasteland — land that has been left for dead with little rainfall, poor soils, and a harsh climate.

Read more of this story »

Bosnian Biodiesel Factory - You’ve Come A Long Way Baby!

Adam Shake — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:18:51 +0000

A biodiesel factory in Bosnia? It seems like just yesterday, but it was in 1995. That was the year I crossed the Sava River from Croatia, into Bosnia, and entered a country that would change my life forever.

Three different armies had killed hundreds of thousands of people, (including an ethnic cleansing campaign waged by Slobadan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic) casting the country into the dark after the power went out. This was a world where people had to run down “Sniper Alley” to get fresh drinking water in Sarajevo, and rural farmers resorted to eating the bark off trees.

A Nuclear reactor, near where I patrolled in my Hummer, sat silent and cold as enterprising people cut down dead power-lines to sell the copper in them. Families held off the cold winter by huddling around burning furniture and tires.

It’s now 13 years later and Bosnia is rebounding, and one of the signs of its new prosperity its new biodiesel factory, about to open near Banja Luka.

Read more of this story »

China Shows Green Aspirations With New Algae Biodiesel Facility

Nick Chambers — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:25:59 +0000

After its successful launch of the first commercial scale algae biodiesel plant in the U.S., PetroSun is setting its sights on a new partnership to develop an algae biofuel facility in China.

Shanghai Jun Ya Yan Technology Development Company has developed an agreement with PetroSun whereby it will provide $40 million (US) for the construction of an algae farm facility inside China and split profits with PetroSun 50/50 in exchange for PetroSun’s propriety technology and expertise.

Along with planned ethanol and biodiesel output, the press release states that the facility will be producing “other commercial products” from the algae. I’m guessing that means livestock feed supplements made from what’s left of algae carcasses after they’ve been squeezed for oil and turned into ethanol — but maybe they have another surprise up their sleeves?

Read more of this story »

World’s First 100% Renewable Jet Fuel is Created

Meg Hamill — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:38:15 +0000

The Department of Defense funded the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) to create the world’s first renewable jet fuel, and the mission had been accomplished.

It didn’t surprise me to learn that the Department of Defense is the number one consumer of petroleum in America. And so neither did it surprise me to learn that the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) was granted a $4.7 million contract by the Department of Defense to research alternative and renewable sources of fuel.

My interest was piqued when, a few days ago, the EERC claimed to have invented the world’s first 100% renewable jet fuel.

JP-8 fuel is a petroleum-based fuel currently in wide use by the military. The EERC has created a substitute for the fuel, using renewable feedstock made from agricultural products and/or waste oils. The process developed by the EERC can produce propane, gasoline, jet fuel and diesel that are identical to the fuels derived from petroleum.

Read more of this story »