This post is an excerpt of an article from Popular Mechanics. You can read the full post on their website. Written by Ben Stewart.
As far as I am concerned, the two biggest problems facing humanity are kicking our addiction to oil, and figuring out a way to get rid of all our garbage without stuffing it into big, endless holes in the ground.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could kill two birds with one stone? One day, we might be able to, but for now at least one company is working on a way to fix their fuel woes within the confines of their own business.
Waste Management, one of the biggest garbage companies in the country, says it will be able to produce 13,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) daily from just one landfill in Northern California.
As I’ve said before, SEMA is not usually a place you expect to see lots of alternative fuel vehicles. But in recent years there has been a paradigm shift, and increasing floor space has been devoted to debuting technologies and cars that conserve gas, rather than waste it.
Factory Five, out of Wareham Massachusetts, is a well-known maker of kit cars based on classic Shelby designs including the Cobra and Daytona. Amp=D has taken one of their kit cars based on the iconic ‘33 Ford and built a powerful electric drivetrain around this handsome hot rod.
As it stands right now, there are comparatively few places to purchase alternative fuels. As of 2005, there were approximately 168,987 gas stations in the United States; of those, just 2,200 sell E85 ethanol fuel.
No major oil outlets have fully embraced biofuels, although British Petroleum has just announced that it may begin commercial production of ethanol starting in 2010.
BP has partnered with Verenium to bring a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility online next year to start bringing alternative fuels to a gas pump near you.
BP has big plans for biofuels and seems to be marching towards an alternative fuel future faster than many of its competitors. Verenium already has a demonstration plant in Louisiana capable of producing over a million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually, and BP hopes to ramp production up. The Verenium process uses proprietary enzymes to break down grass feedstock and convert it to ethanol more efficiently.
Spectators at next years Sonoma Showdown at California’s Infineon Raceway will be treated to something they’ve never seen before - the nation’s first ever zero-carbon motorcycle race.
The Sonoma County event, known as the Time Trial eXtreme Grand Prix, will form part of the AMA Motorcycle Sonoma Showdown weekend, May 14-16.
Are you a petrohead with a conscience? Someone who likes the thought of owning an electric car but put off by the weedy sound of today’s offerings?
Well, for those of you who want to blend eco-cred with the engine roar of a Lamborghini, the wait may be finally over. New technology developed by Lotus and hi-fi whizz Harman Kardon will enable drivers of hybrid and electric cars to select the engine noise of their choice - from a beefy V8 to the swoosh! of the Enterprise at warp speed.
Yesterday, Chrysler/Fiat’s new CEO Sergio Marchionne presented the 5-year business plan he hopes will save Chrysler, and bring Fiat back to the US market for the first time in nearly 30 years. The company presented its plan during a live, seven-hour-long marathon webcast, which was notable for two things: first, a virtually unprecedented willingness to discuss future product, and, second, the conspicuous absence of New Chrysler’s much-ballyhooed ENVI electric-vehicle division.
What happened to the Dodge EV? Can we expect some innovative green tech from Marchionne’s new Dodge product future? The depressing reality, after the jump.
There was a time not too long ago that you couldn’t have paid me to buy another new American automobile. Don’t take that statement that wrong way; it wasn’t for lack of trying. I love the lines of the true classics like the ‘57 Chevy or the ‘65 GTO. But somewhere in the last few decades, the American manufacturers seemed to just give up on making a good product—and I went through several modern American pieces of junk before I gave up trying too.
Yet in the last two years there is one major American manufacturer, who, above all others, seems to have come out the other end of a dark tunnel with a clear vision for its future and a line-up of solid, well-designed cars on which to build—Ford.
In 1877 Russian scientist Dimitri Mendeelev suggested that the large deposits of oil and gas we find under the surface of the Earth could be made without the decay of long-dead organisms in a process called abiotic synthesis of methane.
Since then the theory has been relegated to the back shelf due to a lack of evidence and the prevailing conventional wisdom that all deep oil and gas deposits arise from decaying prehistoric animal and plant material.
While it’s no doubt that the decay of dead animals and plants is one pathway to the creation of Earth’s oil and natural gas deposits (potentially the largest), new research done with high-tech equipment simulating the conditions of deep earth suggests that Mendeelev’s theory is correct.
Tata Motors, the company whose claim to fame is selling one of the world’s cheapest and most fuel efficient cars, is considering letting other local India-based manufacturers produce and sell their Nano under their brands.
The company began selling the 56 mpg car last July, and, due to high demand, is in the process of building a manufacturing facility that would produce an additional 350,000 units per year. The plant, located in Sanand in Gujarat, should be up and running by March of 2010.
But in the meantime, Tata Motors is considering allowing smaller manufacturers produce, rebrand and sell the car under license from Tata. The maximum amount of production per year in this fashion would be 10,000 cars. Now that’s an interesting way of selling more cars. I would venture to say that I doubt an American car company would take a similar tack since they use the brand to drive sales. Read the rest of this entry »
Conventional drag racing is pretty much the furthest thing from a green sport, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the hell out of it. Yet even this tire-melting, gas-wasting sport is diving into the realm of alternative fuels for a variety of reasons.
Roush, a leading builder of aftermarket Mustangs, is developing two Mustangs for the drag strip powered not by gasoline, but clean-burning propane.
British company Mavizen, the outfit behind the eGrandPrix, has launched the world’s first production electric supersport bike, - the TTX02, available as a limited edition from April 2010.
The bike, unveiled on Tuesday at the SEMA Show 2009 in Las Vegas, has been called a “laptop on wheels” and is the first motorsport vehicle in the world to ship with integrated IP connectivity. It also boasts a USB based system bus that allows a “virtually unlimited” number of peripherals to extend the capabilities of the machine with plug’n’play.
According to the man behind the outfit, Azhar Hussain, “This is about giving everybody access to the best tools so they can go racing and have a stab at making history.” (More pics after the jump).
For those eager to absolve the carbon guilt caused by yet another international flight, Heathrow airport is trialling an innovative electric car shuttle fleet to ferry passengers to and from the business car park.
Seeing as Heathrow is the world’s busiest international airport, I suppose the effort is a little bit like launching an attack on a saber-toothed tiger with a blunt knife, or maybe a feather duster… But hey, maybe I’m being unfair - I suppose you’ve got to start somewhere right? And I admit, the system does seem a bit nifty - if not quite as good as the Johnny Cabs (video) in Total Recall.
As an undergrad in college, I had the privilege of twice attending the annual Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas. SEMA is mostly known for wild, outlandish, and powerful versions of street cars; it isn’t the kind of place you go to find people discussing fuel efficiency and hybrids.
But 2009 is a year of reckoning and big changes are afoot in the auto industry. One sign of the times: M&J Enterprises has brought to this year’s SEMA a Ford Fusion Hybrid equipped with an aero body kit to reduce drag.
Leo Motors, a parts supply company with its roots in Korea, has an outspoken CEO with an interesting eye for the future and a grasp of where we’ve come from. For instance, after speaking with him it became apparent that Dr. Robert Kang has come to the conclusion that most of the electric vehicle technology we see today is based on technology developed for electric toys combining a simple motor, battery and ampere controller.
I don’t know if this is a fully accurate representation of electric car design, but it’s certainly true that electric cars are relatively simple systems. Read the rest of this entry »
Gas 2.0
Gas 2.0 digs into the viscous world of biofuels and the fast-paced transit arena, exploring the technologies and substances that are the future of transportation.
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