alternative fuels

Greening Your Grill: 5 Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Charcoal and Gas

thegreenconnoisseur — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:48:03 -0400

Summertime is upon us full-force and 4th of July celebrations are just around the corner - it's time for backyard barbecues but the traditional cookout is not so eco-friendly. In fact, the estimated 60 million cookouts that will take place this weekend will "consume enough energy to power 20,000 households for a year" according to the Sierra Club. (To view the full story follow this link http://thegreenconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2009/07/greening-your-grill-5-eco-friendly.html)

David Blume touts Alcohol Can Be A Gas !

PHowe — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:27:37 -0400

Noted ecological biologist David Blume has been promoting his book, Alcohol Can Be A Gas and continues to talk about the importance of alcohol-based fuels, and of how the oil industry has worked against the developement of alternative fuel sources. Many of the early cars, Model T T for example, were flex fuel (running on either gas or alcohol), and Henry Ford was an advocate for alcohol fuel. But, he was fiercely

see full story at - http://gatheringhome.typepad.com/gatheringhome/2008/07/david-blume-tou.html

Prince Charles Runs His Aston on English Wine

khallgeisler — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Prince Charles, the U.K.'s version of Al Gore, has taken another step in a green direction: his 1970 Aston Martin DB6 has been converted to run entirely on bioethanol, sometimes known as E100. The fuel he uses is made from a white wine produced near the prince's Highgrove Estate, itself a showcase for organic farming.

The DB6 only got 10 mph to begin with (it now gets about 4.5 bottles of wine per mile), and the eco-conscious prince only drove it a few hundred miles a year. With such low usage, the transformation of his 21st birthday present from Queen Elizabeth to vino power won't get Charles very far toward his goal of reducing emissions from his planes, trains, and automobiles 25% by 2018.

The European Union limits annual wine production, so any leftovers from England's current vintage can be converted to bioethanol by Green Fuels Ltd. The company has previously provided bioethanol to power the royal train. The prince's other vehicles, which include a smattering of Jaguars, a Range Rover, and an Audi, have been converted to run on bioethanol made from cooking oil.

Don't forget, DIYers, you can do the same yourself at home with a little leftover wine of your own.

Water-Powered Car a Pipe Dream

khallgeisler — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

We learned the other day that hydrogen-fueled cars release only water as a byproduct. Could you take that purest of all tailpipe emissions and fuel another car with only water? No, for two reasons: first, that hydrogen car would take forever to produce enough water to fill the tank, and second, cars can't run on just water, no matter what the Internet says.

Actually, if you Google "water-fueled cars," you'll find as many sites touting the idea as debunking it. Treehugger has a pretty good explanation for why it probably won't work; namely, the first law of thermodynamics. You remember -- it's the one about energy not being created or destroyed.

The Museum of Hoaxes is also suspicious of the efficacy of a water car, given that you'd have to split water into hydrogen and oxygen -- a difficult process -- and then run the car on H instead of H2O. Which we already have, so it's not much of a breakthrough. The best part of this debunking, though, is that the guy with the powder that turns water into gasoline admitted he got the powder from spacemen from Neptune.

The reason the Internets are all abuzz about the water car is the introduction of a supposely viable model from Japanese company Genepax. CleanTech Group talked to representatives of the company, who could not reveal "the core part of this invention," nor could they reveal a timeframe for mass-producing the car, or how long the system would last, or when more tech information would be available to the public. That's a lot to take on faith.

Here's the 1m 14s video from Reuters of the Genepax tootling about on H2O. If it works as great as this guy in the video promises, we're all golden. But it's still too soon to take off our goggles of skepticism.

The idea of water cars is as old as gas crises. Check out this story in the New York Times (login required) about a man in California who was running his car on water -- in 1981.

Image by atomicshark.

All-Hybrid Taxi Fleet on Its Way in NYC

khallgeisler — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In May 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that all NYC taxis would be hybrid by 2012. The city is on its way toward that goal a year later, though a bit off the pace, with 1020 hybrid hacks in the city, or about 8% of the 13,150 cabs on the streets.

Almost all (845) of the hybrid taxis are Ford Escapes. The next model on the list is the Toyota Highlander, another SUV, with a mere 92 ferrying people around town. The rest of the hybrid vehicles currently in use by cabbies, including the otherwise popular Prius, have only a few engines idling silently at airports.

According to an article in the New York Times, the switch has made more than an ecological impact for the early adopters. The cabbie who talked to the reporter says his Escape saves him $25 a week in gas over the Crown Victoria he proviously drove.

New York is no stranger to avant-garde taxi technology: in 1896, the city had an all-electric-powered fleet. And appropriately enough, the first-ever speeding ticket was issued to a New York cabbie in 1899. Jacob German of the Electric Vehicle Company was stopped for tearing ass around the city at 12 mph. Retrospectively, he was doing all right, since the current average speed in cross-town Manhattan traffic is 6 mph or so.

Photo credit: Edward Reed

CARB's Not So Good for You

khallgeisler — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

In a stunning example of spin, the first sentence of the California Air Resource Board's press release after Thursday's vote on the number of zero-emissions vehicles in the state reads: "The Air Resources Board today [March 27, 2008] voted to triple the amount of zero emissions vehicles that staff had proposed for automakers to produce from 2012 through 2014." It goes on to say that the board had proposed setting the level of ZEVs required to be sold in the state at 2,500, but it voted to increase that number to 7,500.

But until last week, the number had been 25,000. This means they reduced the number of ZEVs by 70%, not increased it three-fold.

The amendment that passed in late March also required an additional 66,000 plug-in hybrids to be on the road between 2012 to 2014. If automakers decide for some unlikely reason to go for the gold and produce the 25,000 ZEVs California originally demanded, then they don't have to meet this plug-in hybrid number. That's about as likely as GM's Bob Lutz joining Greenpeace.

Detroit Electric Recharged

khallgeisler — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A couple of weeks ago, Treehugger and AutoblogGreen both posted announcements about pioneering electric vehicle company Detroit Electric being brought back from the dead. US EV maker Zap and China’s Youngman Automotive Group have teamed up to manufacture and deliver affordable EVs under the century-old banner.

Here’s what you need to know to sound smart at the next potluck dinner. The Detroit Electric brand was around the first time from 1907 to 1939, under the umbrella of the Anderson Electric Car Company. The car came standard with a lead-acid rechargeable battery, just like most EVs today. They went about 80 miles on one charge, with a top speed of about 20 mph. Sadly, this is a lot like most EVs today, too. You’d think 100 years of technology would have improved on that a bit more.

Detroit Electric’s marketing plan targeted women and doctors, as EVs were more reliable and less stinky than internal-combustion engines. Clara Ford, wife of Henry, bought a car for herself from Detroit Electric because Ford cars were too noisy. Detroit Electric’s later models, while still running on electricity, were designed with long hoods like the more-powerful gas cars, which had radiators under those coffin noses, as they were called.

Enough history. What’s up with the new Detroit Electric? According to Alex Campbell of Zap, Youngman is one of the largest manufacturers in China, with a 4 million square-foot facility. The idea of the new partnership is to source parts from where they are made, all over the world, then assemble them in China to keep the resulting vehicles affordable.

The first project to come from the partnership will be electric buses sold by Zap by 2009. The new Detroit Electric’s flagship will be the Zap Alias, which they consider to be their flagship three-wheeled sports car, will begin production in the second quarter of 2009. If you’re interested in buying your place in line for that Zap Alias, the company announced today that they are taking reservations at $5,000 a pop. The car is expected to sell for $32,500 when it becomes available late next year.

The company will even be building a replica of the 1907 Detroit Electric car as a low-power neighborhood electric vehicle. In the future, it hopes to add more traditional, practical, affordable passenger models to the lineup. “The age of inexpensive oil is over,” explains Campbell. “Everyone else is playing catch-up.”

"Car of the Future" Rolls Out This Spring

khallgeisler — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

NOVA's got a brand new bag: the PBS stalwart is taking open-source idea-sharing to documentary making. For its first experiment in "open production," NOVA has chosen "Car of the Future" as its subject. The one-hour show will explore the possibilites of emerging auto technologies, such as plug-in hybrids, hydrogen cells, and EVs with lithium-ion batteries--and beyond.

To whet your appetite, the show's web site features "My Car of the Future, Today." These are real-world alternative-fuel vehicles that are buzzing around right now, including world-record-holder Dennis Berube and "Current Eliminator V," his 160-mph EV.

Part of being an "open" production is letting the audience know what you're up to. To this end, there's a draft of the script on the site and a roster of experts, including Tom and Ray Magliozzi from NPR's "Car Talk," and Martin Eberhard, cofounder and CEO of Tesla Motors.

The other half of having an "open" process is listening to the public. Producers received nearly 900 emailed questions and ideas, some of which are answered by the show's panel of experts on the site. The producers will use the questions and suggestions submitted to shape the documentary and any materials that go along with it, including teacher's guides. There's also a pretty active forum for further ideas and discussions, with topics ranging from hydrogen fuel cells to Smart Cars to reading recommendations.

"Car of the Future" is slated to air on Earth Day this year, April 22, on your local PBS station, according to the latest news at AutoblogGreen.com.