Sentience Research Vehicle shows how tons of data can save millions of barrels of oil
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Sentience Research Vehicle How smart does a car have to be before it starts saving you money and reduces your fuel usage? You can make any car a bit smarter by driving more sensibly, but a team of engineers in the UK has decided to give an SUV a few more microchips and let it try and save fuel for you. Dubbed the Sentience intelligent advanced hybrid vehicle, the 15-month-long project melds telematics with technology that is here today to reduce CO 2 emissions of the test vehicle by between 5 and 24 percent, dependent on driving style. The collaborators, including Transport Research Laboratory, Ricardo, Jaguar-Land Rover, Ordnance Survey and Orange Business Services, say that by using readily-available technology, the Sentience technology could be applied to vehicles in the UK without too much cost. If it were, the engineers estimate, total savings in the country would be somewhere between 1.2 and 2.9 million barrels of oil per year. There are three main components to the Sentience technology: Enhanced Acceleration/Deceleration (EAD) in which the vehicle speed is controlled to meet actual and virtual speed limits Optimized Engine Load (OEL) in which the hybrid powertrain systems are managed using advanced route knowledge in such a way as to make optimal use of recharging opportunities Enhanced Air-Conditioning (EAC) control in which temperature set-points are adjusted prior to and following temporary stops. More details after the jump. Gallery: Sentience Research Vehicle [Source: Ricardo] Continue reading Sentience Research Vehicle shows how tons of data can save millions of barrels of oil Auto Blog: Emerging Technologies , Green Daily Sentience Research Vehicle shows how tons of data can save millions of barrels of oil originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Leave a commentFord CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade
Click above for high-res gallery of the Ford Focus EV “mule” Ford may have been relatively quiet on the electric vehicle front while General Motors got all the attention for its Chevy Volt series hybrid, but the Blue Oval has come roaring back in recent months. It was revealed in its viability plan submitted to Congress back in December that an electric commercial van would be launched just one year from now followed by an electric car the next year. According to CEO Alan Mulally, that’s just the start. At a conference in California this week, Mulally declared, “In 10 years, 12 years, you are going to see a major portion of our portfolio move to electric vehicles.” Mulally told the conference that internal combustion efficiency will also improve dramatically over the next decade, and more hybrids will join the lineup including a plug-in hybrid that will debut in 2012. Ford is shifting a significant proportion of its truck building capacity to cars over the next two years and the company doesn’t expect truck sales to recover to their previous record heights. While fuel prices are low now, they are expected to climb again as the economy recovers. The shifts to cars and more hybrid and electric vehicles will be necessary to meet both market demands created by those expected higher fuel prices and government mandates for higher fuel efficiency. Gallery: ABG Quick Drive: Ford Focus EV mule Photos Copyright (C)2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc. [Source: Automotive News , sub. req'd] Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Hybrid , Ford Ford CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Ford CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade
Posted in Auto Green, Hybrids | alan mulally, alanmulally, copyright, europe, fordev, fuel, green-daily, mulally, next, over-the-next, photo, program-similar, ricardo, scrapvehicle, sentience | Leave a commentGeneva Preview: Lotus to unveil Omnivore concept engine
Next week at the Geneva Motor Show , Lotus Engineering will unveil its Omnivore concept engine. As the name implies, the Omnivore is designed to consume whatever is fed to it. The Omnivore is a flex fuel engine that is designed to extract the maximum amount of work regardless of what type of fuel is used. One of the main issues with flex-fuel engines is that the various fuels have different combustion characteristics (burn rates, octane ratings combustion temperatures) and it’s difficult to get a single engine to run at optimal efficiency with different fuels due to the physical limitations of the engine. Turbocharged engines have an advantage because the maximum boost pressure can be varied to take advantage of higher octane alcohol fuels. The Omnivore is specifically designed to take advantage of varying fuels and modern electronic control capabilities. Like most research engines, this is a single cylinder design that allows the Lotus engineers to more quickly make changes and study the effects. This is also a two-stroke design with an air assisted direct injection system provided by Orbital Corporation of Australia. Those interested in two-strokes may remember Orbital from the early nineties when a number of manufacturers were investigating two-stroke engines. The concept engine uses a mono-block layout with a single hunk of metal comprising the cylinder block and head and no poppet valves. Instead the ports are exposed by the piston’s motion. Variations in timing between intake and exhaust are achieved by valve in the exhaust port that traps the exhaust. The lack of poppet valves allows for the installation of a movable puck in the top of the cylinder that allows for a variable compression ratio. Sensors that detect the fuel composition are tied into the engine management and the compression ratio is varied to get the most out of the fuel under various driving conditions. The goal of the project is to allow engines to go as far as possible on every gallon fuel regardless of the fuel type. Ultimately this design should even be able to accommodate diesel-like HCCI combustion . [Source: Lotus] Continue reading Geneva Preview: Lotus to unveil Omnivore concept engine Auto Blog: Flex-Fuel , MPG , Lotus , Geneva Motor Show Geneva Preview: Lotus to unveil Omnivore concept engine originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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U.S.-EU biodiesel "splash and dash" tariff fight escalating
While biodiesel advocates go about setting up sustainability principles , the EU and the U.S. are in a growing dispute over the biofuel. The problem is that the Europeans see the $1-a-gallon tax credit that the U.S. provides for B99 (made up of 99 percent biodiesel and one percent petro-diesel) as an unfair subsidy that is harming the European biodiesel market. The EU’s response: slap new (but temporary) tariffs on biodiesel imports from the U.S., maybe. The European Commission is looking into applying the tariffs, and should make a decision by March 13. One of the big problems, according to an article in the Seattle TImes , is a practice called “splash and dash.” This is when American producers import pure (that is, B100) biodiesel made somewhere else, add a bit of petro-diesel to the fuel and collect the tax credit and then ship the biodiesel to Europe. This has been going on for years . The Financial Times says that the American companies’ practices are pushing biodiesel prices in Europe down by between 89 and 99 U.S. cents per gallon. The U.S.’s National Biodiesel Board says European comanies are “not being hurt by US competition,” and wants the U.S. to take action against the EU through the World Trade Organization. Sigh. [Source: Seattle TImes , Financial Times ] Photo by ? Redvers . Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0. Auto Blog: Biodiesel , Legislation and Policy , Europe/EU , USA U.S.-EU biodiesel “splash and dash” tariff fight escalating originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Biodiesel can’t void your warranty?
Most manufacturers, including heavy-hitters like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, allow the use of a 5 percent biodiesel blend (aka B5) without violating the terms of the car’s original factory warranty. What happens if you use a higher biodiesel concentration? That’s a good question, and the answer isn’t particularly clear at the moment. According to Steve Keyes, Volkswagen’s director of public relations, “All Volkswagen TDI models are warranted for the use of up to a B5 blend. Blends of biodiesel higher than B5 void the Volkswagen warranty.” Case closed, right? Not so fast, say the Northwest Biofuels Association and the Oregon Auto Dealer’s Association. These two organizations have released a joint statement suggesting that the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act from 1975 doesn’t allow a manufacturer to void a vehicle’s warranty based on the fuel that the owner is using to power it. We’re not so sure it’s a good idea to go against a manufacturer’s stated recommendations without knowing the consequences, regardless of whether it voids the warranty or not. Even if a vehicle seems to run just fine on high biodiesel blends, it’s important to remember that modern diesel engines and emissions systems have computers that may make assumptions about the fuel that’s being used. We’d wager that this is an issue that will continue to be hashed out in the coming months and years. [Source: Green Inc. via Domestic Fuel | Photo: .imelda ] Auto Blog: Biodiesel , Diesel Biodiesel can’t void your warranty? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Semi trucks converted to run on biomethane from cow manure
Looking for a sustainable fuel to power your fleet of semi trucks? If you are a dairy farm, we’d bet that the one thing you’ve got too much of is cow manure. Hilarides Dairy happens to have this exact problem, and it’s turning it into a solution. Over 10,000 cows will happily provide enough dung to generate 226,000 cubic feet of biomethane gas each and every day. That amount of gas (literally) is enough to cut 650 gallons of diesel fuel fuel per day from the farm’s fleet of vehicles. The process goes something like this: Cows excrete their spent fuels as manure, which is then flushed out into a lagoon where microbes begin breaking it down, resulting in the production of methane gas. The gas is then further purified at a local refinery that strips out unwanted bits like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. After this final refining, the fuel is pressurized and fed into Cummins diesel engines that have been converted to run properly on methane gas. Proponents of this technology suggest that there is enough manure to displace the gasoline requirements of up to 16 million gas or diesel vehicles. It’s both gross and brilliant all at once. [Source: Wired | Photo: JelleS , CC 2.0] Auto Blog: Natural Gas , Green Daily Semi trucks converted to run on biomethane from cow manure originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Posted in Auto Green | a-friend-via, a-prime-target, cow farts, cow manure, cowdung, daily, fuel, news, photo, turning-it-into | Leave a commentArgentina motorbike manufacturer launches CNG bike
Argentina’s most important motorbike manufacturer, Zanella, has announced its first factory-installed CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) powered bike. The bike, which is a converted RX150 model, has 150 cc displacement and the conversion adds two tanks of gas for a range of approximately 200 kilometers (120 miles). The tanks can store 1.4 m 3 of natural gas and are located in the same place as the fuel tank. Interestingly, a small reservoir that holds 3.5 liters of gasoline remains on board for emergencies. The CNG option costs 1,000 pesos (about $285) and the conversion kit is supplied by local manufacturer Ecopos, based in Santa Fe, Argentina. [Source: NGV ] Auto Blog: Natural Gas , On Two Wheels , South/Latin America Argentina motorbike manufacturer launches CNG bike originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Greenlings: What is cellulosic ethanol and how does it fit with green cars?
Click above for high-res gallery of the ethanol Hummer There is a lot of controversy surrounding biofuels. Various studies have shown that crop-based biofuels contribute to global warming more than they help prevent it , that ethanol is no better than gasoline , and that South East Asian rainforests are suffering for biofuels, to name just three. The most dramatic recent claim was that ethanol was the worst type of renewable energy . Currently, popular fuel crops include sugar cane (in Brazil), sugar beets (Europe), and corn (United States). The good news is that you don’t need to grow crops for the express purpose of making them into ethanol to create the biofuel. You can also use beer byproducts or get help from sea grubs , among many other methods. When you use these non-crop alternative methods, the result is often called cellulosic ethanol. Since ethanol has all sorts of negative connotations, some suggest we rename the fuel. ” Celluline ” is one possibility, but for this post we’ll stick with cellulosic ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol is the main face of so-called second-generation biofuels. It’s called “cellulosic” because it is made from lignocellulose. Lignocellulose, in turn, is made up of lignin and cellulose that is present in the cell walls of woody plants. Follow us past the jump for an expanded primer on cellulosic ethanol and it’s place in green motoring today. Gallery: AFVI Ride & Drive Ethanol Hummer Continue reading Greenlings: What is cellulosic ethanol and how does it fit with green cars? Auto Blog: Emerging Technologies , Ethanol , Flex-Fuel , AutoblogGreen Exclusive Greenlings: What is cellulosic ethanol and how does it fit with green cars? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Posted in Auto Green | a-friend-via, brazil, does-it-fit, e10, flexfuel, fuel, past-the-jump, post | Leave a commentGeneva Preview: Porsche to publicly debut Cayenne diesel
Click the Cayenne diesel for a high res gallery Porsche started building the new Cayenne diesel SUV several weeks ago but the German sports car maker will publicly show it for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show in a couple of weeks. Like its platform-mates the Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7, the Cayenne uses the VW group 3.0L TDI V6. The 240 hp diesel engine allows the new Cayenne to be the most efficient variant yet by a long shot. The Cayenne diesel is rated at a combined 25.3 mpg (U.S.) on the European cycle. The 405 lb-ft of torque motivates the Cayenne to 62 mph in 8.3 seconds with a top speed of 133 mph. The 25.6 gallon fuel tank gives the Cayenne a bladder-busting range of 620 miles. Like its siblings, the Cayenne is only available with a 6-speed automatic transmission. So far, Porsche hasn’t indicated any intention of offering the diesel Cayenne in the U.S. market even though the engine is already certified for the Audi and VW. The press release is after the jump. Gallery: Porsche Cayenne Diesel [Source: Porsche] Continue reading Geneva Preview: Porsche to publicly debut Cayenne diesel Auto Blog: Diesel , Porsche , Geneva Motor Show Geneva Preview: Porsche to publicly debut Cayenne diesel originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Fuel director Josh Tickell booked on Monday’s Leno
The list of people who have appeared in an AutoblogGreen interview and on the Tonight Show (currently at a very low number – I’m thinking Ed Begley Jr. has talked with Jay, but who else?) will grow by one tomorrow night. Filmmaker Josh Tickell is scheduled to be on the couch along with Kevin Bacon and British pop musician Lily Allen. Tickell’s movie Fuel is an updated version of Fields of Fuel , a documentary of Tickell’s 11-year quest to popularize renewable, sustainable biodiesel while driving his used-cooking-oil-powered “Veggie Van” around the country. Fuel broadens the energy spectrum to include other renewable energy sources in an entertaining and practical way. Tickell is out hyping the film because it is finally making it into wider release. Check out our review from the film’s premiere here . Thanks to Michael W. for the tip! Gallery: L.A. Premiere of FUEL film Auto Blog: Biodiesel , Etc. , Green Culture Fuel director Josh Tickell booked on Monday’s Leno originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Fuel director Josh Tickell booked on Monday’s Leno
Posted in Auto Green, Biodiesel | a-friend-via, check-out-our, country, energy, filmmaker-josh, fuel, fuel movie, hyping-the-film, josh tickell, peter-fonda, premiere, review, tonight, tonight-show | Leave a commentGet Approved!
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