May 2007 Archives

Laurie With, by her Honda Civic hybrid in Sauk Rapids, Minn., is part of a dedicated group of people around the country calling themselves hypermilers, attempting extreme means to get crazy mileage.

Drafting off the rear right corner of a tractor-trailer, driving on over-inflated tires, coasting into red lights, not changing lanes, driving slightly below the speed limit. Parking on the highest point of a lot, facing toward the exit, in order to let gravity do the work of getting the car moving.

With, whose stingy driving habits started a couple of years ago, she let her car roll slowly down the slope of a parking lot before starting it. She eased away from a stop sign and coasted for several blocks down a slight grade through a leafy neighborhood.

"You see a little more," she said as a playground slid past. The dashboard readout showed 59 mpg on a car the EPA estimates should get 47 in city-highway driving.

With a rural highway nearly to herself, she let the car glide well below the 50 mph speed limit. "No one's behind me, so, eh," she said with a shrug.

The dashboard readout never dipped below 57 mpg.

Interesting website that plots average mpg and extreme conquests for popular high mileage cars.
greenhybrid.com

Five years ago, General Motors Corp. gave the world the Hummer H2, a vehicle so fuel-thirsty that GM took advantage of a federal loophole that allowed the company not to publish its estimated mileage.

Today, the No. 1 U.S. auto maker by sales, usually the most conservative of Detroit's Big Three, has assigned hundreds of engineers and millions of dollars to an effort to become the greenest company in the auto industry.

This month, GM kicked off a drive to hire 400 technical experts to work on fuel-saving technology and other innovations, and became the first auto maker to sign up for a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, which are blamed for global warming.wsj.com

An electric ferry that will take passengers to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island uses a "solar sail'' covered in solar panels that collect energy from the sun and wind.

It is almost silent, emits no vibration vibration and emits no fumes, reducing water pollution and air emissions.

The solar/wind wing captures wind and solar power at computer controlled angles and folds down in high winds. Two diesel engines burning low sulfur fuel add power on high seas and act as a backup for 2 large batteries at the center of the boat that can power it for four hours. The three hull design minimizes wake to reduce coastal erosion.

Miss Statue of Liberty, manufactured by Solar Sailor, of Australia, will be able to reach a maximum speed of 13 knots and seat up to 600 passengers and should be in operation by the end of 2008.

Cool graphic about the operation from the New York Post

We'll call it the Twinkie phenomenon.

The 150 calorie delight just isn't selling as well as it used to. According to snack and wholesale bakery magazine, the Twinkie brought in $21 million less last year than the year before. That's a 20% drop. When people buy fewer Twinkies, the company makes fewer Twinkies. In fact two Twinkie factories closed in 2005.

Here's how it relates to gas prices.

So when President Bush says stuff like:

"Let us build on the work we've done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years."

It doesn't give oil companies much incentive to build or expand oil refineries. Right? Who's gonna spend more money to make something people will buy less of?

"It's just basic economics 101," said Barbara Shook of the Energy Intelligence Group. "If the demand isn't there, why spend billions of dollars on a facility that won't be used?" abcnews

This analogy is missing a few ingredients. If we apply the Twinkie phenomenon to the energy industry, people would only have Twinkies to eat when they were hungry. There would be more people hungry every year, and though they hated the companies who make Twinkie s, they craved the rush from the refined sugar.

The Twinkie maker realized that if they bought out competitors and marketed hard enough there would be only Twinkies and by not building any new factories, people would fear shortage and pay an ever increasing price.

Alternative energy sources mean competition. A piece of organic fruit is healthier than a Twinkie.

Lithium Technology Corporation (LTC) unveiled a retrofitted plug-in Toyota Prius this week pushing efficiency to 125+ miles per gallon fuel efficiency. The battery for the Prius utilizes LTC’s new product line of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells, the largest cells of their kind in the world, which are considered to be the technology of choice for car manufacturers. gizmag.com

LiFePO4 as compared to nickel-based batteries, currently widely used in hybrids, offer a lower cost of production, non-toxicity, excellent thermal stability improving safety characteristics, and good per­formance. Meaning: smaller, cheaper to make, less harmful in production and disposal, holds more power and less likely to break when if it gets hot or the electrical stuff fails.

Better batteries allow engineers to store more electric power for greater range in all-electric mode. The current self-charging hybrids have a relatively small battery capacity and with currently battery technology deep charge and discharge cycles would shorten battery life.

You must factor in the cost/efficiency/pollution factor of the power source from your wall outlet that is (supplementing gasoline) boosting the mile range of plug-in hybrids.

R.James Woolsey, former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, drives a Toyota Prius with a bumper sticker that reads, “Bin Laden hates this car.” The sticker is a testament to Woolsey’s irreverent approach to American foreign policy and what he has called “defeating the oil weapon.” sijournal.com

As a driver of a Civic hybrid, I am used to the stunned reactions of people jumping out of the way as my car glides silently behind them across a parking lot when the gasoline engine shuts off. The Toyota Prius uses a back-up beeper to alert the driver as the car runs solely in electric mode in reverse.

The US Army is funding the development of a prototype military hybrid vehicle that will use the silence of electric drive in developing a diesel hybrid electric version of its Alternative Mobility Vehicle (AMV) "Aggressor."

Some benefits of the vehicle are a silent mode for patrolling, a 0-40 mpg acceleration in 4 seconds and improved fuel economy. Quantum Technologies

World emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide increased three times faster after 2000 than in the 1990s, putting them at the high end of a range of forecasts by an international climate change.

At the same time, a trend toward cutting Earth's energy intensity — the ratio of how much energy is needed to produce a unit of gross domestic product — appears to have stalled or even reversed in recent years.
-- National Academy of Sciences on Monday via Reuters/msnbc

As the clamor for competitive goods continues to push the manufacturing of everything we use to China, the consumer is blinded by distance.

If there was a huge coal fired plant belching pollution in York Township and poisoning the Codorus Creek, residents would be up in arms. However, most everything we use comes from a country with an abysmal environmental track record. In essence, we are all feeding China's huge global warming machine.

On the surface, It appears to be a victory for consumers and manufacturers, who enjoy cheap goods and increased profits, but beneath the clouds of our great biosphere (earth) gathers a great storm of climate change.

It does no good to legislate the pollution of North American based industries if the pollution shifts across the globe. The U.S. consumer loses a job and still suffers from the environmental impact of China's manufacturing methods. In the end, we feed a Communist government craving an industrial revolution that is hard to control internally by the voice of it's people and externally by other countries.

New York City's fleet of yellow cabs will go entirely hybrid within five years, and all its vehicles for hire will have to meet new emissions and mileage standards by next year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to announce today.

The city said the increase in fuel efficiency will save taxi operators more than $10,000 per year.

The hybrids that have been successfully tested in the city's taxi fleet over the past 18 months include the Toyota Prius, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h and the Ford Escape. The standard yellow cab vehicle is the Ford Crown Victoria, which gets 14 miles per gallon

The average American motorist is driving substantially fewer miles for the first time in 26 years because of high gas prices and demographic shifts, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal highway data.

--high gas prices are working to promote conservation
--increased traffic congestion
--improved use of public transportation
--there is a demographic shift deemphasizing the need to drive

So who was clapping, i'm not...

At the Clean Energy Venture Summit, James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA and currently an alternative energy advocate, received a standing ovation when he said hydrogen research was a distraction and largely a waste of time. Instead, he, among others, favor alternative transportation concepts like plug-in hybrids or clean diesel.

It amazes me the lack of vision at such high levels of government. Status quo maintains short-term profit for someone, but not a long-term energy evolution for the rest of us. To Woolsey's credit, he does promote conservation and reducing the use of foreign oil.

During a 2003 State of the Uinion Speech, President Push proposed a $1.2 billion program to help build the hydrogen infrastructure two years after ridiculing Al Gore’s proposal that we replace the internal combustion engine with new technologies (msnbc.com) Four years later, the hydrogen push seems to be driven more by the private sector and consumer interest..

Imagine an energy infrastructure where many systems derived hydrogen from many patents/methods and raw sources. A monopoly no longer controls the market. If a non-oil related energy source became viable taking just 5% of the gasoline market reducing demand, the price of gasoline and the it's value on the commodities market would begin a free fall.

Some interesting developments by people with hydrogen vision...

Honda, in conjunction with Plug Power, is developing a home based hydrogen pump station that produces hydrogen fuel for it's 2008 FCX fuel-cell car.

HES III uses natural gas as its feedstock, and is able to supply a sufficient amount of hydrogen to power a fuel cell vehicle for daily operation while providing 5 kW of electricity for a household as well as heat. It's hard to quantify the cost of home hydrogen production over using gasoline, because the by-products of hydrogen production can be used to trim other household costs. However, placing a further demand on the natural gas supply may drive up price of natural gas in peak demand cycles.

Honda will roll out a more affordable hybrid-electric car in 2009, smaller and lower priced than the current Honda Civic. As mid-sized cars have grown, the growth of the growing "mid-sized compacts" has declined in favor of smaller cars. Honda would like to have a showing in a hybrid specific model married to the demand for smaller cars. Expect the smaller vehicle to get even better mileage than the Civic Hybrid.
edmonds.com

On the other end of the spectrum, Toyota unveiled its most expensive gasoline-electric vehicle to date today, the $124,000 luxury sedan Lexus LS, which is twice the appraised value of my house.
mercurynews.com

Needless to say, I find the announcement of a low-cost hybrid exciting.

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources heard testimony today about high gas prices. This is the third year in a row gas prices have spiked ahead of the summer driving season.

We are however, reaching new highs with an all-time average national price of $3.10. We have a little way to go to reach the (oil crisis, inflation adjusted) high over two decades ago of $3.22. The usually culprits of foreign political instability, domestic refinery problems, rising demand and tight fuel inventories have all contributed to rising prices, analysts said...

Ongoing contributions to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve actually adds to the demand and raises the price for consumers in a system with tight supply/demand margins. While the function of doing this is supposed to provide us security in the event of a disruption, in essence, the government is acting to boost the price of gas every time they stretch the supply by adding to the reserve.

Coal-to-liquid fuel technology is an interesting alternative. This fuel can be added to many fuels without modification of engines and can be made of coal, a domestic resource not tied to gasoline. That fuel could be added to the reserve and lower the tight demand on the oil infrastructure.

A study at Australia's University of Melbourne shows that cars using telemetrics are as efficient as hybrids. This makes sense because both systems attempt to smooth out the most wasteful moments in driving. However, telemetrics is impractical at this point except on test tracks.

Hybrid vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius, use an electric motor and a gasoline engine which are deployed in different ratios of power while driving to use less fuel than a gasoline engine alone.

In contrast, "intelligent" cars are conventional vehicles that are fitted with telematics.

These are sensors and receivers that work in a network combining land and mobile information, controlling acceleration and braking so that the ride is smooth and avoids the stop-start phenomenon that so drains fuel.

Chrysler’s new Aspen Hybrid SUV, planned for 2008, won’t make the cut for special parking breaks in Aspen, according to city parking officials.

Parking officials grant hybrid drivers a free permit for residential zones normally restricted to a two-hour limit during the day. And hybrid owners are free to park in spots designated for carpooling.

But the new Aspen Hybrid, like many hybrid SUVs and trucks, isn’t efficient enough by Aspen standards, according to parking officials. www.vaildaily.com

The Interior Department last month proposed opening an area 50 miles off Virginia's southern coast to drilling. Shell Oil would like to encourage public support for the idea, which remains controversial and requires congressional approval. Oil companies see an end in sight for the Bush administration and hope to get projects approved before the change in command.

On the afternoon of January 29, 1969, an environmental nightmare began in Santa Barbara, California. A Union Oil Co. platform stationed six miles off the coast of Summerland suffered a blowout.

Animals that depended on the sea were hard hit. Incoming tides brought the corpses of dead seals and dolphins. Oil had clogged the blowholes of the dolphins, causing massive lung hemorrhages.

Honda promises a limited production hydrogen car for 08' for about $25,000. The car will have a top speed of 100 mph and get there in about 9 seconds.

Honda expects the 2008 model will get the gasoline equivalent of 68 miles per gallon using current federal standards. Hydrogen with the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline sells for $3 to $6. Because fuel-cell cars are much more efficient, the cost per mile is much less than with gasoline. usatoday.com

Since consumer hydrogen filling stations are pretty much non-existent, and unprofitable for large legacy oil companies, it opens a niche market for industrial gas suppliers who already produce gases regionally.

General Motor also promised 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs this year for consumer testing.

Trains conserve energy by moving many people with a pooled power source instead of many individual cars with combined inefficiency. Add 20% to the efficiency of one train and hundreds of people in the train are moving along 20% more efficiently as one group effort.

Hitachi Europe unveiled 'Hayabusa', which it says is Europe's first battery-assisted diesel-electric power car. The drive system has been installed in a British train car for real world testing. See the video below.

The train accelerates from a stand still on battery power from lithium ion battery modules blending power with a diesel at about 18mph. Hitachi believes that 80% of the braking power can be recovered for the next acceleration cycle.

During fiscal year 2006, the House released an estimated equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of 17,200 cars, an estimated 91,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. I heard in a news briefing yesterday with Nancy Pelosi that the the Capital power plant is fired by coal.

A plan is underway to downsize the carbon footprint of the U.S. Capital to compliment the new talk.

nteriordesign.net

Touted as one of the most significant advances in computer chip making in years, IBM has come up with a way of using holes with a width of 20 nanometers to lower the amount of electrical leakage in chips. A hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide. (cornell.edu) The result is a 35% decrease in power consumption while boosting performance.

As computer chips downsize, with speed and efficiency increasing, the ability to insulate tiny parts has become more difficult. Currently the most advanced technology at 65 nanometers apart, loses almost half of it's power to leakage. Electrical leakage wastes power and slows down the processor.

As first glance, Chrysler's Dodge Hemi V-8 might seem out of place in hybrid-land, but for their market they are probably right on target, attempting to tap into a consumer that wouldn't touch a Prius sized hybrid.

The question remains, does a person who likes to drive a heavy chunk of American metal find value in the technology? The price at the pump probably holds the answer.

Chrysler's rationale for building its first hybrid around a large SUV instead of a small passenger car, as Japanese competitors Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. did, is that the big utes are among the worst gas hogs in the fleet. Improving their fuel economy is a far, far better thing than boosting mileage for an already economical four-banger.

For the 5.7-liter hemi-powered Aspen and Durango hybrids, Chrysler is predicting that overall mileage will jump 25% to about 22 miles per gallon, with city mileage alone soaring 40% to about 18 mpg from 13 mpg. latimes.com

In York County, we are familiar fish ladders over the Holtwood Hydroelectric Plant. Without a fish ladder, the 55-foot tall barrier prevents migration of fish and the ladders help restore the pre-human order of life.

A fish passageway over the historic Flat Rock Dam in Philadelphia allows American shad to swim upstream to spawn. The passageway was designed by Buchart-Horn Inc. in York, which won the 2007 Honor Award for Water Resources

Shad once populated the Susquehanna River in great numbers, making their way downstream to the Chesapeake Bay early in their lives and back upstream later on to spawn. But the 20th century was not kind to the long, silvery fish. Pollution, dam-building and overfishing severely depleted their numbers. They’ve been making a comeback in the early 21st century, thanks in part to projects such as fish lifts at Holtwood and other dams.

As consumers become more aware of their impact on the planet and energy companies scramble to find renewable resources that they can market as easy on the natural cycles of the environment, the environmental impact of new technology becomes more of a concern than in the past.

Wind farms are experiencing a boom in Pennsylvania. Estimates are that seven wind farms statewide will be generating energy by the end of this year, and western Pennsylvania remains a prime location. Ellen Lutz, director of development for Gamesa’s Atlantic Region said that the Allegheny Ridge is an ideal place to build wind farms. “There are very good ... wind patterns.” tribune-democrate

The United States gets less than 1 percent of its electricity from wind-powered generators, compared with 20 percent in Denmark and 9 percent in Spain. Technological advances could push U.S. wind-power use to 5 percent by 2010, the Electric Power Research Institute says. philly.com

Foster's Group brewery near Brisbane, Australia is installing a microbial fuel cell that will generate clean energy from brewery waste water by using sugar-consuming bacteria. It is a waste water treatment system that produces a small amount of electricity.

The fuel cell will consume water-soluble brewing waste such as sugar, starch and alcohol and produces produces electricity plus clean water.

According to the American Lung Association's annual "State of the Air" report, Pittsburgh ranks as the second dirtiest metropolitan area on both short-term and annual airborne particle measurement scales. Only Los Angeles' air is dirtier.

Higher soot levels in the East, the report said, are linked to an increase in electricity generation by heavily polluting, coal-fired power plants. In the West, soot levels are dropping, especially in California, where new engine technologies and cleaner burning gasoline and diesel fuels are reducing sooty air emissions. post-gazette.com

Breath deep and cough, our weather patterns usually blow from the west. According to the American Lung Association, York received a failing grade for ozone and particulates for 2007

The economic viability of fuels shift.

I had a flashback today from 1990, when diesel was cheaper than gas. The economics of higher mileage from running a diesel engine has been undercut by a fuel surcharge over gasoline for some time.

The Rutters on Richland Ave. in York posted $2.89 for both regular and diesel. The Hess in West York is selling diesel for 5 cents less than gasoline. Diesel fuel prices overall are lower than a year ago.

Another interesting development is the price of ethanol. Ethanol blend sold for $2.49 a gallon at Tom's Longstown on Wednesday. Government subsidies have promoted more production of ethanol this year bringing down the price from a year ago. msnbc.com

Until the first half of this year, buying a hybrid meant paying more than sticker. Auto-reasearch firms found that it could take more than 15 years to offset the cost.

With a combination of incentives, positive repair data, and higher gas prices the pay-off is coming earlier.

A 4-wheel bike that drives like a car. Can be ordered with up to 36 gears, a positive traction differential, even as a truck model with a rotating air-powered sign. Electric assist can be added for speeds up to 18 mph.

rhoadescar.com

watch a video of the Rhoads Car in action