Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'GC-MS chromatogram of the liquid products obtained after hydrodeoxygenation of angelica lactone dimer. Source: Mascal et al. SI. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a process for the production of branched C 7 –C 10 hydrocarbons in the gasoline volatility range from biomass-derived levulinic acid with good yield, operating under relatively mild conditions, with short reaction times.

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Davis Gasoline Range Oil 360

Creative Greenius

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'Reblogged from Creative Greenius: [youtube=[link] Courtesy of YouTube and the Hermosa Beach City website, and converted and enlarged through the magic of Greenius, we bring you this exclusive look at the Carbon Neutral ClueTrain leaving the Hermosa Beach station this week. Local mainstream media missed this story completely but fortunately for them this on-line record will exist for them to use as research.

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Carbon IDEA Environment Convert 170

Green Car Reports

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

'A trial program with electric cars at the Kennedy Space Center is going better than expected, cutting greenhouse gas emissions in company vehicles. In fact, the center''s sustainability office suggests the results are 10 times better than those expected--electric cars are making a real impact on-site. According to redOrbit, the Kennedy Space Center.

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Electric Cars Cars Gas-Electric Electric 167

Green Cars News

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

'In the glamorous world of alternative fuel vehicles, you are undoubtedly likely to attract celebrity friends; just as the Toyota Prius has Leonardo DiCaprio and the Honda FCX CLarity has Jamie Lee Curtis; Mercedes B-Class F-Cell hydrogen-fuelled car can count Hollywood stars Diane Kruger and Joshua [.].

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Hydrogen Mercedes Alternative Fuels Prius 62

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Norway

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. Click to enlarge. The 3.6-liter V6 EcoDiesel-powered 2014 Ram 1500 pickup ( earlier post ) has earned a 28-mpg (8.4 l/100 km) rating from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—the best highway-cycle test result achieved yet by a full-size, half-ton pickup. It also exceeds the EPA highway rating for the top-ranked small pickup.

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2014 MPG Chrysler Fuel Economy 326

Creative Greenius

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

'Congressman Henry Waxman receiving environmental award at 2013 Earth Day Celebration, Manhattan Beach (c) Joe Galliani. When the one guy in all of Congress who understands the latest science on climate change best, the guy who has the most experience and knowledge of the environment and how to get life-changing legislation passed like the clean air act, the clean water act, the laws that forced our government to acknowledge AIDS, not to mention having kicked the tobacco industry’s ass 

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Climate Climate Change Al Gore Oil-Sands 281

Green Cars News

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

'Electric car drivers have used the Charge Your Car network of electric car charging points over 100,000 times. The UK’s most extensive network of chargers have now delivered over 549,399 kWh of power to electric cars on the go. The network started out as the regional network to the North East of E[.].

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Charging Electric Cars Cars Power 56

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award ( DE-FOA-0000996 ) up to $12 million in funding to advance the development of a cost-competitive pathway to produce high-performance carbon fiber for vehicle lightweighting from renewable non-food biomass. Reducing a vehicle’s weight by just 10% can improve fuel economy by 6% to 8%. Carbon fiber composites are lightweight, yet strong, materials that can greatly improve vehicle fuel efficiency when incorporated into structural and non-structural compo

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Carbon Fiber Carbon Renewable Conversion 316

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'Global electric vehicle production forecast for 2014. Source: IHS Automotive. Click to enlarge. Driven by tighter emission standards in Europe, worldwide production of plug-in electric vehicles(PEVs)—including both battery-electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models—will increase by 67% this year, according to IHS Automotive, driven by Polk.

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Plug-in Global Plug Production 314

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'The US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) is awarding $30 million in funding to 12 projects through its Full-Spectrum Optimized Conversion and Utilization of Sunlight (FOCUS) program, which is aimed at developing new hybrid solar energy converters and hybrid energy storage systems that can deliver low-cost, high-efficiency solar energy on demand. ( Earlier post.).

Solar 300

Solar Conversion Hybrid Molten Salt 300

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Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

'Audi investigating its e-fuels in an optical research engine using laser-induced fluorescence. Click to enlarge. Audi testing of synthetic ethanol (Audi e-ethanol = Joule Sunflow-E) and synthetic diesel (Audi e-diesel = Joule Sunflow-D), produced in partnership with Joule ( earlier post ) in a pressure chamber and optical research engine has shown that the Audi e-fuels often perform better than their conventional counterparts.

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Audi Diesel Fuel New Mexico 285

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

'The Next Two prototype. Click to enlarge. Renault has unveiled the Next Two concept—the company’s current vision of an autonomous drive (AD) capable electric vehicle for the year 2020. The Next Two prototype—based on a Renault ZOE—focuses on two areas: the delegation of driving functions under certain conditions and connectivity. Using sensor technologies, Next Two enables the delegation of driving functions from the driver to the car in congested traffic up to km/h (18.6 mph)

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2020 Electric Vehicles Vehicles Connect 273

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'The average fuel economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the US in January was 24.9 mpg (9.4 l/100 km)—up 0.1 mpg from the value in December, according to the latest monthly figures from Dr. Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. The January 2014 fuel economy figure is up 4.8 mpg from the value in October 2007, the first month of their monitoring.

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Fuel Economy MPG Economy 2007 268

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

'With the 81 kW/110 hp turbo diesel version, the Opel Astra Sports Tourer consumes only 3.7 l/100 km (63.6 mpg US) with 97 g/km CO 2 in the NEDC combined cycle. Click to enlarge. Opel will present the new Astra 1.6 CDTI at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in March. To be available in the high-volume Astra hatchback, Astra notchback and Astra Sports Tourer models, the 1.6 CDTI diesel engine made its debut last year in the Zafira Tourer. ( Earlier post.).

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MPG Diesel Fuel MPH 262

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Guyana

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

'The Greenbrier Companies will design a new generation “Tank Car of the Future” for rail transport of hazardous freight, including flammable crude oil and ethanol, that can better withstand the additional demands associated with operating unit trains. The new design will also respond to safety criticisms of the existing legacy fleet of older DOT-111 tank cars.

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Oil North America Cars Engine 262

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

'Shell has begun production from the Mars B development through Olympus—the company’s seventh, and largest, floating deepwater platform in the Gulf of Mexico. It is the first deepwater project in the Gulf to expand an existing oil and gas field with significant new infrastructure, which should extend the life of the greater Mars basin to 2050 or beyond.

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Mexico Production Water Oil 262

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

'AVA Biochem in Muttenz (Switzerland) has begun commercial-scale production of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (5-MHF) from biomass at its Biochem-1 facility using a modified version of a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). 5-HMF is a platform chemical that can serve as a precursor for various fuels and plastics. ( Earlier post.).

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Commercial Kits Production Switzerland 258

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'Porsche announced that A123 Systems is its technology partner for the development of the energy storage system for the 919 Hybrid LMP1 Le Mans prototype. A123 Systems is the exclusive battery cell supplier for the LMP1 team. Porsche also announced Schaeffler Group and Veltins brewery as Official Partners of the works team for the return to the World Endurance Championship (WEC).

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Energy Storage Porsche Hybrid Energy 253

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

'The US Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it will begin taking steps to enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology for light vehicles as the next generation of auto safety. This technology would improve safety by allowing vehicles to communicate and ultimately avoid many crashes altogether by exchanging basic safety data, such as speed and position, ten times per second.

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Light Vehicles Connect Connected 239

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'BlueDIRECT 2.0L, 4-cylinder direct injection engine operates in stratified lean-burn or homogeneous modes. Click to enlarge. Mercedes-Benz announced that seven new versions of the Mercedes-Benz A-, B- and CLA-Class now offer enhanced fuel savings compared with their respective predecessors. Additionally, the A 200 CDI 4MATIC and A 220 CDI 4MATIC represent the first all-wheel-drive diesel models forming part of the new generation of compact cars from Mercedes-Benz.

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Fuel Economy Mercedes Diesel Fuel 236

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

'The GM-Isuzu joint venture DMAX, Ltd. will invest $60 million in its Ohio diesel engine plant to make design changes that meet future emissions requirements. Established in 1998, DMAX has produced almost 1.6 million engines since opening in 2000. GM owns 60% and Isuzu owns 40% of the venture that makes the Duramax diesel for heavy-duty trucks. DMAX, Ltd. has invested $760 million in the DMAX facility since 2000.

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Isuzu Ohio GM Diesel 236

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

'The Ford Transit Connect van has been rated with an EPA-estimated best-in-class highway fuel economy of 30 mpg (7.8 l/100 km) when equipped with Ford’s 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine.

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Transit Connect MPG Connect Connected 230

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

'In a new report, “ Biofuels for Transportation Market s”, Navigant Research forecasts that global demand for biofuels in the road transportation sector will grow from representing almost 6% of the liquid fuels market in 2013 to roughly 8% by 2022. Of that 8%, 8% will consist of advanced drop-in fuels, according to the research firm. Navigant forecasts that global biofuels consumption in the road transportation sector will grow from more than 32.4 billion gallons per year (BGPY) in 2013 to more

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Global Market Fuel Brazil 231

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'SEI live formation on a graphite surface in electrolyte. Credit: ACS, Cresce et al. Click to enlarge. A team at the US Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland reports on a diagnostic approach to study and to study and to characterize the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on graphitic anodes of Li-ion batteries. A paper on their work, which combines in situ AFM (atomic force microscopy) with ex situ XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), is published in the ACS journal Nano Letters.

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Li-ion Batteries Battery Lithium Ion 230

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

'Honda is adding the 2014 Civic Hybrid and Civic Natural Gas models to its 2014 Civic lineup in the US. The 2014 Honda Civic Hybrid has an improved EPA rating of 44/47/45 mpg city/highway/combined (5.3/5.0/5.2 l/100 km), up from the 2013 model’s 44/44/44 mpg. The 2014 Civic Hybrid is on-sale today with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) starting at $24,635.

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Civic Hybrid 2014 Honda Gas 230

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

'Two scenarios of US ethanol consumption and projections of original, revised, and repealed RFS2 requirements from the present to 2022. The consumption scenarios are technically achievable but do not reflect significant barriers such as cost, regulation, legality, and consumer acceptance. Source: ICCT. Click to enlarge. A team at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has released a paper assessing technical barriers to the use of higher blends of ethanol.

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Gasoline Exhaust Water Fuel 230

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'Kia’s Niro urban lifestyle concept vehicle, unveiled last September at the Frankfurt Motor Show, made its US debut at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show. The Niro suggests a possible future B-segment contender, and features a hybrid electric powertrain working through an advanced four-wheel drive system. Kia Niro. Click to enlarge. The concept is powered by a variant of Kia’s turbocharged 1.6-liter Gamma engine, capable of 160 hp (119 kW).

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Chicago Kia Concept Hybrid 225

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'Audi is expanding its “ultra” strategy with 11 new models: especially efficient diesel engine versions in the A4, A5 and A6 model lines will be launched in Europe in early 2014. A new 2.0-liter TDI will provide the drive at 100 kW (136 hp), 120 kW (163 hp) or 140 kW (190 hp); the engine emits just 104 to 119 grams of CO 2 per kilometer (167.37 to 191.51 g/mile) depending on the model.

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MPG Audi Diesel Miles 225

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

'The KWID CONCEPT comes with a Flying Companion drone stored on the roof. Click to enlarge. Renault unveiled the KWID CONCEPT at the Delhi Auto Show—the first Renault concept car unveiled outside Europe. The KWID CONCEPT features a “Flying Companion”—a small drone that can be operated in one of two modes. Automatic mode uses a pre-programmed flying sequence and GPS location; manual mode enables the companion to be controlled using a dashboard-integrated tablet.

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Concept Market India Connect 223

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

'The new 1.6 D-4D for the Verso. Click to enlarge. Toyota first introduced the Verso in 2002, and in 2013, launched the current Verso MPV, developed exclusively for the European market. Verso has sold more than 700,000 units cumulatively. The 2014 Verso now features an expanded powertrain line-up of 4 diesel and 2 gasoline engines which introduces a new 1.6 D-4D (Direct injection – 4-stroke Diesel) engine—sourced from the BMW Group and mated to a Toyota 6-speed gearbox—to the range f

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2014 Diesel Toyota BMW 220

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

'Results from a new modeling assessment of contamination in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) suggest that officially reported emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in that region have been greatly underestimated. The study, which was carried out by University of Toronto Scarborough Environmental Chemistry professor Frank Wania and his PhD candidate Abha Parajulee, is published as an open access paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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Oil-Sands Oil Emissions Pollution 220

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

'The new Jeep Cherokee ( earlier post ) will make its European debut at the 84 th Geneva International Motor Show this year. The new Jeep Cherokee will be introduced in Jeep dealerships throughout Europe beginning the second quarter of 2014, with four engine choices: the efficient 2.0-liter Multijet II turbo diesel delivering 170 hp matched witha new 9-speed automatic; a 140 hp version of the 2.0-liter diesel engine combined with a 6-speed manual; the 3.2-liter V-6 Pentastar gasoline engine pair

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Jeep Diesel Fuel Economy Russia 220

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

'Since 2012, Toyota has been racing its TS030 Hybrid, equipped with a full racing hybrid system, in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). ( Earlier post.) Participating in all eight races and with two wins last year, Toyota plans to enter all races this year with two new TS040 vehicles from Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) designed to meet changes in this year’s vehicle rules.

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Energy Storage Hybrid Toyota Energy 220

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'Magna International Inc., a leading global automotive supplier, and bio-on , an Italian intellectual property company, signed a cooperation agreement to start exclusive R&D activities on the use of bio-plastics for the automotive industry. bio-on has developed a new kind of bio plastic created through the use of naturally occurring bacteria which feed off sugar beet by-products.

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Czech Republic Industrial Industry 2008 218