article thumbnail

Maryland governor releases final Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act Plan

Green Car Congress

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley released the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act Plan with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25% by 2020 from a 2006 baseline. Key programs in the plan include: Maryland Clean Cars Program: This program directly regulates carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles.

Maryland 246
article thumbnail

USPTO awards patent to UMD team for process to make gasoline through fermentation; electrofuels

Green Car Congress

The inventors are Professor Richard Kohn and Faculty Research Associate Dr. Seon-Woo Kim from the University of Maryland (UMD). For the biogasoline process, the inventors developed microorganisms that grow on carbon dioxide, which can be obtained as a byproduct from many industrial and agricultural processes. Earlier post.)

Gasoline 150
article thumbnail

Satellite study suggests California clean air regulations working to reduce PM2.5 emissions in state

Green Car Congress

km-resolution MISR aerosol properties over Southern California for years 2001–2003, 2007–2009 and 2013–2015. LA=Los Angeles basin, CV=Central Valley, OC=Organic Carbon, EC=Elemental Carbon. The Terra spacecraft is operated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. Maps of 3-year averaged PM 2.5

article thumbnail

Researchers suggest hybrid graphene oxide/cellulose microfibers could supersede carbon fibers

Green Car Congress

Researchers from Nanjing Forestry University and the University of Maryland have designed high-performance microfibers by hybridizing two-dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and one-dimensional (1D) nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) fibers. Published online 9 January 2015. Biomass Graphene Materials Weight reduction'

article thumbnail

Study finds methane emissions from coal mines ~50% higher than previously thought

Green Car Congress

The results have important implications for Earth’s climate because methane is about 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide when it comes to warming the planet over a long period. In the United States in 2015, about one-third of abandoned mines were flooded. —Nazar Kholod.

Coal 321
article thumbnail

Lung Association report highlights health and climate costs of petroleum-based transportation and the benefits of shifting to ZEVs

Green Car Congress

Of that $37 billion, health costs added up to $24 billion in 2015; the $24 billion represents the monetized sum of harmful emissions responsible for an estimated 220,000 work-loss days, more than 109,000 asthma exacerbations, hundreds of thousands of other respiratory impacts, and 2,580 premature deaths. Maryland: $2.6 New York: $7.9

Climate 150
article thumbnail

PNNL modeling study finds climate benefit for cutting soot, methane smaller than previous estimates

Green Car Congress

a joint venture between Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland. We find that reductions of methane and black carbon would likely have only a modest impact on near-term global climate warming. Carbon dioxide can remain for 1,000-plus years. —Steven Smith.

Climate 199