For all of us, “Going Green” means something different. Whether it is just changing the light bulbs in your house or going completely off the grid, every little bit helps. But for some people, changing the world is a full time job, and a full time job requires a company car.
Or a bus. Enter the Solar Bus.
There is an urgent need for renewable fuels and alternative technologies to reach the marketplace as many experts predict that in the blink of an eye, a barrel of oil could exceed $200. That means $6.00 per gallon gas or more. Today, LS9, a company whose mission is to replace petroleum with advanced biofuels, has become one step closer to doing just that. The company’s UltraClean(TM) Diesel (many people use the term green diesel) product has been vehicle tested and exceeds the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D6751 and Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum ANP-7 specifications.
The key to these tests are that they were conducted by a third party which makes me excited for the future applications of the fuel. Personally, I think many technology claims are bogus. Too many “breakthrough” technologies are never validated by a third party and they whither and die in a matter of months. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s hard being an environmental celebrity, especially when you are Royal too. People want to see you, but that can mean racking up a lot of carbon miles.
So Prince Charles had his Aston Martin converted to run on bio-ethanol made from aged English wine, and his Audi, Jaguar, and Range Rover all run on what the English call old cooking fat.
In the US we call this reused cooking oil because that’s much hipper and greener sounding, and marketing is everything.
So now Prince Charles is driven in the royal Jaguar that runs on homemade biodiesel and, for a little variety; in the Land Rover or the Audi, in a carbon conscious fashion.
But what about his airplane travel? Well…
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For many years, environmentalists have encouraged people to tread more lightly on the planet through buying local. The most common way to buy local is through fresh food purchased at a local farmer’s market, and to get there you should bike or walk since everyone knows that you can’t produce a sustainable car with local material. Right? Wrong. You’ve heard of bamboo bikes, well now there are bamboo taxis. These taxis were commissioned by the mayor of Tabontabon (in the Philippines) Rustico Balderian.
The bamboo taxis are made out of 90 percent bamboo and run on coconut biodiesel. The palm trees and wild bamboo stalks are native to the area.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it was extending the comment period on a draft rule that aims to cut the greenhouse gases emitted by biofuels. The proposed changes to the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, known as RFS-2, are an attempt to make the production of corn-based ethanol more efficient and increase the output of advanced biofuels. Read the rest of this entry »
Renewable fuels company Sustainable Oils shared the results of a life-cycle analysis of jet fuel created from proprietary Camelina seeds. According to the study, renewable jet-fuel made from Camelina reduces carbon emissions by 84% percent compared to the petroleum-based counterpart.
A team at Michigan Tech University based their research on Camelina grown in Montana and then processed into bio-jet fuel using “UOP hydroprocessing technology”. Next generation biofuels are true hydrocarbons and in the molecular aspect are indistinguishable from fossil fuels, which makes Camelina oil a good candidate to quickly reduce carbon emissions produced by aviation.
Wings, mozzarella sticks, fries and onion rings. Old shoe leather (wait, maybe that’s just a memory of how things tasted at my college dining hall.) All that frying leaves a lot of leftover grease and oil.
At the University of Rochester, a group of students used that oil as the foundation for a business plan that has produced both a biodiesel powered shuttle bus and a new building for biofuel experimentation. The project will hit a milestone on Earth Day, when university President Joel Seligman will help send the shuttle bus off on its first trips around campus, including a tour of the new building.
Since we first covered this ‘biodiesel hydraulic-hybrid,’ the team at Lightning Motors has been working around the clock to finish in time for this debut. Read the rest of this entry »
Aurora Biofuels, located in Alameda, CA has reported their 18 month pilot project produced 1,000 gallons of ATSM quality biodiesel in Florida open ponds of just 1/8th of an acre. The company estimates they could grow 6,000 gallons per acre in full production mode.
You may be asking yourself ‘What, exactly, is a ‘hydraulic-biodiesel hybrid’? Since there isn’t a great deal of information available on the Lightning Hybrids’ website or ABG, I decided to give the company a phone call. Read the rest of this entry »
Despite the latest advancements in automotive hybrid and flex-fuel technologies, motorcycles and scooters remain one of the most efficient ways for energy-conscious commuters to get around town. Unfortunately, there haven’t been any real “alt fuel” options open to motorcyclists. As such, despite the incredible efficiency of some 2-wheelers (my own Honda Ruckus gets over 100 mpg), motorcycles remain petroleum-dependent gas addicts. They may be sippers – rather than guzzlers – but still.
Enter Europe’s EVA, manufacturers of the Track T800CDI diesel motorcycle – a bike so full of exotic features and new technology that I’m almost at a loss for words … almost.
Specs and pictures of this amazing machine available after the jump.
European producers have been complaining about cheap imported biodiesel for quite a while, and it looks like a key European trade panel finally took action. The tax will be specific to each biodiesel producer:
Volkswagen, which introduced its Clean Diesel Technology on the race track in 2008, announced it’s using B5 biodiesel to power its race cars, transport vehicles and generators for the 2009 Jetta TDI Cup season.
Editor’s note: Robert Moffitt is one of the newest additions to the Gas 2.0 writing team. Welcome aboard Robert!
Last week, temperatures in my home state of Minnesota stayed below zero for nearly four consecutive days. Extreme cold is not particularly unusual in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but it’s not much fun to commute to work or school with air temperatures at -20ºF. As I bundled up and drove to work in the middle of the cold snap, I heard a radio news story that one large suburban school system had closed, saying their school buses couldn’t run “because the biodiesel had turned to gel.”
Explore Cadillac One inside and out (to varying degrees of precision) after the jump.
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