Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Gas 2.0

Gas 2.0

Exxon Mobil Struggling to Replace the Oil it’s Drilling

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 04:00 PM PST

My dad tells me there's a lot of oil left in the ground. So explain to me why Exxon Mobil is buying up other companies to pad their own oil and natural gas reserves to meet their one-for-one replacement quota?

The oil game is all about replacing what you pump out of the game. Without finding new oil reserves or acquiring other companies, eventually you will run out of fuel to sell. A company with nothing to sell isn't going to last very long.

So you'd think a company like Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company should have no problem replacing the 6.3 million barrels of oil it refines every day. After all, they earn between $5 billion and $10 billion per-quarter, and the planet is a big place. But it turns out that for every 100 barrels of oil pumped out of the ground, they're only replacing 95. It's not a huge deficit, but as time goes on the gap is sure to widen. Not good for our petro-economy.

There is an upside however. For every 100 barrels-equivalent of natural gas Exxon pumps out, they find or have acquired 158 barrels. Natural gas is the least-refined fuel, mostly made up of methane, and while it has its own drawbacks its almost certainly a better short-term solution than sticking it out with oil. Exxon has managed to maintain its 1:1 quota for 17-straight years, but last year it was the purchase of natural gas producer XTO Energy that allowed them to make that quota.

What happens when they run out of places to drill, and companies to buy? Nothing good, I'd wager.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.

Study Predicts Less Than 500,000 EV’s on Road by 2015

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:00 PM PST

President Barack Obama was elected based on "Hope" and "Change." Among the changes he wants to make is putting 1 million electric vehicles on America's roads by 2015. A new study suggests we can only make it halfway there.

I'm all for lofty goals and reaching for the stars, but even I think a million electric vehicles on America's roads by 2015 is a bit ambitious. American auto sales are just starting to recover from the recession, and the first all-electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf, is being delivered en masse only in Japan (just 87 Leaf's were delivered in January.) The study was commissioned by GM, and looked at rebates and car buying habits in all 50 states to determine how many electric drive vehicles (which the Volt technically counts as) each state will buy.

Since electric cars have just started getting to dealerships, it's hard to predict just how well Americans will take to this different form of transportation. The study predicts, however, that by 2015, there will only be around 469,000 EV's on America's roads. Which, if you ask me, ain't too shabby, though its less than half of what Obama wants by 2015. Naturally, California is seen as a leader in EV sales, with Texas and New York the runners up. With the current Administration pushing for more money for more EV’s though, there could be a surge in demand, especially as gas prices continue to inch upwards.

Do you think we'll get to a million EV's by 2015? If not, how long will it take?

Source: Green Car Advisor

Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.

McLaren Talks Tech, Sustainability in Formula 1 Racing

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 11:25 AM PST

The upcoming 2011 Formula Season promises to be one of the sport’s most competitive, with a renewed emphasis on KERS hybrid technology (which disappeared from the sport in 2010).  There’s more green-washing going on in motorsports’ highest echelon, however – including an overall reduction in carbon emissions by 12% (approx. 30,000 tons) by 2012.

Wired UK was able to sit down with McLaren‘s managing director, Jonathan Neale, and discuss a few other intriguing possibilities – including start/stop tech and driving Formula 1 cars down pit lane in EV-only modes.  I’ve posted an excerpt, below.

Wired.co.uk: Do you think Formula 1 is doing enough when it comes to sustainability?

Jonathan Neale: Between 2009 and 2012 we'll be reducing CO2 by around 30,000 tonnes — which represents a 12 percent reduction. But fossil fuels aren't the biggest thing, it's the size of our supply chain. We've also seen the reintroduction of KERS (kinetic energy recovery systems) and there is huge room for innovation there. There's also been a significant reduction in track testing [thanks to simulation]. I don't think we do a good job of telling people about it though as it doesn't make good headlines.

There's a debate going on about running F1 cars as EVs in the pit lane. Some people say, "Isn't that just a milk float in the pit lane?" But when you look at the technology required to make that happen and restart the engine at the end of the pit lane it's exciting.

Wired.co.uk: Virgin Racing has taken a huge punt on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), having designed its 2010 and 2011 cars entirely in the digital domain. Can you win like that?

JN: The role of simulation is important to us, but with limited track testing you've still got the problem of correlation to test if your model is right. No matter how big your supercomputer, you have to reference something. I really admire the ambition, but there are lots of things that are hard to test off the track, such as cars bouncing around corners, on kerbs, sliding… It's not easy to model all of those.

CLICK HERE to head over to Wired’s Autopia for the rest of McLaren’s Q&A.

Source:  Wired Autopia.

All Electric Porsche e-Boxster is a Rolling Laboratory

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 10:00 AM PST

Porsche has delved into the hybrid sports car market with unmatched gusto among specialty car makers, and its latest development is the all-electric e-Boxster. This rolling laboratory will help Porsche engineers how electric car affect lives.

Actually, Porsche has built three e-Boxsters as part of their e-mobility program, which will feed data to the engineers who have to build the legendary sports cars to exacting standards. After an unsure start in alternative-fuel vehicles, Porsche seems to have seen the potential in not just hybrids, but electric cars too. The e-Boxsters pack 100-miles per charge and 240 horsepower, though no information on how much torque, which is where electric motors really shine. What I'm trying to say is, electric motors make a lot of sense from a performance potential, delivering instant torque with fewer moving parts.

But before Porsche dives head first into producing electric cars, they want to see what electric car drivers need in terms of power, range, and infrastructure. The idea of an all-electric Porsche tickles me pink, and this test fleet says to me that such a vehicle isn't all that far away.

Source: The Local

Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.

GM Building CARB-Approved Volt to Qualify for Additional $5,000 Rebate

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 07:10 AM PST

In October we wrote that California's Air Resource Board gave the Chevy Volt a ULEV designation, meaning it didn’t qualify for a $5,000 tax rebate. GM is reportedly working on a Volt that will qualify for the rebate.

I not like CARB, not one bit, for a variety of reasons. CARB only gave the Chevy Volt, which can run on emissions-free electricity for up to 50 miles, a Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle rating, the same rating as the Jetta TDI and…wait for it…a 6.0 liter V8-powered Chevy Silverado converted to run on natural gas. Really great rating system CARB has going there. The Nissan Leaf counts as a Zero Emissions Vehicle as well as the Advanced Technology Zero Emissions Vehicle qualification, which opens the doors to the $5,000 tax rebate.

The reason the Volt got the ULEV rating (which does not qualify for a $5,000 tax rebate from California) is that the vehicle only comes with a 8-year/100,000 mile battery. Apparently that's not enough, as it must have a 10-year/150,000 mile warranty. GM is working on a Volt that meets CARBs standards, rather than, you know, spending that money on innovation. Then again, with the $5,000 rebate, the cost of the Volt comes down to under $30,000, putting it in the price range of even more people. California is the biggest car market in America buy a large margin, so if the Volt can catch on there, it bodes well for the rest of the country.

I think that a vehicles emissions designation should be based solely on what does (or doesn’t) come out of the tailpipe, not the warranty. Sound off, especially you California natives. Should GM have to jump through these extra hoops for California's generous tax rebate, or should they just give it to the Volt?

Source: Care2

Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)