Car Shares Help Cities

When you’re cruising on your long-board through Philadelphia’s skinny streets, it’s easy to admire the lack of traffic. Thanks, in part, to a local not-for-profit called, PhillyCarShare, Philadelphians have enjoyed less cars on the road and less pollution in their air.

PhillyCarShare was created by a group of volunteers who had this crazy idea that people didn’t need to own or overuse cars, as long as low-emission vehicles were available 24/7. According to their website, “Members, after joining, report driving 53% fewer miles, consuming nearly one million fewer gallons of gas, owning 8,000 fewer vehicles, and saving $33 million annually - money that gets reinvested largely into Philadelphia's local economy.” Wow. A vehicle at your disposal but never a burden!

U.S. cities from New York to San Francisco have seen car share nonprofits sprout up wildly in the past decade. Programs like these drastically change the atmosphere of a city in a smart, eco-friendly way. It helps you and your community out in more ways than one.

Pirelli Offers Solution to the Diesel Problem

Twenty-four million children ride the school bus every day. But they might not be as safe as parents think. Many of the diesel-fueled buses pollute the air with large amounts of harmful particulates. Diesel fuel pollution can cause health problems ranging from minor headaches to lung disease.

In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency launched the Clean School Bus USA Act. Their goal: to upgrade all school buses to low-emission engines. But diesel fuel powers a lot more than just buses; more needs to be done if we want to curb the problem.

Lucky for us, top technology companies are on the job.

Pirelli Eco Technology offers an emulsion of diesel fuel, water and additives called Gecam white diesel. It reduces the amount of diesel particulate matter by more than 50%. Gecam can be used in buses, coaches and other industrial vehicles as well as diesel-powered heating systems.

For smaller vehicles they’ve got the Feelpure DPF system. A silicon carbide filter keeps particulates from escaping into the air, reducing particulate matter by a whopping 90%. No special diesel fuel is needed for the system.

Diesel has always been known for its fuel economy, efficiency and durability. With Gecam and Feelpure you can keep these benefits without the nasty side effects. Bye bye headache.

www.pirelliecotechnology.com

More Fuel, Less Money

Thousands of buses run on natural gas. Now your car can, too.

Advanced Refining Concepts, LLC , Reno, NV, has developed a process called ClearRefining - petroleum is refined with methane produced from natural gas. When the two are mixed, the petroleum molecules absorb the methane and then expand. The result is more fuel for less money and cleaner emissions. It's one of the first serious breakthroughs in the fuel industry for decades.

There are three ClearRefining products: GDiesel, GPetrol and GJet. So far, the big star of the company has been GDiesel. Aside from cleaner emissions, customers have appreciated its lack of smoke, odor, color and cold weather durability.  Even better, it requires absolutely no changes to your car or engine and runs though standard fuel pumps.

The company said, “The ability to refine clean liquid motor and industrial fuels without emissions will… significantly impact traditional refinery and large industrial operations, potentially allowing for increased production without jeopardizing air quality and generation of emissions credits.”

Pretty big goals. But I think they had us at less money, more fuel.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/a-hamburger-helper-for-diesel-fuel/

The 500-Mile EV

Imagine an EV that can drive from New York to Florida in two to three charges. It seems too good to be true, but it may be in our driving future.

In the fall of 2009, IBM kicked off its Battery 500 Project. The goal was to develop a car battery that can deliver up to 500 miles per charge. Battery technology is a tough business - innovations have been few and far between. The favored lithium-ion batteries can’t compete with gasoline in terms of energy density; and they certainly can’t deliver a 500 mile range.

IBM researchers have found something that can do the job: lithium-air. Just as conventional internal combustion engines operate by combining gasoline and air, lithium-air allows for a flow of oxygen to enter the battery. The chemical reaction that results produces up to 10 times the density of standard lithium-ion batteries. Forty scientists and engineers and several different labs are working on the project. They still have a year to go before they can determine whether the technology can be put to commercial use.

If they can pull this off, the EV market will receive a serious shot in the arm. Lithium-air batteries could support a family-sized sedan. Travelers could go on all-electric, guilt-free road trips, with no range anxiety. Less plug-in stations would need to be installed across the country.

Simply, an EV would make more sense for more people.

E. Coli In Your Tank

In the not so distant future, you may be pumping E. coli into your gas tank.

Collaborating with researchers from Harvard, Desmond Lun, an associate professor of computer science at Rutgers University–Camden, is manipulating models of E. coli in an attempt to restructure this microorganism. The hope is to find a design that results in the overproduction of fatty acids which can be used to create biodiesel.

Quoted in Rutgers Today, Lun states that “Biodiesel is something that we can generate quite easily. E. coli has been used as a lab organism for more than 60 years and it’s well-studied. We know a lot about its genetics and how to manipulate it. We’ve got to make quite drastic changes to do it and it requires major intervention.” Hopefully that also means they won't 'accidentally' mutate E. coli into some self-conscience organism that takes control of your vehicle, or worse, your body!

Desmond Lun

With the development of biofuels, creating ethanol out of corn or other food sources has not been very sustainable due to the high cost of business and the competition it creates with other food sources. If we can modify a bacteria like E. coli into biofuels, imagine how, with the right funding, we can redesign the entire concept of car manufacturing.

AFS Trinity Power's Battery-Capacitor Combo

Hybrids and EV's offer a great promise in a future of green driving. All along this road, the biggest challenge has been - the batteries.

How do you get them to last? How do you deal with extending the range? How can you accelerate and decelerate without using too much energy? To answer to these and other gripes, AFS Trinity Power, a company based in Washington state, presents the Extreme Hybrid Storage System.

The system combines a typical battery with a device called an ultra-capacitor. Batteries store lots of energy but are slow to deliver it. Capacitors, on the other hand, can release great amounts of power very quickly. The capacitor easily handles changes in acceleration, placing less stress on the battery and extending its life.

It also allows for a smaller and less expensive battery. AFS Trinity estimates that the Extreme Hybrid Storage System would cost about half of a regular plug-in battery pack.

The cost is expected to be thousands of dollars lower than battery-only systems. Plus, extended range and longer battery life - the rewards for drivers are sweet.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/for-hybrid-cars-a-hybrid-invention/
http://afstrinity.com/press/articles/AFST-SystemCost-05Aug2010.pdf

Saab looks to the future with its first ever all-electric Saab 9-3 ePower

Saab's new owners have electrified the company, with the announcement that Saab is producing its first-ever all-electric vehicle, the Saab 9-3 ePower. The EV makes its debut at the Paris Auto Show this month.

It is the prototype for a test fleet of 70 Saab 9-3 ePower vehicles which will participate in extensive field trials in Sweden early next year, under what's called real world driving conditions. That includes extreme cold, which we all know drains battery power.

Saab 9-3 ePower is first electric car from the Swedish manufacturer
Photo: Saab

The Saab 9-3 ePower has a projected driving range of about 140 miles (200 km). It is powered by a 135kw/184 hp electric motor driving the front wheels through a single-speed transmission, and a compact 35.5 kWh high density lithium-ion battery pack.

The battery pack is housed mainly in the wheelbase space normally occupied by the exhaust system and fuel tank in the conventional, gas-powered Saab 9-3. That configuration prompts Saab engineers to promise that the 9-3 ePower will have the same driving dynamics as the standard SportCombi model.

The 9-3 ePower uses electro-hydraulic power steering, and the cabin is equipped with full air conditioning, via a compressor powered by the battery pack. A separate 12-volt battery, for the lights and cabin ancillaries, is also charged from the battery pack via a current transformer.

Jan Ake Jonsson, Saab Automobile's CEO, predicts that by 2015 annual sales of EV vehicles are expected to be 500,000 a year, and Saab wants to be in that green garage.

Guest Blogger: Evelyn Kanter

Energy from Plants and Trees

Could our future energy supply lie in the foliage all around us? Maybe. Plants and trees harvest high quantities of energy-rich sugars that can be turned into fuel. However, scientists run into trouble with the notoriously hard-to-break-down cellulose compound. That's where the energy-packing plant sugar is stored.

But change is coming. Agrivida, a start-up agriculture bio-technology company, is toying with corn stover (the leaves and stalks of maize plants) to simplify the break-down process. Their experiments show that stover embedded with a genetically altered protein results in a 60 percent rise in the conversation rate of cellulose to glucose.

The Agrivida treatment involves less chemical emissions and costs less money than other biofuel production. Not bad for a start-up.

Although it is still far from commercial use, this new technology is promising. As tensions over foreign oil, resource scarcity and environmental issues continue to rise, these breakthroughs will become even more important.

Source: http://www.agrivida.com

Motor Oil - Green Options

Since the early to mid 20th century, synthetic motor oil has been commercially available to drivers, slicking the way for debate against conventional oil.  Having slid into the quagmire of economic distress, drivers may reach for the cheaper price tag.  However, the reality is that the life of your engine depends in no small part on the type of the oil you put in it.

As autumn returns, and with winter in the back of everyone’s mind, your choice in oil should compliment a cautious driving style.  In the colder months, conventional oil with thicker viscosity, flows slower on startup when most of the wear and tear occurs.

When considering an older car, the switch to synthetic oil could prove to be more economical, in spite of the higher price point. Unlike conventional oil, synthetics are known to withstand extreme conditions due to the fact that its molecules are consistent in size and shape. Some brands claim improved gas mileage. 

Beyond synthetic, there are new motor oils on the market. Eco-Power collects used motor oil and re-refines it into usable eco-friendly motor oil. This company also claims to reduce their greenhouse gases by more than 80% and their heavy metals emissions by 99.5%.

There’s also Green Earth Technologies. Their G-Oil product uses nanotechnology to produce oil made from beef slaughter byproducts. Wow.

ExxonMobil’s Mobil 1 Extended Performance uses a proprietary blend of anti-wear agents. The result - intervals between oil changes are extended up to 15,000 miles.

Small steps do count. These eco-friendly motor oils can help limit our reliance on oil imports and perhaps save a barrel or two, and reduce damaging the delicate balance of our eco-system.

Pioneering Car-Sharing Program in Texas Folds. Replaced by Car2go.

Austin CarShare was one of the very first programs in Texas, but about a month and a half ago it was forced to close up shop. It helped, according to Jude Galligan of downtownaustinblog.org, to create a market for car-sharing in central Texas. A market that will not go to waste.

Car2go started a pilot program in Austin back in 2009 (partly because of Austin CarShare). When it opened to the public in 2010 it had greater financial backing, more locations, and a critical mass of cars and users, and Austin CarShare could not compete.

On the bright side car2go seems like a new and flexible type of car-sharing program. It will be worth watching to see how the company fares in the two locations it currently operates (Ulm Germany, and Austin Texas).

AT&T goes hybrid with 2010 Toyota Prius fleet

AT&T has just added more than one dozen 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid cars in Tulsa and other Oklahoma cities.  It's the latest step in the company's ten-year plan to replace more than 15,000 vehicles in its nationwide fleet to alternative fuel models including hybrids and CNG powered vehicles.

AT&T plans to spend about $565 million on the project to switch its fleet to fuel efficient vehicles. They can afford it - AAT&T is raking in giant pots of money as the only mobile phone company currently providing service for the super-hot iPhone.

The company currently has a fleet of more than thirty CNG-powered vans operating in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and plans to increase that to  8,000 CNG vehicles nationwide over a five-year span, at an anticipated cost of $350 million.

Another company, Frito-Lay, is trying out plug-in electric delivery trucks in Canada.

Guest Blogger: Evelyn Kanter

NASA Engineer Goes to Work on Electric-Car Battery

When NASA chemical engineer Eric Darcy was given the chance to work with an organization of his choice for up to a year, he decided to lend his services to a distinctly more grounded field: automobiles. Since January, he has been working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), testing and tweaking the lithium-ion batteries that power most electric cars.

Light-weight and extremely power-dense, lithium-ion batteries have long been favored for commercial products. But with electric-powered cars expected to continue their rise in popularity, the new market calls for increased battery durability. Enter Darcy. During his time at the NREL, he has worked to ensure that these batteries are able to withstand the natural abuse that come from everyday use-the worst-case scenario could be "thermal-runaway" and the chance of fire.

However, Darcy's term with the NREL is expected not only to deal with these problems but to usher in a whole new era of battery production. Newer, faster, lighter, safer-advancements in battery production have been growing in the past months after a seven-year period of stagnation. IBM, too, has jumped on the bandwagon. Their Battery 500 Project is working with a technology called lithium-air to create a battery that can charge an EV in under 30 minutes and have a range of a remarkable 500 miles. So much for range anxiety.

Though Darcy returns to NASA next month, his work in the field is far from over-lithium-ion is being used to create a more efficient spacesuit battery-pack as well. With the continued emphasis on battery production and the new culture of green interest, safer and more energy-efficient batteries seem inevitable; leading to a significantly reduced national dependency on oil and less money, worry and hassle for drivers.

Source: http://www.nrel.gov/features/20100708_battery.html

Ford develops advanced liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery for EV electric cars

When the all-new Ford Focus Electric debuts in the U.S. in late 2011 and in Europe in 2012, it  will be powered by an advanced lithium-ion battery.  The new design uses  heated and cooled liquid to help maximize battery life and gas-free driving range.

Since we all know what's called range anxiety is a major issue for those of us interested in buying a plug-in EV, this is important news.

Ford Focus electric car will have a lithium-ion battery with an active liquid cooling/heating system

Photo: Ford Motor Company

Heat management of lithium-ion battery systems is critical to the success of all-electric vehicles because extreme temperatures - including extreme cold - can affect performance, reliability, safety and durability.

The active liquid cooling and heating system also enables the Focus Electric to automatically precondition the battery pack temperature during daily recharging, says Sherif Marakby, a top executive with Ford's electrification and engineering efforts.  When the vehicle is plugged in to the power grid, the vehicle system will be able to warm up the battery on cold days and cool it down on hot days.

The Focus Electric will be built at Ford's retooled Michigan Assembly Plant.  It  will have an expected range of up to 100 miles and use no gasoline at all.


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Guest Blogger: Evelyn Kanter

Will the U.S. Switch from MPG to GPHM?

The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world that measure fuel economy by distance traveled rather than consumption. However, the EPA has proposed new fuel economy labels that will include a new fuel consumption number, stating how many gallons of fuel are used per 100 miles or GPHM. 

The reason for this new addition is that it is easier to compare fuel consumption through fuel used over distance instead of the standard miles per gallon. This number directly states the amount of fuel used over a fixed distance so it is easier and more accurate for drivers to compare it to the fuel consumption of other vehicles. The lower the number, the better. Many countries track fuel economy by Liters per 100 Kilometers. 

Comparing vehicles by MPG can be misleading. Increasing fuel economy in a vehicle that gets 20 MPG by 2 MPG is a 10% increase. However, the same 2 MPG increase in a car that gets 40 MPG is just half - 5%.

Comparing vehicles based on GPHM rather than MPG is more accurate and allows drivers to easily choose a more fuel-efficient car. These labels can help drivers better understand a vehicle's fuel efficiency and make a more informed decisions about which vehicle to purchase.

Source: Autonews.com

Cars, Computers, Collusion

Computers and cars are rapidly converging. Microprocessors are present in almost every car, and control anything from braking to locking the doors. For many people, this is disturbing especially when things like the throttle and steering are no longer mechanically linked to the driver. Some people fear glitches like those that afflict computers and others see the trend as unsettling but ultimately beneficial. What isn't discussed much are the ways in which this could give unprecedented control of the vehicle to the driver.

Cars such as the Honda CR-Z take advantage of the flexibility provided by electronic modules to give the driver the option of three distinct driving modes (eco, normal, sport). The ability to reconfigure the car, without leaving the driver's seat, is one of the great advances the computerization of the car makes possible. Drivers in the future will most likely control their cars through a completely electronic interface, more akin to playing a video game than anything else; and as in a video game they will be able to customize and recalibrate their car. Getting better gas mileage the future could be as easy as downloading a 'green car' program.

Manual or Automatic?

This question tends to polarize many car owners, especially enthusiasts - what gets better gas mileage - stick or automatic? Autobloggreen had an article touting the virtues of the automatic transmissions, and pointing out why according to its article many automatics now get better gas mileage than their equivalent standard counterparts. The arguments boils down to one: automatic transmissions can now convert torque almost as efficiently as standards. Why? Two main reasons, the change from 3-speed automatic transmissions to 6-8 speeds in contemporary cars, and the introduction of electronic controls that change gears in a hair of a second, faster than a human mashing through the gears.

Now all of these arguments very obviously depend upon the particular car in question, but the general trend is that newer cars have more efficient automatic transmissions.