Green Car Congress

MAY 28, 2016

A research team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has created the first high-performance, two-way oxide catalyst and filed a patent application for the invention. The new bi-directional catalyst can outperform platinum in oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions (ORR and OER). The accomplishment is reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Green Car Reports

JUNE 1, 2016

Volkswagen is reportedly considering building its own battery factory as part of a large commitment to electric cars. The company is targeting sales of 1 million electric cars within 10 years. That likely includes sales from the main VW brand as well as other Volkswagen Group brands like Audi and Porsche. DON'T MISS: Daimler to spend $500 million.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 1, 2016

Researchers in Sweden and Spain have devised a three-step process for the conversion of precipitated kraft lignin from black liquor into green diesel. Their paper appears in the journal ChemSusChem. The kraft process converts wood into wood pulp for paper production. The process produces a toxic byproduct referred to as black liquor—a primarily liquid mixture of pulping residues (such as lignin and hemicellulose) and inorganic chemicals from the Kraft process (sodium hydroxide and sodium s

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 3, 2016

Researchers at Harvard have created a hybrid water splitting–biosynthetic system based on a biocompatible Earth-abundant inorganic catalyst system to split water into molecular hydrogen and oxygen (H 2 and O 2 ) at low driving voltages. Grown in contact with these catalysts, the bacterium Ralstonia eutropha then consumes the produced H 2 to synthesize biomass and fuels or chemical products from low CO 2 concentration in the presence of O 2.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 31, 2016

Toshiba Corporation has developed a fast, cable-free contactless charger for electric vehicles (EVs), and will field test it on a medium-sized EV bus designed to handle the power demands of regular high-speed journeys on expressways. Field tests will start from 1 June and continue until December. The 45-seat bus is powered by a long-life, high-output 52.9 kWh SCiB ( earlier post ) pack, Toshiba’s advanced lithium-ion rechargeable battery, and will make regular trips between All Nippon Airways Co

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 3, 2016

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and partners Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Eck Industries have developed aluminum-cerium (Al-Ce) alloys that are both easier to work with and more heat tolerant than existing products. ORNL scientists Zach Sims, Michael McGuire and Orlando Rios, along with colleagues from Eck, LLNL and Ames Laboratory in Iowa, discuss the technical and economic possibilities for aluminum–cerium alloys in an article

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 1, 2016

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. Total global oil production could decline for the next several years in a row as scarce new sources of supply come online. According to data from Rystad Energy, overall global oil output will fall this year as natural depletion overwhelms all new sources of supply. But the deficit will only widen in the years ahead due to the dramatic scaling back in spending on new exploration and development.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 31, 2016

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Cincinnati Incorporated have signed a nonexclusive licensing agreement on ORNL patents related to large-scale additive manufacturing. ORNL is a research leader in the production of large-scale 3-D printed materials, refining industrial processes to decrease costs and increase efficiency.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 31, 2016

With support from the Swedish Energy Agency, Volvo Trucks has developed a new concept vehicle, the Volvo Concept Truck. The result of a five-year long research project aimed at creating more energy-efficient vehicles, the new concept truck cuts fuel consumption by more than 30%. The aim of the project is to improve the efficiency for long-haul truck transportation by 50%.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 30, 2016

Furrer + Frey, a provider of rail electrification and rapid charging systems for transport, is proposing tractor swapping as a solution for the electrification of long-haul trucking. Furrer + Frey is a long-time partner of Opbrid, the provider of the overhead pantograph-based ultra-fast charging Opbrid Bůsbaar for buses ( earlier post ). At IAA 2014, Opbrid introduced the Trůkbaar for heavy-duty trucks; the Trůkbaar is one element for the Furrer + Frey tractor swapping solution.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 3, 2016

Walmart will begin pilot-testing a last-mile grocery-delivery test through services such as Uber, Lyft and Deliv. Walmart will start with tests of grocery delivery through Uber and Lyft in Denver and one other market. This is in addition to a quiet Sam’s Club pilot that started in March with Deliv involving delivery of general merchandise and grocery for business members in Miami.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 3, 2016

Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has approved the technical solutions proposed by Volkswagen for the Volkswagen Passat, CC and Eos models with 2.0l TDI EA 189 engines. ( Earlier post.). More than 800,000 vehicles affected by the diesel compliance issue are now to be recalled as soon as possible. The affected owners will receive letters from Volkswagen and can then arrange a service appointment.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 3, 2016

Nine years after the launch of the mid-size A5, Audi unveiled the second-generation A5 and S5 Coupé during an event at the company’s headquarters in Ingolstadt. The new Audi A5 Coupé will launch in Germany with five engines: two gasoline TFSI and three diesel TDI units. Their power output has increased considerably and is now between 140 kW (190 hp) and 210 kW (286 hp).

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 3, 2016

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Synergy Biogas are exploring the environmental benefits of microalgae to clean agricultural wastewater and make biofuels. Jeff Lodge, associate professor in RIT’s Thomas Gosnell School of Life Sciences, is running a three-month pilot program at Synergy Biogas, a high-tech anaerobic digester located on Synergy Farms in Covington, N.Y, to grow microalgae on digested biomass.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 3, 2016

Average fuel economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the US in May 2016 was 25.4 mpg (9.26 l/100 km)—up 0.2 mpg from the value for April 2016, according to the latest monthly report from Dr. Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). This improvement likely reflects the increased price of gasoline in May, and the consequent increased interest in more fuel-efficient vehicles by buyers of all vehicle classes, they s

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

Air Products, a leader in hydrogen fueling and infrastructure worldwide, has signed an agreement to provide a technology license allowing Air Liquide Advanced Technologies US LLC to practice the patented Air Products technology incorporated in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J2601 hydrogen fueling protocol. ( Earlier post.) Air Products makes such hydrogen fueling technology licenses available for use around the world under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

The City of Santa Monica, California has awarded Clean Energy a multi-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract to fuel its Big Blue Bus (BBB) fleet of vehicles. The 5-year deal, worth an estimated $3 million per year, will enable BBB to continue using Clean Energy’s Redeem brand of renewable natural gas (RNG), rated up to 90% cleaner than diesel. BBB began using Redeem by Clean Energy in January 2015. ( Earlier post.).

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

Ballard Power Systems’ subsidiary Protonex has received a $5.8-million purchase order for the supply of Squad Power Manager ( SPM-622 ) Special Operations Kits for end customer US Special Operations Command. The purchase order is the largest order in its history and represents follow-on business from the $2.8-million SPM order from the same customer received in December 2015.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

Daimler AG has established Mercedes-Benz Energy GmbH to take over the development and global sale of Mercedes-Benz brand stationary energy storage ( earlier post ) with immediate effect. The production of the systems remains the core expertise of Daimler’s other wholly owned subsidiary, Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE GmbH & Co. KG. Daimler AG, with ACCUMOTIVE, began delivery of domestic storage solutions for the German market in April.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

By 2025, 67 million automotive 5G vehicle subscriptions will be active—three million of which will be low latency connections mainly deployed in autonomous and driverless cars. ABI Research highlights that 5G will unify connectivity in autonomous vehicles; enabling broadband multimedia streaming, cloud services for vehicle lifecycle management, the capturing and uploading of huge volumes of sensor data, and cooperative mobility through V2X (vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure)

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and KDDI Corporation (KDDI) are partnering to establish a global communications platform to enable the operation of communications networks throughout the world to support car connectivity. Toyota aims to bring greater connectivity to its vehicles throughout the world. To do so, a broad-reaching, robust communications platform and the use of a uniform data communications module (DCM) will be needed.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

Trestle Energy LLC, a low carbon fuel company working with ethanol producers across the Midwest, and Larksen LLC, a biomass company providing sustainably sourced agricultural residues to Midwestern power plants, will collaborate to commercialize a new Fuel Pathway Management Platform. The platform is designed to enable ethanol producers to reduce their fuel carbon intensity substantially and to facilitate cost-effective use of biomass fuel pellets at existing power plants.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

Since 2006, Airbus has decreased harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) emissions by more than 60% compared to revenue and nearly 30% in absolute terms) across its European sites. This improvement was underscored with recent achievements in Europe—such as the installation of a new washer for painting tools at Saint-Eloi, France; the replacement of a solvent-based primer with a water-based alternative at Puerto Real, Spain; and implementation of a new water-based touch-up paint dispensin

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

Honda R&D Co., Ltd., a research and development subsidiary of Honda, is further strengthening its research and development of intelligent technologies and, toward that objective, will establish Honda R&D Innovation Lab Tokyo by around September this year in Akasaka, Tokyo. The new operation will serve as a venue for “co-creation”—Honda will seek to collaborate with external experts and other research institutes.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 2, 2016

One week after the Volkswagen Group announced a US$300-million strategic investment in global ride hailing provider Gett ( earlier post ), the two companies laid the cornerstone for their strategic partnership at a kick-off event at the DRIVE Volkswagen Group Forum in Berlin. For the Volkswagen Group, this marked its first substantial step in the transition from car making to structuring and providing integrated, sustainable mobility.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 1, 2016

Tier 1 supplier Valeo is adding a new low-cost solid-state LiDAR, developed together with LeddarTech , a specialist in advanced detection and ranging solutions, to its portfolio for driving and parking assistance. The new sensor will be ready for mass production in 2018. The Solid-state LiDAR will have no mechanical moving parts and will be the least expensive LiDAR sensor on the market, Valeo said.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 1, 2016

Using a new satellite-based, global emission inventory for SO 2 that is derived through a simultaneous detection, mapping and emission-quantifying procedure—and thereby independent of conventional information sources—researchers in Canada and the US have identified 40 large SO 2 sources not currently captured in conventional inventories.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 1, 2016

Xfuels Inc. and Canada-based Converde Inc. have signed a joint venture agreement with Converde Inc. The JV, named Area 2 Energy, holds producing natural gas assets in Southern Alberta currently has 300 producing Natural Gas Wells connected to the pipeline with purchase and significant established operator contracts already in place. Converde (51% share) purchased the wells early May with the intent to build a pilot Gas To Liquids (GTL) plant on the site.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 1, 2016

Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have engineered a hydrogen-producing enzyme in the test tube that works as efficiently as the original. The protein—a hydrogenase from green algae ( [FeFe]-hydrogenase HYDA1 from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii )—is made up of a protein scaffold and a cofactor. The researchers have been investigating mechanisms of hydrogen biocatalysis for a number of years.

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Green Car Congress

JUNE 1, 2016

Redhill Resources Corp. has entered into a property option and assignment agreement with a vendor to acquire a 100% right, title and interest in and to the Lincoln Lithium Property in Nevada. The Property covers an area of 3200 acres of placer claims in the Big Smoky Valley, Nevada, directly adjacent to claims controlled by Ultra Lithium Inc. and Avarone Metals Inc.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 31, 2016

SAE International has published “SAE TIR J2954 Wireless Power Transfer for Light-Duty Plug-In/ Electric Vehicles and Alignment Methodology,” a milestone industry guideline to establish wireless power transfer between infrastructure, vehicle suppliers and OEMs for plug-in electric and electric vehicles (PH/EV). ( Earlier post.) The document is now available for purchase from the SAE website.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 31, 2016

Audi is now equipping its new models that use the second-generation modular infotainment platform with Audi connect SIM. With the factory-installed SIM card, customers can immediately use the wide range of Audi connect services with the accompanying data flat rate for up to three years. The Audi connect SIM is a permanently installed SIM card (embedded SIM or eSIM), which customers in Europe will receive in combination with the optional Audi connect equipment package.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 31, 2016

Mazda Motor Corporation announced that the total production volume of the Mazda3 (known as Mazda Axela in Japan) reached five million units at the end of April 2016. It is the second Mazda to reach five million units of production, following the Mazda Familia. The Mazda3 sets a new record for Mazda by achieving the milestone figure in only twelve years and ten months since production of the model commenced in June 2003.

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Green Car Congress

MAY 31, 2016

MAN Truck & Bus AG, part of Volkswagen Truck & Bus, is investing up to $8.5 million in the US start-up FR8 Revolution Inc. (“Fr-eight”). Silicon-Valley-based FR8 has developed a comprehensive “operating system” for a connected transportation industry that will be launched in the second quarter of 2016. The IT platform will provide shippers, carriers, and truck drivers with a uniform and transparent platform for planning cargoes based on real-time data.

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