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Researchers at George Washington University led by Dr. Stuart Licht have demonstrated the first facile high-yield, low-energy synthesis of macroscopic length carbon nanotubes (CNTs)—carbon nanotube wool—from CO 2 using molten carbonate electrolysis ( earlier post ). The resulting CNT wool is of length suitable for weaving into carbon composites and textiles and is highly conductive; the calculated cost to produce the CNTs is approximately $660 per ton, compared to the current $100,00
The purchase of an electric car that plugs into the power grid to recharge its battery often gets drivers thinking about the source of their energy. We haven't seen data from recent years looking at the overlap between electric-car drivers and home solar panels. But early analyses in California indicated as many as four in 10 electric-car drivers.
With the technology that the automotive industry has today, it is not surprising to see cars out performing records on an annual basis. Over the years, we were made to believe that petrol is the best option to run cars. However, modern engineering has been able to change this notion by introducing the fastest electric cars. Why make electric cars? Electric cars in the long run can be cheaper.
Researchers at Feng Chia University in Taiwan have engineered the bacterium Escherichia coli to produce n-butanol from crude glycerol—a byproduct of the production of biodiesel. In an open-access paper in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels , they report that under microaerobic conditions, the engineered strain produced 6.9 g/L n-butanol from 20 g/L crude glycerol.
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have devised a low-cost, scalable approach to developing all-solid-state batteries, improving prospects for scaling up the technology for widespread use in electric vehicles, communications and other industrial applications. Described in a paper in the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials , the approach involves substituting germanium in the solid electrolyte for two more readily available elements: tin and silicon.
A Japanese partnership, consisting of the Kanagawa Prefectural Government, the municipal governments of the cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki, Iwatani Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Industries Corporation, Toyota Turbine and Systems, Inc., and Japan Environment Systems Co., Ltd. announced that all facilities to be used in the FY2015 Regional Cooperation and Low-carbon Hydrogen Technology Demonstration Project commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment have
by Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com. Like many industries today, the oil industry is trying to sell its many job opportunities to the fastest growing portion of the global workforce: Millennials. But unlike any other industry, oil and gas is facing more challenges in persuading the environmentally-conscious Millennials that oil is “cool”. During the Super Bowl earlier this year, the American Petroleum Institute (API) launched an ad geared toward Millennials, who now make up the largest genera
by Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com. Like many industries today, the oil industry is trying to sell its many job opportunities to the fastest growing portion of the global workforce: Millennials. But unlike any other industry, oil and gas is facing more challenges in persuading the environmentally-conscious Millennials that oil is “cool”. During the Super Bowl earlier this year, the American Petroleum Institute (API) launched an ad geared toward Millennials, who now make up the largest genera
Four Japanese companies—Chiyoda, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and. Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha—have launched the “Advanced Hydrogen Energy Chain Association for Technology Development”(AHEAD) along with the world’s first Global Hydrogen Supply Chain Demonstration Project. The project, a subsidized “Technology Development Project to establish Hydrogen Society/Technology Development for the Utilization of Large Scale Hydrogen Energy”, is funded by the National Research and Development Agency,
A new study by an international team led by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland has found that modern diesel passenger cars equipped with diesel particulate filters (DPFs) emit fewer carbonaceous particulates than gasoline-powered vehicles. The open-access study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Carbonaceous PM is made up of black carbon, primary organic aerosol (POA) and—especially—secondary organic aerosol (SOA), which is known to contain
Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) and the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) will support the American Center for Mobility (ACM) ( earlier post ) as a Founder-level sponsor with a $5-million contribution. The ACM is a non-profit testing and product development facility for future mobility, designed to enable safe validation of connected and automated vehicle technology, and accelerate the development of voluntary standards.
A team from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released the second report summarizing the results of the battery-electric bus (BEB) demonstration underway at Foothill Transit in California. This latest report provides data and analysis on 12 Proterra BEBs and eight CNG baseline buses from August 2015 through December 2016. Among the findings are that the BEBs had an overall average efficiency of 2.17 kWh per mile—17.35 miles per diesel gallon equivalent (mpdge).
Continental Motors Group is expanding its family of diesel aero engines with the CD-265 and CDR-285 engines. The CD-265 is intended for fixed-winged applications while the CDR-285 is designed for rotary wing applications. As the other members of the CD-200 family, the CD-265 and CDR-285 are horizontally-opposed (boxer), four-cylinder, direct-injection, air-cooled turbocharged engines.
A study by the University of California, Riverside College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) found that a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency (Metro) bus equipped with an ultra-low emission natural gas engine performs significantly cleaner than its certification standards across all duty cycles. ( Earlier post.).
Kia Motors posted its best six-month sales period in Europe, with half-year sales surpassing 250,000 for the first time in the company’s history. Hybrid and electric vehicles accounted for 7.5% of European sales so far this year, up from just one per cent in the first six months of 2016, according to Michael Cole, Chief Operating Officer of Kia Motors Europe.
Audi is providing public demonstration drives on board an Audi A7 piloted driving concept nicknamed “Jack”. Selected brand customers and fans will get their first experience of piloted driving on the A9 north of Munich. The customer trips in “Jack” start in the myAudi Sphere at Munich airport. The route goes via the A9—part of Germany’s “Digital Motorway Test Bed.
Bus operators from Germany and South Tyrol, Italy are partnering to procure 63 fuel cell buses for their public transport systems as part of the EU-funded JIVE project (€106 million total cost, with €32 million coming from the EU). ( Earlier post.) The project is also testing new hydrogen refueling stations capable of serving fleets of more than 20 buses.
NVIDIA and Baidu announced a broad partnership to bring artificial intelligence technology to cloud computing, self-driving vehicles ( earlier post ) and AI home assistants. NVIDIA and Baidu have a long history of working together on AI. Speaking in the keynote at Baidu’s AI developer conference in Beijing, Baidu president and COO Qi Lu described his company’s plans to work with NVIDIA to: Bring next-generation NVIDIA Volta GPUs to Baidu Cloud.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) will issue a funding opportunity ( DE-FOA-0001791 ) for projects to design and to test advanced carbon capture technologies. The objectives of the FOA are to support pilot scale testing of transformational solvent- or membrane-based carbon dioxide capture technologies and to support design work for a commercial-scale, post-combustion carbon dioxide capture system at an existing coal fueled generating unit, or a facility producing similar flue gas.
Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have developed a novel green route to convert aluminium foil waste into highly active nano-mesoporous alumina (γ-Al 2 O 3 ) (designated as ACFL550). The material shows higher surface area, larger pore volume, and stronger acidity compared to γ-Al 2 O 3 that is produced from the commercial AlCl 3 precursor, AC550.
A new white paper from a team at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) assesses the growing US electric vehicle market and the factors that are driving it, with a focus on the 50 most populous US metropolitan areas. Peter Slowik and Nic Lutsey analyze the connections among various state and local policies; public and workplace charging infrastructure; consumer incentives; model availability; and the share of new vehicles that are plug-in electric (both fully electric and plug-
Researchers in Sweden and Italy have devised a simple strategy to address the issues currently hampering commercialization of high-energy density Li-sulfure batteries, including. limited practical energy density, life time and the scaling-up of materials and production processes. In a paper in the Journal ChemSusChem they report that using a novel gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) enables stable performance close to the theoretical capacity (1675 mAh g -1 ) of a low cost sulfur-carbon composite with
The UK’s Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), in conjunction with Innovate UK, has launched a competition to facilitate funding of the UK’s first automotive battery manufacturing development center. The new facility, which will be funded through the £246-million (US$321-million) Faraday Challenge, will allow pioneering battery technology to be scaled up suitable for high-volume production.
Announced in 2016, the Battery500 consortium, led by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), intends to build a battery pack with a specific energy of 500 Wh/kg, compared to the 170-200 Wh/kg per kilogram in today’s typical EV battery. ( Earlier post.) Achieving this goal would result in a smaller, lighter and less expensive battery, and electric vehicles with significantly extended range.
Global automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler will create an independent E-Mobility business division as of January 1, 2018 to bring together all the products and system solutions for hybrid and pure battery electric vehicles. Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO of Schaeffler AG, made the announcement during the company’s Capital Markets Day in Bühl. Schaeffler will also establish a competence center for E-Mobility in China, alongside the existing German units, to accommodate the increasing importance o
The BMW Group was the top seller of electric mobility in Germany the first half of 2017, with just under 5,000 units registered ; registrations are about 175% over the same period in 2016. The Group has 8 eletrified vehicles in the market. The most popular electric vehicle in the BMW portfolio remains the BMW i3. In the first half of 2017 alone, around 2,100 customers opted for the compact, up 155% compared to the first half of 2016.
by Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com. OPEC exports have come under pressure this week from technical threats to oil fields, with Saudi Arabia’s Manifa problems grabbing the headlines. Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, while addressing the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul, stated that the outlook for oil supplies is “ increasingly worrying ”, due to a loss of $1 trillion ($1,000 billion) in investments last year.
In a study published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels , a team from the University of Vermont reports that particulate matter from the combustion of biodiesel blends may be 50–80% less toxic per unit PM mass emitted than PM from petroleum diesel, depending on feedstock. There is growing consensus that PM toxicity is linked to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on PM and the subsequent oxidative stress induced in cells.
With funding provided by the California Energy Commission, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) demonstrated its LX1 prototype mid-sized (20 ton) hybrid-electric wheel loader ( earlier post ), a piece of equipment widely used in the construction, refuse, and agricultural industries, that achieved a 50% improvement in fuel efficiency. The LX1 is a series hybrid that incorporates a driveline that consists of electric drive motors mounted at the wheels, electric driven hydraulics, a battery ene
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), one of the organizations at the root of uncovering the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal ( earlier post ), has published a new analysis of developments and trends in advanced diesel engine technology. The ICCT team—John German and Aaron Isenstadt—concluded that diesels have and will retain two significant advantages over gasoline engines: significantly better fuel economy and cargo hauling and towing ability.
The average fuel economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the US in June was 25.1 mpg (9.36 l/100 km)—down 0.2 mpg from May, according to the latest monthly report from Dr. Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). This drop likely reflects the decreased price of gasoline in June, and the consequent increased proportion of pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers in the sales mix, they said.
Nicolas Hulot, France’s new minister responsible for environment and energy, presented the country’s new climate plan at a press conference at the Ministry. Prepared at the request of the President and the Prime Minister, the climate action plan is divided into six main themes: render the Paris Agreement irreversible; improve the daily life of the French; end the use of fossil energy and engage in carbon neutrality; make France the Nº 1 green economy; encourage the potential of ecosystems and ag
The NIO US team took First Place at the DEF CON 25 2017 Car Hacking Village , beating out 10 other teams in the third annual “Capture The Flag” (CTF) security event. Based in Silicon Valley, NIO US is a start-up developing autonomous electric vehicles. ( Earlier post.) DEF CON is one of the oldest continuously running hacker conventions, and also one of the largest.
The Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) has launched a research program to spur the development of a “hydrogen society”—envisioned as a set of communities with integrated, green-energy networks powered by mini-hydrogen plants that aim to create a carbon-free, hydrogen distribution system. TMF has begun soliciting research proposals under this new program.
Researchers in Japan report that a commercially available TiO 2 with a large number of surface oxygen vacancies, when photo-irradiated by UV light in pure water with nitrogen—successfully produces ammonia (NH 3 ). The solar-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency is 0.02%, which is the highest efficiency among the early reported photocatalytic systems.
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