New posts from Gas 2.0!

Video: Hybrid-Electric Truck to Enter the 2012 Dakar Rally
Liquid Salt Could Clean Up Canadian Tar Sand
Russia’s CNG Hybrid Gets Driven … by Vladimir Putin (video)

Video: Hybrid-Electric Truck to Enter the 2012 Dakar Rally

Posted: 14 Apr 2011 03:56 PM PDT

There's no race in the world as punishing as the 5,500 miles of the Dakar Rally. It's not a place to be testing new technology, but a Latvian team aims to enter a hybrid-electric truck in the world famous rally.

For the uninitiated, the Dakar Rally is a long-running race that recently moved from the sand dunes and cities of North Africa to the mountains and deserts of South America. Latvian race car building company OSCar regularly enters its Chevy V8-powered e3 pickup into the rally, but for the next race, they plan on entering an electrified version called the e0. With between 180 and 315 kW and up to590 ft-lbs of torque on tap, this sport truck is sure to have the power necessary to grapple with the extreme terrain of the Dakar Rally, though only at a top speed of 86 mph.

But can the delicate electronics survive the brutal terrain? That's the real question. Every year more than half the starting contestants don't finish the race, and the high heat, desert sands, and lack of roads take down many tried-and-true competitors. Backing the battery system, which is good for between 90 and 180 miles, is a Nissan gasoline engine to charge the battery (the actual motors driving the wheels are 100% electric.)

Since this is the first time anybody has tried to enter a hybrid truck in the Dakar Rally, a support truck and gas-powered e3 will also be on hand. It may not be the epic start we were hoping for, but many racing series are looking more and more into "greening" their particular brand of motorsport. OSCar has the full support of the Dakar organizers, and will be entering in a special class that has yet to attract any competitors

Source: Autoblog via OSCar

Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.

Liquid Salt Could Clean Up Canadian Tar Sand

Posted: 14 Apr 2011 11:00 AM PDT

Despite being called “the world’s most destructive project“, the tar sand extraction fields in Alberta, Canada export over one million barrels of oil each day – mostly to the US. Greenpeace, National Geographic, and Canada’s own governmental agencies consider Alberta’s tar sands to be serious environmental threats, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a reasonable person (these guys don’t count) who has a lot of positive things to say about the tar sand oil’s overall impact on the environment … but that may be about to change.

A new technique being pioneered at Penn State University may serve to dramatically reduce the environmental impact of the oil extraction processes being used in Alberta. Currently, separating the “usable” oil from the tar sands involves mixing them with warm water, then agitating the mixture until it separates. This process requires literally tons of water, however, which is diverted from nearby rivers before being pumped into open-air “tailings ponds”, where the toxic sludge can leach its way back into the water table.

Instead of using warm water from diverted rivers and streams, the new method would make use of room temperature ionic liquids (ILs), which consist of salt in a liquid state. When these ILs are introduced to a tar sand mixture and agitated, the resulting combination settles into three distinct layers (below).

Neat!

As you can see, the process leaves a top layer of bitumen (tar) can be easily removed and refined.

Once the process is complete and the tar is removed, the the ILs – unlike the water being used currently – can be reused, while the now tar-free sands can be returned to the environment. The good news doesn’t end there, though: because the process can make use of ILs at much lower temperatures, there are significant energy savings that come from not heating thousands of tons of water.

It will be interesting to see how many Albertan oil companies “pick up” on the idea, but it would certainly go a long way towards greening up the region’s care-free, “petro-dollar” image.

Sources: Gizmag, One Blue Marble.

Russia’s CNG Hybrid Gets Driven … by Vladimir Putin (video)

Posted: 14 Apr 2011 05:00 AM PDT

We’ve covered Russia’s CNG/electric hybrid YoMobile before (here, and here) but now the cars are getting really – well, REAL. To show off just how real things are getting, the keys to a fully functional “pre-production” model were recently haded over to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (the World’s Craziest Bad***) for a quick spin around the bloc.

As before, the cars are expected to weigh about 1,500 lbs and achieve about 100 km (62 mi) per gallon of gas. Russian bajillionaire (and YoMobile’s primary backer) Mikhail Prokhorov's claims the CNG-powered cars now reach speeds of up to 130 kmh (up from the original “target” of 120) and will sell for the equivalent of just 15,000 USD … which is none-too-shabby for an innovative little alt-car that features full GPS and a touchscreen in-dash computer.

Putin’s quick drive and first impressions of the nearly-ready-for-prime-time YoMobile (dubbed into English) is below. Enjoy!