Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 6, 2012

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award up to $1 million for up to two projects for 3–4 years to evaluate the most promising technology paths toward achieving $2 to $4 per gallon gasoline equivalent (gge) of hydrogen fuel or less by 2020. The projects selected through this funding opportunity ( DE-FOA-0000748 ) will help identify cost-effective and efficient materials and processes to produce hydrogen from renewable energy sources and natural gas.

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Green Car Reports

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Renewable energy, especially solar, is making inroads into the U.S. power grid, but it's a very slow process. And especially in the wake of the Solyndra collapse, it's one fraught with political wrangling. But there's another country that plans to invest heavily in solar power, hoping to provide fully 30 percent of its energy needs from the sun in.

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Saudi Arabia Energy Power Grid Gas 157

DIY Electric Car

OCTOBER 11, 2012

[link]. I bought Gavin Shoebridge's EV Secret's book, Kia Ora mate! and am starting down the path. The first thing the ebook I bought said to do was plan. I don't have a donor vehicle yet, I am going to trawl trade me to see what I can find, and what I like, after I work out what my modifications will weigh! So the requirements for my Waiheke EV. Power.

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Lead Acid Google Kia Range 100

National Green Transportation

OCTOBER 11, 2012

The Ford C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid is shaping up as a big winner for Ford. On Thursday (today), Ford announced the C-MAX Energi fuel efficiency ratings, 108 MPGe city 100 MPGe combined, tops those of the.

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Plug-in Ford Plug Energy 76

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Norway

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 12, 2012

On the Nordschleife. Click to enlarge. The racing driver Sabine Schmitz has tested the battery-electric Furtive eGT sports car from Exagon Motors ( earlier post ) on the Nordschleife (north loop) of the Nürburgring, achieving a top speed of nearly 240 km/h (149 mph) on the 20 kilometer long Nordschleife. The Furtive eGT, introduced earlier this year at the Paris Motor Show, features motors from Siemens and batteries from Saft.

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2013 Production MPH Motor 342

Green Car Reports

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Plug-in electric car sales are growing in the U.S., with the Chevy Volt in particular going from strength to strength. The 2012 Nissan Leaf, however, is not doing so well. Despite being one of the earliest electric cars on the market, it's been outsold three to two this year by the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid. What is it that carmakers do to boost.

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National Green Transportation

OCTOBER 11, 2012

The Ford C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid is shaping up as a big winner for Ford. On Thursday (today), Ford announced the C-MAX Energi fuel efficiency ratings, 108 MPGe city 100 MPGe combined, tops those of the.

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Plug-in Ford Plug Energy 63

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 10, 2012

A simple Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) waste heat recovery system could recover up to 10% of engine waste heat under highway driving conditions, corresponding to a potential 7% improvement in fuel consumption in a light-duty plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), with low penalization of the added weight to the vehicle electric range, according to a simulation study by researchers from the University of Stuttgart and the Ohio State University.

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Waste PHEV Fuel Exhaust 312

Green Car Reports

OCTOBER 10, 2012

When it comes to service costs and fuel, everyone knows that electric cars are far cheaper to run than gasoline cars. Even with a plug-in car, however, you still have to pay your local utility company for the electricity used to charge it. Like gas prices, electricity prices are on a steady, upward rise in many places, meaning the cost of charging.

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Electric Cars Solar Gasoline-Electric Cars 149

Green Cars News

OCTOBER 11, 2012

The lights are on and the engines are cold. Winter is on its way and with it, any hope of minimising our carbon footprint goes out of the window, right? Well no, even with the necessary evils of heating and lighting, there are still ways to keep that annual spike in fuel consumption down. 1. [.].

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Light Carbon Fuel Engine 58

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 7, 2012

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have compared the emissions resulting from the production, use, and end-of-life of electric and internal combustion engine vehicles (EVs and ICEVs) in a full life-cycle analysis (LCA). They found that electric vehicles (EVs) powered by the present European electricity mix offer a 10% to 24% decrease in global warming potential (GWP) relative to conventional diesel or gasoline vehicles assuming lifetimes of 150,000 km (93,20

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Prototype CFRP hood. Click to enlarge. At the Composites Europe event in Dusseldorf, Ford Motor Company displayed a prototype carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) hood. The prototype hood weighs more than 50% less than a standard steel version. As a result of progress made during an on-going Hightech.NRW research project involving engineers from the Ford European Research Centre, production time for an individual carbon fiber hood is fast enough to be employed on a production line—a sign

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Carbon Fiber Carbon Ford Downsizing 294

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 8, 2012

General Motors and its joint ventures sold a September record 244,266 vehicles in China, up 1.7% from September 2011 and 10.5% from August. During the first nine months of 2012, sales by GM and its joint ventures in China increased 10.0% on an annual basis to a record 2,081,812 units. Shanghai GM’s domestic sales were up 3.7% year on year to an all-time September high of 120,010 units.

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GM China Sale Cadillac 286

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 11, 2012

AllCell Technologies received a new US patent (Nº 8,273,474 ) covering the use of phase change materials (PCM) to prevent thermal runaway propagation in electrochemical devices such as lithium-ion batteries, ultra capacitors, and fuel cells. The new patent is an extension of AllCell’s intellectual property, which already includes US and international patents covering the use of PCM for thermal management of electrochemical devices.

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Li-ion Lithium Ion Grant Batteries 278

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Guyana

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Oil palm supplies more than 30% of world vegetable oil production. Its expanding production is driving rainforest destruction and massive carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new study led by researchers at Stanford and Yale universities. The study, published as an open access paper in the journal Nature Climate Change , shows that deforestation for the development of oil palm plantations in Indonesian Borneo is becoming a globally significant source of carbon dioxide emissions.

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Oil 2020 Emissions Indonesia 273

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 12, 2012

Profound shifts in the regional distribution of oil demand and supply growth will redefine the refining industry and transform global oil trade over the next five years, according to the annual Medium-Term Oil Market Report (MTOMR) released by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA expects the global oil market to become somewhat less tight over the medium term than it has been through most of the last decade, as a combination of demand and supply factors will cause OPEC spare capacity t

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Oil Oil-Sands Global Oil Prices 255

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Schematic summarizing the reaction mechanism. During discharge and charge in UHV, Li ions reversibly intercalate/de-intercalate into/from the Li x V 2 O 5 electrode. During discharge, Li ions meet with reduced oxygen on the surface of the Li x V 2 O 5 electrode forming Li 2 O 2 , which is decomposed upon recharge. Lu et al. Click to enlarge. The rechargeable Li?

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Lithium Air Li-ion Recharge Insight 253

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Researchers from North Carolina State University have å a new technique that allows users to better determine the amount of charge remaining in a battery in real time. While the technique was developed specifically for batteries in plug-in electric vehicles, the approach is also applicable to battery use in any other application. A paper on their work, “Adaptive Parameter Identification and State-of-Charge Estimation of Lithium-Ion Batteries,” will be presented at the 38 th Annual Conference of

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Charging Lithium Ion North Carolina Batteries 246

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Renault will supply DHL France with a fleet of electric vehicles by 2015. A total 50 vehicles—Kangoo Z.E. and ZOE models— have already been confirmed. The first four—which are Kangoo Z.E. models— will be delivered by the end of 2012. The new partnership strengthens the cooperation between Renault and DHL in the development of electric vehicles in France.

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France 2015 Fleet 2011 244

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Vehicles sold in the US since October 2007 have saved a cumulative total of about 6.1 billion gallons of fuel—equivalent to the current total consumption of all vehicles in the US for about 13 days—due to their improved fuel economy, according to a brief report by University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle.

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Fuel Economy 2007 Economy Fuel 244

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 7, 2012

The Utica Shale contains about 38 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas (at the mean estimate) according to the first assessment of this continuous (unconventional) natural gas accumulation by the US Geological Survey (USGS). The Utica Shale has a mean of 940 million barrels of unconventional oil resources and a mean of 208 million barrels of unconventional natural gas liquids.

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Gas West Virginia Virginia Oil 244

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 10, 2012

NEC Corporation has developed a prototype next-generation manganese lithium-ion battery featuring cathodes that support higher voltage operations (4.5V rather than 3.8V) and an electrolyte solution that improves the stability of the higher voltage operations. ( Earlier post.) The new cathode and electrolyte solution improve battery energy density by approximately 30%.

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Li-ion Honolulu Batteries Battery 240

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 12, 2012

Li-ion battery and systems maker EnerDel has introduced a new program that provides customers with a Guaranteed Residual Value (GRV) for its products of up to 25%. The industry-first offering applies the residual value toward the price of a replacement system after a predetermined period of service in the field. The GRV service will initially be available in North America and Europe.

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Li-ion Production Lithium Ion North America 239

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 11, 2012

Contributions of regions to total life cycle emissions for three fuels (µg per vehicle-mile traveled per km 2 land area). Dashed lines show US average emissions. Credit: ACS, Tessum et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers from the University of Minnesota have produced a spatially and temporally explicit life cycle inventory (LCI) of air pollutants from gasoline, ethanol derived from corn grain, and ethanol from corn stover for the contiguous US (the lower 48 states).

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Gasoline Emissions Gasoline-Electric Pollution 236

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Li-ion battery maker Boston-Power, Inc. ( earlier post ) announced that founder Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud has resigned from the Board of Directors. The Boston-Power Board of Directors joins me in expressing our appreciation of Christina’s contribution to Boston-Power, as its founder in passionately developing the company into an EV battery technology leader it is today as well as helping with the transition over the past year with the company’s expansion in China.

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Boston Li-ion Power Powered 236

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 10, 2012

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded Gevo Patent Nº 8,283,505, covering the separation technology in Gevo’s Integrated Fermentation Technology (GIFT). Gevo says its technology is the most cost-efficient for the separation of C 3 –C 6 alcohols—including isobutanol—from dilute aqueous solutions such as fermentation broths.

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Low Cost Grant Production Energy 236

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Renewable power provider Naturstrom AG and BMW AG will partner in the supply of electricity from renewable sources for electric vehicles in Germany. As part of the strategic cooperation BMW i customers will have the opportunity in the future to acquire a customized package for green electricity to run their electric vehicles. The BMW Group intends to bring the BMW i3 electric vehicle to market at the end of 2013.

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BMW Renewable Electric Vehicles Vehicles 236

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 7, 2012

Air Products expects to add two new hydrogen fueling stations in London in the near future to create a network of five. Air Products has already installed two central London located fueling stations at Heathrow and in East London, but now has plans for another East London station and a second centrally located fueling station as part of the CHIC (Clean Hydrogen In European Cities) Project, which saw the Transport for London hydrogen bus station installed in December 2010.

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London Fuel Production Hydrogen 236

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 11, 2012

Marathon Petroleum Corporation and Harvest Pipeline Company signed a letter of intent (LOI) on 27 Sept., agreeing jointly to develop infrastructure that will facilitate transportation of hydrocarbon liquids production from the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The project will result in up to 24,000 barrels per day (bpd) of truck unloading capacity and a terminal capable of loading up to 50,000 bpd onto barges on the Ohio River at Wellsville, Ohio.

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Investors in Paseo Biofuels, LLC, the Missouri Soybean Association (MSA) and Cargill announced an expansion to the Paseo biodiesel plant in Kansas City, Mo. that will increase biodiesel production capacity by 40%. Using soybean oil as its primary feedstock, the facility, which opened in 2008, produces 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 30 million pounds of food-grade glycerin annually.

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Kansas City Missouri Kansas 2006 231

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 7, 2012

On Sunday, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. directed the California Air Resources Board (CRB) immediately to allow oil refineries to make an early transition to winter-blend gasoline as an emergency steps to increase the state’s gasoline supply and bring down fuel prices. Winter-blend gasoline typically isn’t sold until after October 31. Gas prices in California have risen to their highest levels ever, with unacceptable cost impacts on consumers and small businesses.

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 11, 2012

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is awarding $30 million for clean diesel projects as part of its ongoing campaign to reduce harmful diesel exhaust. The Diesel Emission Reduction Program (DERA) is designed to replace, retrofit or repower older diesel-powered engines in marine vessels, locomotives, trucks and buses. DERA was enacted in 2005 and since it was first funded in FY 2008, EPA has awarded more than 500 grants nationwide.

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Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 11, 2012

Delphi Automotive held a groundbreaking ceremony in Yantai, Shandong Province, for a new diesel fuel injection manufacturing facility. Delphi is investing approximately $100 million (CNY 643 million) to construct and equip the facility. The Yantai operation will produce high-precision diesel fuel injection systems components. The new manufacturing facility, expected to start production in late 2013, will be supported by an existing Delphi operation in Suzhou that will supply engine control modul

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Diesel Fuel China Chinese 225

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 10, 2012

UQM Technologies’ PowerPhase Pro 100 electric propulsion system is powering the new all-electric Mylne Bolt 18 yacht tender, which made its debut in September at the 2012 Monaco Yacht Show. This marks the second marine application for UQM PowerPhase systems. The emerging electric and hybrid marine vessel market is a good fit for our power-dense electric propulsion systems which offer high power and efficiency in a small package.

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