July, 2017

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GWU team demonstrates highly scalable, low-cost process for making carbon nanotube wools directly from CO2

Green Car Congress

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

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Top 7 Best, Classy and Fastest Electric Cars In Today?s World

DIY Electric Car

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.

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One electric car owner's experiences in adding solar panels: why, what, and how

Green Car Reports

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.

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Top five cars for under £200 per month

Green Cars News

Our price-busting articles on Top five cars you can lease for under £100 a month and Top five EVs and hybrids you can lease for less than £250 a month

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How serious is Norway about climate change? So much that its streetlights self-dim

emissions global warming Norway climate change carbon dioxide youtube lighting

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Researchers characterize aggregate indoor and outdoor PM2.5 exposure

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In an initial step toward developing a comprehensive global impact assessment framework for PM 2.5 emissions, an international team of researchers from the US and Europe has characterized the primary PM 2.5 intake fraction—the long-term population intake mass per unit mass emitted into different indoor and outdoor environments. Intake fractions from residential and occupational indoor sources ranged from 470 ppm to 62,000 ppm—mainly as a function of air exchange rate and occupancy.

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Taiwan team engineers E. coli to produce n-butanol from glycerol

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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.

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“Dirty, Difficult, And Dangerous”: Why Millennials Won’t Work In Oil

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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

Oil 220
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Project shows maritime fuel cell generator can increase energy efficiency by up to 30% at part load; reliability and cost issues

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A recent project demonstrated a 100 kW fuel cell generator with 72 kg of hydrogen storage for marine applications. Project goals were to demonstrate the use of the generator in the maritime environment, identify areas requiring additional research and development, analyze the business case, and address regulatory and other market barriers. A report authored by Sandia National Laboratories on the project found that the project showed that it is possible to increase energy efficiency by up to 30%

Parts 220
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Japan launches first global hydrogen supply chain demo project; liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology

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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,

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Toyota to collaborate with the American Center for Mobility; $5M to support connected and automated vehicle testing

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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.

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Faurecia and Accenture partner on products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles

Brief

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NREL report on electric bus demo at Foothill Transit finds Proterra fuel economy >8x higher than CNG on same line

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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).

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UCR study finds ultra-low emission natural gas bus exceeds federal and state NOx standards; as low as 0.0007g/bhp-hr

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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.).

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Hybrid and electric cars account for 7.5% of Kia 1H 2017 Europe sales, up from 1% in 2016

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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.

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Audi’s “Jack” autonomous A7 concept hits the road in public demo drives in Germany

Green Car Congress

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.

Germany 199
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ExxonMobil announces 6th oil discovery offshore Guyana with Ranger-1; Guyana may move from non-producer to regional powerhouse

Oil

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Bus operators in Germany, Italy to procure 63 fuel cell buses; larger refueling stations

Green Car Congress

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.

Italy 199
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NVIDIA, Baidu partner to accelerate AI; cloud data centers, self-driving cars and the home

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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.

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DOE to issue $36M funding opportunity for advanced carbon capture technologies

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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.

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ICCT assesses factors driving EV market in US cities

Green Car Congress

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-

Market 186
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Gel polymer electrolyte for stabilizing sulfur composite electrodes for long-life, high-energy Li-S batteries

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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

Polymer 186
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APC launches competition to support UK’s first battery manufacturing development facility; part of £246M Faraday Challenge

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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.

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First crop of DOE Battery500 seedlings awarded nearly $6M; high-risk, high-reward toward 500 Wh/kg

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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.

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Schaeffler creating independent E-Mobility business division in 2018

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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

2018 186
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BMW tops emobility sales charts in Germany 1H 2017

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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.

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The Technical Failure That Could Clear The Oil Glut In A Matter Of Weeks

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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.

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Study finds PM from biodiesel blends may be 50-80% less toxic per unit PM mass than from petroleum diesel

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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.

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Volvo LX1 series hybrid wheel loader demonstrates 50% improvement in fuel efficiency; renewable diesel in the engine

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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

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ICCT working paper highlights benefits of current and emerging light-duty diesel technology; “promising pathway for compliance”

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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.

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UMTRI: average US new vehicle fuel economy drops in June

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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.

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France launches new climate plan; Euro 7 lead; targeting ending the sale of vehicles emitting GHGs by 2040

Green Car Congress

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

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Team from autonomous EV startup NIO wins car hacking contest at DEF CON 25

Green Car Congress

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.

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Toyota Mobility Foundation launches research program to support innovative hydrogen energy solutions

Green Car Congress

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.

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Japan team reports pathway to green ammonia: photocatalytic conversion of nitrogen with water

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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.

Water 170
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Irizar lands contracts for 15 12m electric buses in Madrid, 4 18m artic electric buses in Barcelona

Green Car Congress

Irizar has been awarded the contract for Madrid’s first 15 electric buses and Barcelona’s first four electric articulated buses. With the capture of these 22 new units for the mainland market, Irizar e-mobility has become the market leader for electric buses in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao and San Sebastián. Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (Transportes Metropolitanos de Barcelona - TMB) is acquiring four 18.73-meter electric articulated buses.

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California ARB approves cap-and-trade amendments; linking with Ontario

Green Car Congress

Following more than 18 months of review and public comment, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved amendments to the state’s cap-and-trade program that improve its implementation and the state’s effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The amendments also establish a framework for the program’s annual limits on greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020, to be revised in a subsequent, public rulemaking process to reflect the requirements of AB 398.