New posts from Gas 2.0! |
- A Step Closer to Mr. Fusion? Turning Garbage into Car Fuel
- All Electric Porsche Boxster E, AWD and RWD
- Tesla Shows off Model S “Alpha”
- Where is all that oil?
- CONTEST REMINDER: Win 5 QTs of Green G-Oil!
- How Big is a Small Car?
| A Step Closer to Mr. Fusion? Turning Garbage into Car Fuel Posted: 06 Jun 2011 01:00 PM PDT
The idea of turning garbage into fuel is not a new idea, and already there are pilot plants collecting methane from landfills and using it to run garbage trucks. Canadian based company Enerkem has a plan to transform garbage into a fuel source. Recently the company received $60 million dollars in new financing to bring a great technological idea once seen only in movies to your cars gas tank. Enerkem currently makes ethanol from junked utility poles and household garbage—a nice alternative to harvesting and refining corn. Enerkem has partnered with Valero, a major independent oil refiner, and trash hauling mega corporation Waste Management in its trash to fuel endeavor. In order to make fuel from trash Enerkem must first separate out recyclable materials. The recyclable materials are then shredded and put through a thermochenical process. This process pressures and heats the matter to 400 degrees Celsius, or around or about 750 degrees Fahrenheit. This results in CO, CO2 and H2 gas. In the next step, Enerkem removes impurities from the produced gasses and mixes it with a catalyst. The result is methanol that can be turned into ethanol which than can be used as a fuel source or a variety of other chemical feedstocks. An added bonus is that once a plant is up and running the excess heat caused by the process can be used to boil water and produce energy. Many companies are trying to use garbage to make ethanol. However, almost all of these companies have to pay for the raw materials. Not Enerkem; Enerkem is paid to dispose of the garbage, making its feedstock "cost-negative," in the company's phrase. Enerkem is already starting up plants in Quebec and Alberta. The Quebec plant could produce 1.3 million gallons of fuel a year, while the Alberta plant could put out as much as 10 million gallons each year. Source: inhabitat.com via The New York Times Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor's Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master's Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail.
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| All Electric Porsche Boxster E, AWD and RWD Posted: 06 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT
The Porsche electric prototype cars are being used as part of the government-funded "Model Region Electro-Mobility Stuttgart", which is a large-scale trial to study the everyday reasonableness of using all-electric vehicles. Of the three Porsche Boxster E electric prototypes two of the cars are rear-wheel drive (RWD) and one is all-wheel drive (AWD). The AWD model uses two independent electric motors. These two electric motors act on the front and rear axles creating a combined output of 241 HP and a maximum total torque of 398 lb-ft at around 12,000 rpm. The company says the AWD model can go from zero to sixty in about 5.5 seconds and reaches a top speed of 124 mph. By comparison the two RWD prototypes can go from zero to sixty in about 9.8 seconds and have a top speed of 93 mph. The RWD prototypes do away with the motor on the front axle and use the rear unit that delivers 121 HP and 199 lb-ft of torque. The Boxster E prototypes come with a 29kWh lithium iron phosphate battery. The battery has a driving range of 107 miles and will take about 9 hours to charge however a fast charge option will be available. Boxster E prototypes weigh around 3,527 pounds, the battery weighing in alone at 752 pounds. Porsche claims that the storage in the rear of the cars remains unchanged from other models and that there is even space in the front storage compartment. Additionally, both RWD and AWD models are equipped with Active Sound Design systems that give the diver acoustic feedback and doubles as sound to alert pedestrians and other drivers of the cars presence. Active Sound Design has been used on some BMW models to create a nice sporty sound of a V8 as opposed to a near silent run. An Active Sound Design system uses a series of microphones, signal processing, and the vehicles stereo system to emulate the sound of a motor. While these prototype cars might not be winning any races, it is nice to see that Porsche is embracing all electric vehicles. As for when a polished and quick all electric Porsche Boxster E will be available to purchasers, the company is not saying. Source: carscoop.blogspot.com Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor's Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master's Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail.
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| Tesla Shows off Model S “Alpha” Posted: 06 Jun 2011 09:00 AM PDT
Yesterday morning, Tesla released some new pictures of its production-ready Model S sedan. The photos, shown here, show off some of the Model S’ slinky new rear-end curves.     You’ll have a chance to compare the final design to the initial concept HERE, and in the video, below. As you can see, the new Model S “Alpha” sports a different grille opening with, you know, a functional grille in it, as well as revised and (presumably) crash-test ready fascias for a safer, and ever-so-slightly more aggressive look. All in all, however, I think you’ll agree: Tesla’s Model S Alpha looks ready for prime-time. Source: Tesla, via Jalopnik.
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| Posted: 06 Jun 2011 07:00 AM PDT
With the days of easy to drill oil ending the next step for major oil producing counties is to drill deeper. Saudi Arabia has potentially billions of barrels of oil trapped deep beneath the desert; however, extracting this deep and heavy oil is a much longer and complicated process. Since the oil at greater depths it is thicker and so the oil harder to pump to the surface. Chevron is leading a new project in Saudi Arabia to pump steam into the thicker oil in the Wafra oil field. The idea is that the hot stream will thin the deep heavy oil and make that oil pump-able. This is a very risky and time consuming procedure but if it works it could help provide access to a rich new source of oil in the Gulf area. Besides the risk and time factors the Chevron plan is very expensive—so expensive it would be hard for the company to turn a profit using the steam system to extract the oil. With increased production costs comes a more expensive product. Thus, this would mean that the price of oil would increase and oil itself would be seen as a more precious resource. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are three trillion barrels of heavy deep oil in the world, enough to last humanity another 100 years. That is of course if we can get that oil, but also that estimate is based on the global current consumption of oil. It is important to note that with the rise of China and India global consumption of oil increased by 2.8 percent last year alone marking the second largest increase in oil consumption globally for the past 30 years. And if Saudi Arabia gets its way, oil will get even cheaper, in order to cutoff development of alternative forms of fuel. 100 years of oil left? Not bloody likely. Source: WSJ Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor's Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master's Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail.
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| CONTEST REMINDER: Win 5 QTs of Green G-Oil! Posted: 06 Jun 2011 04:53 AM PDT
To enter to win, all you’ve got to do is go to this post and tell us what green, dream car you’d like to use your jug of G-oil on in the comments. Then like the Gas 2.0 Facebook page, as well as the Green Earth Technologies Facebook page, so we can verify that you are indeed 18 years old and a citizen of the United States. And that’s it. But you’ve only got another 24 hours, so make sure you enter for your chance to win the cleanest, greenest, and best engine oil on the market today.
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| Posted: 05 Jun 2011 06:00 PM PDT
Yes, Virginia, that is a Chevy Aveo looking every bit as big as a 2nd-gen Chevy S-10 pickup. My, my. I snapped the picture a few months ago, and had intended to use it as a comparison shot between the Aveo and its replacement, the Chevy Sonic. Sadly, I forgot all about the snapshot until I decided to clear out my phone’s memory … and there it was, staring me in the face. That “it” I’m referring to? A simple fact: a 2009-ish Chevy Aveo (the smallest car GM will sell you) isn’t that much smaller than Chevy’s 1999-ish body-on-frame S-10 pickup. Oh, sure – there’s a bit of “perspective” being played out in that photo … but not much. Not enough to make the image seem “forced” or “mis-leading”, I think. No, the real issue here is bloat – something that we (via Jalopnik) covered back in December of last year by tracking the bloat of Honda’s Accord, which has grown from 170″ long, 2050 lb econocar into a 195″ long, 3200 lb land beast (below).  Click to Enlarge. What about Chevy’s “little” Aveo hatchback? I’d compare that to Chevy’s famous “Metro” hatchback, which was sold under the Geo nameplate in the early 90′s. That car, the original Metro, which was a 147″ long, 1650 lb runabout that inspired futurists and shade-tree inventors alike. The Aveo? 154″ long, 2560 lb. Chevy’s replacement for the Aveo, the Sonic, is bigger still. So, what cars are small cars, anymore? What cars are big cars? What do you think, readers – are our conceptions of “big” and “small” on a sliding scale, or are cars getting bigger because we are getting bigger? Let us know what you think, in the comments. Sources: Me, Jalopnik, Chevrolet.com.
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