Bottom End : Alternative Fuel

Fast Electric Cars?

bbaker — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:52:00 GMT

According to a recent SEMA eNews report, there are 5 electric cars that claim to be faster than the venerable Porsche 911. What? That's blasphemous! Actually, in a strange but true coincidence, noted Porsche tuner, Ruf has countered their punches with an all new electric Porsche called eRuf.

From SEMA eNews

ELECTRIC CARS: FASTER THAN A 911?

TreeHugger.com, a site not shy with its agenda, reports that bench racers are targeting a performance icon with electric vehicles. The story, titled “5 Eco-Cars Faster than the Porsche 911,” aims to send a shock wave through the perceptions of automotive enthusiasts. The article compares the sports car to a polished group of concepts, one-offs and dedicated electric supercars.

The Porsche goes 0–60 in 4.7 seconds. How does that compare to the electrics?

Tzero by AC Propulsion: 3.6 seconds
Tesla Motors Roadster: 2.78 seconds
Ultimate Aero EV by Shelby SuperCars: 2.78 seconds
Tango Electric Cars: 4 seconds
Wrightspeed X1: 3.07 seconds

This level of acceleration is what automotive enthusiasts are passionate about, never mind that there is dead silence instead of an addictive V8 growl. As the automotive industry evolves to meet emissions standards and the United States moves to curb its dependence on foreign oil, models such as these make the case for an electric-car performance market.

Consider what some of the OEMs are working on: General Motors has announced production plans for the Chevrolet Volt and sibling offshoots; Chrysler has announced three electric vehicle candidates; Ford is testing plug-in hybrids; Toyota is testing a plug-in Prius; and BMW is teasing Californians with 500 pure-electric MINIs.

Part of this surge is due to consumer demand, but some of the urgency can be attributed to regulations insisting on zero- or low-emissions vehicles.

For the consumer, the decision will hinge on performance for related fossil fuel-powered cars and the time it will take to recover the additional expense. Retail prices:

Base Porsche 911 Carrera 4S: $102,900
TZero: not for sale
Tesla Roadster: $109,000
Ultimate Aero: n/a
Tango Electric: $85,000
Wrightspeed X1: n/a

For our example above, we find that initial investments in high performance can be costly, if impossible. One of the largest hurdles has been availability. As suppliers invest in component factories and vehicle builders begin to test legitimate concepts, the choices will change.

The price difference between the Porsche and the Tesla is $6,100. At $3.50 a gallon, that represents 1,742 gallons of gas. Since the Porsche is rated at 19 mpg, that equates to 33,114 miles. It would take a year and a half to two years to recover the additional cost in the current market. In a few years, production costs may come down as suppliers retool their assembly lines and government rebates begin to take effect, and electric vehicles could play a vital role in the market for high-performance vehicles.

This is a part of the automotive industry that bears watching for performance parts and accessory opportunities.

From AutoBlog.com

RUF's electric Porsche breaks cover

Rumors of RUF's impending electric Porsche were true, except that the actual vehicle is based on a Porsche 911, not the Cayman as previously reported. Powered by a three-phase electric motor that offers about 200 horsepower along with an impressive 480 lb.-ft. of torque, the eRUF Model A can reportedly hit 60 miles per hour in under seven seconds and can reach a top speed of 160. Power comes from a lithium iron phosphate battery pack, which produces 317-volts and 480-amps and is made up from 96 individual cells. A full charge takes a rather long 10-hours, and regenerative braking is included in the package allowing for a range of up to 180 miles. From the outside, you'd never really know that something was different about this 997, except that it doesn't produce that soul-stirring flat-six sound. This is still just a concept and its specifications are subject to change. We can be sure, though, that this isn't the last electrically-powered sportscar set to hit the market.

American Le Mans Series kicks off Green Challenge for 2009

bbaker — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:52:00 GMT

It seems only a short time ago that a $60 barrel of oil caused great concern among industry business leaders, politicians and consumers. There are now predictions that $200 a barrel may be likely. Gasoline prices have escalated to all-time highs while automobile sales are decreasing at rates not seen in decades. Combined with higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change becomes increasingly apparent.

While The American Le Mans Series will not portend to have a solution for the escalating price of crude oil, it will profess to have a solution for helping the auto industry - and ultimately consumers.

To further emphasize its commitment to help auto manufacturers find alternative fuel solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the American Le Mans Series in concert with the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International announced at the North American International Auto Show earlier this year that it would implement the first ever Green Challenge™ at its signature event - Petit Le Mans, October 4 at Road Atlanta. Officials from those entities will be on hand to present trophies to the winners for that race-within-a-race. In 2009, the Green Challenge™ will include all Series events and culminate in a Green Challenge™ Championship Award made by these three organizations.

In recent months, members of the aforementioned entities have comprised the Green Racing Work Group commissioned with the task of creating the rules, regulations and protocols of that competition in which all race cars would participate in a competition measuring three critical criteria:

Performance

Fuel Efficiency

Environmental Impact

"This has been an interesting and challenging process," said Scott Atherton, President and CEO of the American Le Mans Series. "With four different classes of cars, 14 auto and chassis manufacturers, and three different alternative fuels to take into consideration, a formula of how to create a fair competition with real time analysis and a format that is easy to understand and communicate has been very difficult. It has taken hundreds and hundreds of hours and involved some of the finest technical minds in the automotive and energy industries."

The American Le Mans Series and internationally recognized Argonne National Laboratory have developed a Green Challenge™ ranking system to be used for all cars competing in the Series. Cars will be ranked by the:

amount of energy they use

greenhouse gases (GHG) they emit

amount of petroleum they displace

GM has embraced the Series' green focus with its two factory Corvette C6.Rs competing in 2008 on cellulosic E85.

In brief, race cars that go the farthest, the fastest with the smallest environmental footprint for the energy used will get the lowest scores. The Green Challenge™ point score differs from racing score totals in that the lowest number wins. Two awards will be given - one to the lowest score among the prototype classes (LMP1 and LMP2) and one to the lowest score among the GT classes (GT1 and GT2). Thus, the Prototype and the Grand Touring (GT) race car that uses the least energy, the least petroleum and emits the fewest GHGs on a distance and speed equalized basis will be the winners.

During the 2009 season, those teams will earn the same number of points toward the season-long Green Challenge™ Championship as those earned by the race winners each race in the overall American Le Mans Series Championship. All teams will participate and qualify for the Green Challenge™ and receive points for their Green Challenge™ scores for each race based on the Series' race point structure (i.e. maximum points for less than four hours is 20; for four to eight hours, 25; and for more than eight hours, 30). The twist, however, for winning the Green Challenge™ Championship is that each American Le Mans Series team starts off the season with the maximum number of points available for all the scheduled races (i.e. - 250 maximum in 2008). When teams win Green Challenge™ Championship points, they are deducted from this total. As a result, the points decline for successful teams over the course of the season with the lowest total at season's end, winning a Green Challenge™ championship for one prototype and one GT team.

The aforementioned ranking factors (energy used, GHGs emitted, petroleum displaced) will be compiled into a single weighted number representing the car's environmental performance. Race cars that use less energy and petroleum and produce fewer GHGs will score low. All measurements and calculations will be done on a well-to-wheel (life cycle analysis) basis, the most comprehensive and realistic approach to establishing the environmental impact of racing.

The GREET model developed by Argonne calculates all the energy consumed and the GHGs created from the time the oil is pumped out of the ground, the corn is seeded in the field or the wood waste is harvested, to its use as fuel in the car. [GREET stands for Greenhouse gasses, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation. It evaluates energy and emission impacts of advanced vehicle technologies and new transportation fuels, the fuel cycle from well to wheels and the vehicle cycle through material recovery and vehicle disposal.]

Audi revolutionized motorsport by building and winning races with its Audi R10 TDI powered by clean, sulfur-free diesel.

The difficulty of creating such a formula to rank environmental impact arises from the realities of racing that have to be factored to make valid energy comparisons. Faster cars and heavier cars use more energy and produce more greenhouse gasses than comparable slower or lighter cars. Cars that go farther during a race also require more energy.

To develop the formula, Argonne and the American Le Mans Series created "normalizing factors" for each variable so that they could accurately and fairly compare the environmental performance of each car in the race. The normalizing factors took into consideration such things as average speed, distance covered and car weight. These calculations were compared using sophisticated computer modeling with previous races to check their validity. In some cases, the cars that win the race will also get the best environmental performance score, but that will not always be the case.

"Motorsports has always enjoyed the distinction of being at the forefront of advanced automotive engineering," said Andy Karsner, U.S. Department of Energy's Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, "and it has been a primary catalyst for moving new technologies to the showroom floor. The leadership role the American Le Mans Series has taken by embracing open and diverse alternative fuel technology platforms has not only set the bar for automotive racing, but it has helped redefine the future of the transportation sector."

The American Le Mans Series, where automobile manufacturers race to develop technologies for future consumer cars, is the only racing series in the world where all its cars race on not one, not two, but three alternative "street legal" fuels: clean sulfur-free diesel, E10 and cellulosic E85 ... with rumors of a next-generation hybrid soon to come. "Street legal" refers to fuels that are virtually the same as the consumer buys at the fuel station. The Series has 11 auto manufacturers/marques involved, more than any other major racing series in the world.

"We have always claimed to be the most relevant racing series on the planet," said Atherton. "Now, we hope to play a role in saving that planet by working with manufacturers on innovative alternative fuel solutions and new technologies. We believe this could be truly paradigm shifting by effectively putting the auto back into auto racing and taking the sport from a form that for some has been primarily entertainment-focused to one that is also relevant and issue-focused. We are working with the car companies on new technology that matters."

For more information on ALMS, visit www.americanlemans.com.

Cyclone Waste Heat Engine

bbaker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:18:00 GMT

With high energy prices being top-of-mind among many consumers today, we are interested in what alternatives are being developed and what kinds of engines may be in our shops down the road. The Waste Heat Engine is quite an interesting idea that is being developed by the same group that has built the Cyclone Engine.

The Cyclone Waste Heat Engine (WHE) is a self-starting engine that operates in a low pressure, low temperature range. This feature allows the engine to run on waste heat emanating from an external source, such as the exhaust from an internal (or external) combustion engine, or the direct burning of biomass (i.e., processing garbage into methane would not be required). The Waste Heat Engine is also designed to run efficiently on solar heat without the installation of costly photovoltaic panels. Commercial applications for the engine include boosting the power and efficiency of large gasoline or diesel-powered generators. When installed to the exhaust system of an engine that can generate over 1000 degrees of heat, the WHE could materially increase overall horsepower and reduce fuel consumption. Additionally, once installed, the Waste Heat Engine could serve as a stand-by generator should the primary system shut down. Another major commercial application includes solar-power generators for homes or businesses. By attaching inexpensive panels to a roof, enough heat can be produced to run the Waste Heat Engine. Cyclone believes that such a system could be installed at a price of approximately 20% of the cost of comparable photovoltaic panel systems, while also providing home owners with a back-up power supply. Excess electricity could be directed back to the power grid for electrical power credits.

After 30 years, algae-to-fuel finally gets the green light

bbaker — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:36:00 GMT

University of Hawaii Assistant Professor Zackary Johnson examines algae cultures

Within just two years, Americans could be filling their cars with clean-burning biodiesel made from algae.

That’s the ambitious assessment of Harrison Dillon, co-founder of synthetic biology company Solazyme, who believes the transition could move even faster if oil prices continue to climb north of $100 a barrel.

Solazyme is one of the leaders in the rapidly blooming algae-oil industry, and has recently entered talks with Chevron about distributing its fuel, Soladiesel. Other front-runners include Shell, working with HR Biopetroleum, Global Green Solutions, Valcent Products and International Energy. However, all owe a debt to a 30-year-old research project.

The $25 million Aquatic Species Program was set up in 1978 by the Carter Administration to investigate high-oil types of algae that could be grown for biodiesel. The project, run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, found algae farms producing the plants in shallow ponds could supply enough biodiesel to completely replace fossil oil for transportation and home heating.

Scientists estimated the 140.8 billion gallons needed to fuel the country at the time could be produced by 15,000 square miles of algae farms. To put that in perspective, Arizona’s Sonora Desert alone is 120,000 square miles.

But by 1995, oil prices had settled down again and President Clinton's government was looking for budget cuts. The NREL decided to concentrate on ethanol and closed the ASP. However, its collection of more than 3,000 strains of algae is still open to researchers at the University of Hawaii and is widely regarded as the intellectual property backbone for today’s algae-to-fuel startups.

Work on algae cutltures at National Energy Laboratory Hawaii Authority (NELH) , Kona

[Liz Turner, Green Fuels Forecast]

Are Hybrids Bunk?

bbaker — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:55:00 GMT

From Jalopnik

We're constantly approached by people who want to know which hybrid is best. There's a lot of excitement, still, around the concept of not only saving gas but of also having a neat toy with about 600 green stickers on it. Just today Honda announced a renewed commitment to hybrids. And while we like the idea of new toys, and of saving gas, we've been less than impressed with the hybrids we've driven, especially given the premium. Take, for instance, the Saturn Aura Hybrid, which makes a combined 27 mpg (24/32) compared to the regular four-cylinder version, which makes a combined 25 mpg (22/30). That's not a huge difference but there's an approximately $3,700 price difference between the two (and only a $1,300 tax credit).

We don't blame the car companies for making them, as it is a nice way to move cars at a premium and start to inch that CAFE up to levels they were able to achieve in the 1980's. And we don't necessarily blame people for buying them, as we all want to do our part. But is the cost difference so great that it wouldn't be better to just buy a Geo Metro or beater Brat and just keep up proper maintenance on a current vehicle? Are hybrids merely Band-Aids that are too small and too expensive? Or are hybrids a clever way to maintain our precious resources and reduce city emissions?

Scuderi Air-Hybrid Engine on Display at 2008 Engine Expo in Stuttgart

bbaker — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:20:00 GMT

The Scuderi Group arrived on Tuesday for the opening of the 2008 Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany, Europe’s premier trade show focusing on engine design and development. This is the third consecutive year the Scuderi Group and its Air-Hybrid Engine have participated in the event.

Sal Scuderi presents his talk during the Open Technology Forum held Tuesday at Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany.

The company had on display for the first time a model of what it claims is world’s most fuel efficient internal combustion engine, its unique and highly promising split-cycle air-hybrid engine. The Scuderi split-cycle arrangement and valve train technology changes the heart of the conventional engine by dividing (or splitting) the four strokes of the Otto cycle over a paired combination of one compression cylinder and one power cylinder. Gas is compressed in the compression cylinder and transferred to the power cylinder through a gas passage.

The gas passage includes a set of uniquely timed valves, which maintain a precharged pressure through all four strokes of the cycle. Shortly after the piston in the power cylinder reaches its top dead center position, the gas is quickly transferred to the power cylinder and fired (or combusted) to produce the power stroke.

By splitting the strokes of the Otto cycle over a pair of dedicated compression and power cylinders, the design of each cylinder can be independently optimized to perform the separate and distinct tasks of compression and power. As a result, the split-cycle design provides more flexibility in how engines are built. Features that were understood to be beneficial but impossible to implement in a conventional design can be implemented in the split-cycle design.

Another highlight of the day was a presentation by Scuderi Group president Sal Scuderi to a packed Open Technology Forum where he participated in the Reducing Emissions track. Titled, “Air Could Be the Answer,” Sal explored the idea of using compressed air to reduce vehicle emissions. In his presentation, he highlighted that the Scuderi Air-Hybrid - with its air tank that captures wasted energy in the form of compressed air - has the potential of increasing fuel efficiency to historical levels and reduce the release of NOx by up to 80 percent compared to all the vehicles on the road today. He also discussed how the Air-Hybrid is expected to have considerably more torque an power over conventional engines with minimal manufacturing and retooling costs.

For more information visit, http://www.scuderigroup.com/index.html.

$10 Million Prize Up For Grabs in Race to Build the Supergreen Car

bbaker — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:44:00 GMT

From Wired Magazine, By Eric Hagerman

Cars are a new arena for the X Prize Foundation, whose mission is to spur innovation by doling out cash awards to teams that solve thorny technical and engineering problems. The foundation's first purse was the $10 million Ansari X Prize for spaceflight; Burt Rutan and Paul Allen won it in 2004 when their rocket plane made it to the edge of Earth's atmosphere twice in two weeks. Then there's the Google Lunar X Prize, which will go to the first private venture to send image-transmitting rovers to the moon, and the Archon X Prize: $10 million to the first outfit that can sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days for no more than $10,000 apiece (see "The X Prize Ecosystem"). Now the "revolution through competition" model is being applied to energy and the environment with the Automotive X Prize.

The aim of the AXP is to prime the market to demand cars that use less oil and produce fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. "There's a very large industrial complex married to an old solution," says X Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis. "If we do this right, we're going to draw a line in the sand and say all the cars we drove before this date are relegated to the history museums." Who killed the electric car? Who cares. Dangle a $10million carrot and watch as engineers deliver both crackpot schemes and genius innovations, any one of which could upend the existing automotive industry.

The rules, which will be finalized later this year, have three broad components: efficiency (cars must get at least 100 miles per gallon); emissions (cars must produce less than 200 grams of greenhouse gases per mile); and economic viability (mass production of the cars has to be feasible, and the company has to have a plan to make 10,000 a year). It's this last point — that a winning vehicle has to be safe, comfortable, and ready to be mass-manufactured at a reasonable cost — that will separate the fantasy-mobiles from those that could actually be put into production and sold for a profit. "We do not want toys," says S. M. Shahed, a Honeywell corporate fellow who, as a past president of the International Society of Automotive Engineers, serves as an adviser to the AXP. In other words, a one-off, carbon-fiber-ensconced motorized recumbent bicycle isn't going to cut it.

(Aptera's scratch-built car.)