Lower Gas and Oil Prices, But We Still Need Alternative Fuels
- 11.10.2008
- Article Number: 6
| | Don't let the current price of oil and gas fool you. Just because the prices of oil and gas are falling, it doesn't mean we can stop thinking about alternative fuel and alternative energy sources. We still need funding for research on things like solar power, wind energy, hydrogen fuel cell, ethanol, E85 flex fuel, biofuels and hybrid energies. Let's keep the e-mails and phone calls going to our congressmen and women to let them know how important the research for alternative fuels and alternative energy is! |
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Brown Is the New Green!
- 11.01.2008
- Article Number: 5
| Embracing an alternative fuel technology developed by federal engineers, UPS will purchase a handful of new Hybrid Hydraulic Vehicles (HHV) delivery trucks powered by a hydraulic hybrid system that dramatically increases fuel economy and cuts carbon emissions by a third.
The Environmental Protection Agency holds many of the patents on the innovative new technology, which was developed in an EPA fuel-emissions lab in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the help of engineers from Eaton Corp., which designs hydraulics systems.
"This vehicle to my right may look like a brown package truck that you'd see every day in your neighborhood," said UPS Chief Operating Officer David Abney, standing beside a prototype of the hybrid truck at a news conference Monday. "But underneath the hood is a whole different kind of technology."
The trucks combine a diesel engine with a unique hydraulic propulsion system that replaces the conventional drivetrain and transmission. Using hydraulic pumps and storage tanks, the vehicle captures and stores energy the way a battery does on an electric hybrid car.
The motor converts pressure from the hydraulic fluid into rotating power for the wheels and uses stored energy to accelerate the vehicle, thereby recovering more than 70 percent of the energy normally wasted during braking.
This design, ideal for city drivings stops and starts, allows the diesel engine to be shut off when the vehicle is stopped or slowing. In road testing a hydraulic hybrid truck in suburban Detroit, Michigan, the EPA found the vehicle used 40 to 50 percent less fuel than conventional diesel trucks while reducing carbon emissions by about 31 percent.
"At first the drivers thought the engine had stalled. It's so much quieter," said James Bryson, an EPA mechanical engineer who helped develop the hydraulic hybrid system at the agency's National Vehicle & Fuel Emissions Laboratory. "After they got used to it, they really liked it."
Abney said UPS's initial order is for seven hydraulic hybrid trucks. The first truck will be deployed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the first quarter of 2009, with the others to hit the road later in the year, he said.
UPS could potentially order more of the trucks if Eaton and Navistar can produce them in big enough numbers to make them affordable, Abney said.
Preliminary estimates suggest that hydraulic hybrid trucks would cost about $7,000 more than conventional diesel delivery trucks, said Chris Grundler, deputy director of the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality. But because of lower fuel and brake-maintenance expenses, UPS could recoup that added cost within three years, he said.
Public-private partnerships like this one are not new for the EPA, Grundler said. But the agency's fuel-emissions research only benefits the environment if somebody deploys the resulting alternative fuel technology on a large scale, he said.
UPS is the first company to buy alternative fuel vehicles outfitted with this hydraulics technology. To make the product economically viable over the long term, additional clients must be found. The U.S. Army and the U.S. Postal Service also have expressed interest, officials said.
"The market for this alternative fuel technology is truly global ... for trucks, buses and off-road vehicles of many shapes and sizes," said Alexander "Sandy" Cutler, CEO of Eaton Corp. Large SUVs also could potentially be manufactured with hydraulic hybrid systems, he said.
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UPS, which is headquartered in suburban Atlanta, announced its purchase of the hybrid trucks along with officials from the EPA, Eaton Corp. and Navistar International Corp., which makes the trucks' chassis.
UPS has 90,000 vehicles in its fleet. By next year, some 2,100 of those will be alternative fuel vehicles that run on electricity (HEV), compressed natural gas (CNG) or other forms of alternative energy, company officials said. |
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Hydrogen as an Alternative Fuel
- 10.20.2008
- Article Number: 4
| Hydrogen
Fuel Source
Hydrogen is the most abundant of the chemical elements, accounting for roughly 75% of the elemental mass of the universe. Hydrogen does not occur free in nature; it can be made by "re-forming" natural gas, or some other fossil fuel, or by using electricity to split water into its components of oxygen and hydrogen. In this sense, hydrogen is similar to electricity: the energy to generate it can be obtained from sources ranging from the combustion of high-sulfur coal to pollution-free photovoltaic cells (solar cells).
Wholesale Availability
There is presently no bulk hydrogen distribution infrastructure. Certainly not on the scale of that for fossil fuels, though there have been studies undertaken to explore the possibility of sending it through existing natural-gas pipelines. However, because hydrogen can be made from natural gas by re-forming the molecules or from water by using electrolysis, and because natural gas, electricity, and water are extremely readily available, it will most likely be simpler to produce the hydrogen at the point of sale, rather than transporting it there.
Retail Availability
Hydrogen is not currently available in the retail marketplace.
Advantages
Hydrogen has been called the cleanest alternative of the alternative fuels: if it is made by the electrolysis of water using electricity from another alternative energy, nonpolluting source like wind or solar power, then no pollutants are generated by burning it in an internal combustion engine except for trace amounts of nitrogen oxides, And, if it is used in a fuel cell then even these pollutants disappear. There are no greenhouse gases created because there is no carbon in the fuel. The only thing that will come out of the vehicle's exhaust is pure, drinkable water! Using hydrogen as the "battery" to store energy from a nonpolluting, renewable energy source would result in a truly unlimited supply of clean alternative fuel.
Disadvantages
Hydrogen is currently very expensive, not because it is rare (it is the most common element in the universe), but because it is very difficult to produce, transport, and store, requiring big, heavy tanks like those used for compressed natural gas or complex insulating bottles if the hydrogen is stored as a cryogenic (super-cold) liquid like liquefied natural gas. It can also be stored at more moderate temperatures and pressures in a tank containing a metal-hydride absorber or carbon absorber, though these materials are currently very expensive. It is possible to store a hydrogen-bearing fuel like natural gas, methanol, or even gasoline aboard the vehicle and re-form it to get hydrogen as needed. This simplifies the hydrogen storage and refueling, but adds significant cost and complexity to the vehicle, and reduces efficiency. Hydrogen is not a very good fuel for an internal combustion engine. Hydrogen is prone to pre-ignition, though BMW, Ford, and Mazda have done some testing with hydrogen in these types of vehicles. The most efficient way to use hydrogen as an alternative fuel is in fuel cell vehicles, but these are still in the demonstration stage. |
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Gas Alternative E85...Is It Time To Be FLEX-ible
- 10.20.2008
- Article Number: 3
| Ethanol (E85) Flex Fuel
Fuel Source
Flex fuel is really ethanol, or grain alcohol, and is produced by fermenting biological materials, most commonly corn (though other, lower-value feedstocks have been tested in an effort to reduce costs, like brewery and cheese-factory waste-yuck!). Ethanol is a highly renewable resource, and does not contribute to greenhouse-gas loading of the atmosphere. And with more efficient and modern farming techniques, there is an improvement to the greenhouse effect even when you account for the petroleum-based fuel used in the equipment to plow the fields, make the fertilizer, etc. As an alternative to gasoline, it is usually blended in a mixture of 85% ethanol, 15% unleaded gasoline, and that is where the designation of E85 comes from.
Retail Availability
There are starting to be a fair number of E85 stations, primarily in the Midwest at this point, where the crops from which ethanol is made are grown. Another factor contributing to the acceptance of E85 Flex Fuel is that the changes needed to enable a gasoline station to handle E85 are significantly smaller than those necessary for M85 (85% methanol, 15% unleaded gasoline).
Advantages
Ethanol, is a renewable resource that does not contribute anything itself to global warming. Like methanol, ethanol can be blended with any amount of gasoline in the tank of a flex fuel vehicle. This is one of the primary reasons that automakers have been building and selling so many flex fuel vehicles. Beginning with the 1999 model year, several automakers began certain vehicle models that were capable of using E85 flex fuel, at no extra charge. Buyers of those flex fuel vehicles will not have to do anything extra to have a vehicle capable of using an alternative fuel.
Disadvantages
The main disadvantage of E85 flex fuel is the limited number of stations that are offering E85 Flex Fuel. The good news is that in the last year or two, the number of E85 Flex Fuel stations has risen dramatically. Ethanol is also somewhat corrosive, though less so than methanol. Concerns about vapor lock, cold starts, and flame visibility, like those for methanol are the reason for the standard blend of 85% alcohol with 15% gasoline. |
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Gas prices take huge jump
- 09.30.2008
- Article Number: 2
| Sue McGill waited behind half a dozen cars on Friday night just to save some cash topping up the gas tank in her mom's car after prices at Regina pumps jumped 11 cents that afternoon.
With the gas gauge on her own car nearing empty, McGill expected to be lining up again that night to fill it up as well.
"I noticed it is only at $1.32.9 here while other places on Albert (Street) are at $1.45.9," said McGill, who was idling on Saskatchewan Drive while she waited to fill up at the Regina Cabs gas station.
Drivers in some parts of the country faced gas prices that jumped as much as 13 cents a litre overnight as the threat of hurricane Ike to U.S. refineries along the Texas coast sent prices soaring.
Many motorists weren't pleased that prices spiked before the storm had even made landfall.
"I don't think it should go up unless there is an issue. If there is an issue, well then go for it. I don't think they should be dinging us because they think there might be," said McGill. |
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