Transportation Fuel & Energy Solutions: April 2008 Archives
The head of Nissan was interviewed on CNBC in April, 2008 and he stated that hybrids are the best technology today, but the electric vehicle will be the standard by 2010.
I had a call from one of our readers, however, that pointed out that a new energy is hitting the market in 2008...compressed air. And it's not coming from the US or Japan, but those energetic engineers in India. Actually it was developed based on technology as old as the late 1800s, when compressed air was used in street cars and locomotives. By 1932, compressed air cars were cars were build using compressed air -- both 3-wheel and 4-wheel models. And in 1983, Terry Miller patented a car that ran on compressed air.
Compressed Air
This year, 2008, Tata Motors and Motor Development International (MDI) of Luxembourg have jointly developed the world's first commercially-viable prototype of a compressed air car, named OneCAT.Tata Motors is a multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is India's largest passenger automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturing company. Part of the Tata Group, it is one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles. www.tata.com
MDI Air Car Designers of the car with a compressed air engine. Includes details of the technology and images of the car. theaircar.com
Zero Pollution Motors - Air Car
This is the expected performance of the revolutionary compressed air vehicle that Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) is introducing to North America. zeropollutionmotors.us
More info at Wikipedia ... with a whole passel of "future automobiles" listed!NREL's fiber optic hydrogen sensor utilizes a non-ignitable, flexible, thin, glass or plastic, fiber optic strand that transmits light to a thin film material. The material changes color in response to the presence of hydrogen. The CRADA allows NREL and Nuclear Filter Technology to develop a full-scale prototype of this technology, which ultimately will result in commercially available products.
Applications include those for the following industries:
- Petrochemical
- Transportation
- Fuel cell
- Fuel production
- Food processing
- Natural gas
- Nuclear waste
Nuclear Filter Technology is also licensing several NREL inventions related to the fiber optic and thin film materials that sense the presence of hydrogen.
SOURCE: Technology Transfer department of National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Clemson
International Center for Automotive Research, has served as a hub and a symbol of the South's
emergence over the last two decades as a powerhouse in automotive
manufacturing. A 2007 industry-wide event, part of the Tennessee Valley Corridor Southeast Partnership, was designed to bring together the region's collective transportation research talent to focus on ways to support continued growth of the automotive industry.
The gathering was symbolic of a growing realization that in matters of
economic development, the South has learned the importance of teamwork.
In the case of transportation, this regional teamwork has resulted in
the cooperation of lawmakers, business leaders and research
institutions on a broad array of initiatives, from creating new fuels
to helping the world's auto manufacturers build lighter, stronger, more
energyefficient cars and trucks.
ORNL Leader in Transportation Research
Oak
Ridge National Laboratory for years has been the leader in
transportation research for the Department of Energy's energy
efficiency programs. More recently, the Laboratory has sought to
connect to the growing automotive presence in the Southeast. The region
is now home to 3,000 automotive suppliers and 10 major automotive
assembly plants including Toyota in Kentucky and Mississippi; BMW in
South Carolina; Ford in Georgia; Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda in
Alabama, as well as Saturn and Nissan—which recently relocated U.S.
headquarters to Nashville—in Tennessee.
Universities and ORNL Provide Research for Supply Chain, Sustainable Manufacturing, Heavy Vehicle Research, Power Electronics, Engines and High-Performance Materials
Surrounding these plants is a set of universities that, along with ORNL, represent extensive expertise in supply chain management, sustainable manufacturing, heavy vehicle research, power electronics, engines and high-performance materials. In 2007, ORNL and the University of Tennessee, along with six southern research universities, announced the Automotive Research Alliance, a regional effort to provide southern automakers access to unique research capabilities.
Research
capabilities outside automakers' own R&D organizations are crucial
to development of new technologies and products, says Tom Bologa, vice
president of engineering, United States, for BMW of North America.
Detroit Center Coordinates ORNL, DOE, DOD and Automotive Suppliers
Although
the South's largest research laboratory, ORNL is not restricting
automotive research efforts to the Southeast. The Department of Energy
recently announced an initiative headquartered at automotive supplier
Delphi Automotive's former R&D center in Detroit that pulls
together ORNL, DOE, the Department of Defense and a consortium of
automotive suppliers. Called USAutoPARTs, the effort will provide both
expertise and facilities to second- and third-tier automotive
suppliers, most of which cannot afford a program of in-house research.
SOURCE: ORNL overview of automotive alternative energy research
(left) Researchers
hike Yellowstone National Park, left, on the hunt for microbes that
could potentially be used in bioenergy production.
(right) They analyze the samples back home in the lab
Bioenergy from Microscopic Organisms
Oak Ridge National Laboratory microbiologist Tommy Phelps sees the untapped potential of bioenergy in shelves of bottles and beakers containing microscopic organisms that just might hold the elusive bug or enzyme capable of digesting large quantities of plant matter into ethanol.
Phelps's current batch of microbes, stockpiled in dozens of bottles of
silt, rocks and soils, was collected from Yellowstone National Park,
where the hot springs that draw millions of summertime visitors also
nurture microscopic life in their boiling waters. These bugs, in turn,
beckon microbiologists like Phelps, who seek a solution to transform
Earth's abundant cellulosic sources into a modern energy supply.
Yellowstone's warm waters offer the promise of microbes that can
rapidly and efficiently degrade cellulose—the woody, leafy matter that
makes up plants. Scientists hope to tap the power of these microbes for
industrial-scale consolidated bioprocessing of plants, including trees
and switchgrass, the species central to the BioEnergy Science Center's
research efforts.
BioEnergy Science Center
The hunt for this cellulosic "super bug" is part of a suite of efforts
under way at the BioEnergy Science Center, headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Since
being named one of three $135 million Department of Energy bioenergy
research centers, researchers at ORNL and its partner institutions have
quickly gotten to work.
DOE's ambitious goal is to replace by 2030
one-third of the nation's transportation fuel with cellulosebased
sources. At these centers, researchers are carrying out the targeted,
fundamental science needed to bridge the gap between the potential of
cellulose-based fuels and their reality.
Current microbes and enzymes are relatively slow at attacking plant matter's complicated and protective structure. Researchers will determine precisely the genes involved in the interaction of the microbes and enzymes to break apart cellulose. Other genes responsible for producing undesirable products, such as acetic acids, will be knocked out in the hope of, ultimately, developing the perfect ethanol-manufacturing microbe. Particular enzymes will be isolated as well and genetically analyzed, with a focus on determining the ideal formula of enzyme or microbe and enzyme to serve as the vehicle for cellulosic ethanol production.
Plants with Good Biofuel Sugars
Microbes, however, are just a piece of the puzzle. Other researchers at the Oak Ridge center are going through similar steps to develop plants with qualities most conducive to processing into biofuel. Similar to the microbial work, researchers will analyze thousands of genetically modified switchgrass and poplar tree samples in order to discover and develop the best varieties for ethanol production. As part of the process, the biofeedstock, together with the microbes and the enzymes, will be joined in a complex matrix of analysis and R&D in order to develop the best biofuel recipe.
On the biomass formation side, the partners will produce samples of plant material genetically altered to modify their cell walls for optimum breakdown into usable sugars. Such altered species might feature lower amounts of lignin—the substance that holds cellulose fibers together—or a reduction in the crystallinity of the cellulose. ArborGen and ORNL will be primarily responsible for creating and studying various altered trees, while scientists from the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia and the Noble Foundation will take the lead in switchgrass research.
Read more at ORNL
April 7, 2008 -- Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.
Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.
In the same issue, James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. While Dumesic's group had previously demonstrated the production of jet-fuel components using separate steps, their current work shows that the steps can be integrated and run sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.
While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market.
"It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car," said Huber. "Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today."
For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.
The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend.
"Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel," said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research.
"In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce," Regalbuto said. "Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the lifecycle greenhouse gas problem that has recently surfaced with corn ethanol and soy biodiesel."
Beyond academic laboratories, both small businesses and Fortune 500 petroleum refiners are pursuing green gasoline. Companies are designing ways to hybridize their existing refineries to enable petroleum products including fuels, textiles, and plastics to be made from either crude oil or biomass and the military community has shown strong interest in making jet fuel and diesel from the same sources.
"Huber's new process for the direct conversion of cellulose to gasoline aromatics is at the leading edge of the new ‘Green Gasoline' alternate energy paradigm that NSF, along with other federal agencies, is helping to promote," states Regalbuto.
Not only is the method a compact way to treat a great deal of biomass in a short time, Regalbuto emphasized that the process, in principle, does not require any external energy. "In fact, from the extra heat that will be released, you can generate electricity in addition to the biofuel," he said. "There will not be just a small carbon footprint for the process; by recovering heat and generating electricity, there won't be any footprint."
The latest pathways to produce green gasoline, green diesel and green jet fuel are found in a report sponsored by NSF, the Department of Energy and the American Chemical Society entitled "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels: Next Generation Hydrocarbon Biorefineries" released April 1 (http://www.ecs.umass.edu/biofuels/). In the report, Huber and a host of leaders from academia, industry and government present a plan for making green gasoline a practical solution for the impending fuel crisis.
"We are currently working on understanding the chemistry of this process and designing new catalysts and reactors for this single step technique. This fundamental chemical understanding will allow us to design more efficient processes that will accelerate the commercialization of green gasoline," Huber said.
Principal Investigators
James Dumesic, University of Wisconsin-Madison (608) 262-1095 dumesic@cae.wisc.edu
George Huber, University of Massachusetts - Amherst (413) 545-0276 huber@ecs.umass.edu
