Domestic Fuel

Looking for a new way to charge your cell phone? Then look no further than the sun. Solio has released an improved universal Solar Charger for all electronic devices, including your phone, that stores power for up to one year and never overcharges. This device sounds perfect for places that are lacking outlets, like airports, airplanes and restaurants three of the places your phone battery loves to die.

So how does it work? You charge it up for free with a little help from the sun, and then when you need power for your MP3 player, GPS or phone, you simply plug the solar charger into your electronic equipment using one of the multiple “tips” that you switch out. The charger is compatible with over 3,200 devices and stores in its own sleek case.

For those of you who live in the Iowa where it never seems to stop raining this year, no worries. The solar charger has a back-up plan. It can be charged a USB port or wall charger, both included. The price for this nifty gadget is around $99.

Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) signed a joint final rule that establishes greenhouse gas emission standards and corporate fuel economy standards for light duty vehicles for model years 2012-2016. This National Fuel Efficiency Policy requires passenger cars and light trucks to get an overall average of 35.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2016 while cars are expected to average 39 mpg and trucks will be required to get 30 mpg. According to the current administration, this measure is expected to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the life of the program.

However, we could actually reduce oil imports and emissions even more under this program by using ethanol.

Ricardo’s EBDI engine technology

Let me explain. The easiest way to gain the improved fuel economy is through “engine downsizing,” in other words, using smaller engines. But the new smaller engine technologies will not mean less power, like in the past. According to Ethanol Boosting Systems, their technology enables gasoline engines to “reach their full potential” by utilizing performance enhancing properties of ethanol in conjunction with advances in direct injection (DI) and turbocharging.

Here is how their system works: The EBS approach uses controlled direct ethanol injection to add a very significant vaporization-enhanced On-Demand Octane BoostTM that essentially removes the knock limit on engine performance. The elimination of the knock constraint has been proven by systematic engine dynamometer tests. This allows a small gasoline engine to provide the same or higher torque as compared to a conventional engine of much larger size.
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Want to know where you can buy E85? There’s an app for that now.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) today launched a new application for Garmin GPS units that that maps out the location of E85 (85% ethanol/15% gasoline) for users with flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs).

“The most frustrating thing for many FFV owners is not knowing where they can fill up with higher level ethanol blends, like E85,” said RFA Director of Market Development Robert White. “With this new feature, drivers going to the grocery store or to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving will know the exact location of the nearest E85 pump.”

Using the Garmin navigation system, FFV owners can download station locations and program their device to guide them to upcoming E85 stations. The Garmin application is available for download on ChooseEthanol.com. There, consumers can download individual state data, a combination of states, or national data directly to their computer and then to their Garmin devices. Directions for installing this point of interest (POI) data are now available.

While the program is currently only available for Garmin GPS units, RFA is working to bring this data to other navigation systems and will update station location data quarterly.

A couple of weeks ago, Joanna told you about how a company had installed a system that would capture the energy of cars and light trucks that went through a fast-food drive through (see her post from Sept. 14, 2009).

Now, New Energy Technologies has announced it has successfully tested its MotionPower technology for generating electricity from the movement of heavy trucks and long-haul vehicles, and the renewable energy company will now develop a full-scale system suitable for field testing, and ultimately, commercial deployment:

The Company’s MotionPower™-’Heavy’ system for heavy vehicles has been engineered to generate electricity while addressing utility demands and commercial considerations unique to large vehicles, including minimizing payload disruption, ensuring passenger comfort, and making special allowances for integration of the system at commercial trucking sites such as ports, weigh scales, border crossings, and central distribution sites.

Heavy-duty trucks have up to 25 times more kinetic energy than a typical car traveling at the same speed. New Energy Technologies Inc.’s engineers have developed the MotionPower™-Heavy technology as a fluid-based system, uniquely capable of drawing significant amounts of energy from a single vehicle without jarring its payload or creating passenger discomfort. The efficient transfer of energy from heavy vehicles to the MotionPower™-Heavy system ensures greater electricity production and easier device adoption.

Company officials believe the system will be scalable for electrical generation.

You can see a video of the technology here.

New Energy Technologies, has successfully tested its MotionPower technology for generating electricity from the motion of cars and light trucks, in conjunction with a Burger King restaurant in Hillside, New Jersey. The durability field-test was conducted between September 3-7th and is one of the last steps needed prior to its commercial launch.

“It would be great to generate clean electricity by mechanically capturing the kinetic energy of the 100,000-plus cars that drive through our Hillside store alone each year,” stated entrepreneur and Burger King franchise owner, Mr. Drew Paterno. “If the MotionPower™ device works and does what we think it will do, we’d be interested in installing it in all our locations.”

New Energy’s MotionPower™ technology is designed to be installed in locations where hybrid, next-generation electrical, and conventional fuels-driven vehicles decelerate or stop, thus ensuring that vehicles are not ‘robbed’ of energy they would otherwise use to accelerate. Instead, MotionPower™ devices actually assist vehicles in slowing down, and in the process of doing so, capture the vehicles’ motion energy before it is lost as brake heat, and creatively convert that energy into clean ‘green’ electricity.

“We’ve had a favorable response to our MotionPower™ technology from the marketplace and from those who generated electricity by driving their cars over our device. We’re keen to aggressively commercialize our technology and have designed each phase of our testing to help move us towards this goal,” explained Mr. Meetesh Patel, Esq., President and CEO of New Energy Technologies, Inc.

An Iowa-based energy company is claiming that its one-of-a-kind technology is a solution America needs as the country looks to reduce greenhouse emissions and lower energy costs, while helping put people back to work.

American Power Group’s “dual fuel” blends diesel (which should have the ability to use biodiesel, right) and compressed natural gas or methane:

APG’s technology couldn’t come at a better time as customers look for ways to cope with rising fuel costs and search for solutions that will allow them to use federal stimulus monies aimed at cleaning up the environment and reduce dependency on foreign oil. The application, which perfectly blends conventional diesel fuel with compressed natural gas or bio-methane, delivers greener power to municipal vehicles, stationary generators and backup applications to name a few. While some companies are able to offer customers only a dedicated diesel fuel or natural gas fuel solution, APG’s technology is the first to allow an engine to run on both diesel and natural gas simultaneously. The technology is innovative, and it benefits are simply astounding. The dual fuel solution reduces the use of fuel by as much as 40 percent, increases the diesel fuel run time of generators by 300 percent and decreases emissions by over 40 percent. It also minimizes fuel storage space requirements by as much as 50 percent.

“Our technology is freeing up businesses to do what they know best while helping them to improve their bottom line,” said Rick Kremer, VP Sales & Marketing.

APG says one of its clients has been able to run off a generator burning the dual fuel for two week, where it would have lasted only 48 hours before. Plus, company officials claim it will work in existing engines. Check ‘em out for yourself here.

Waste Management, Inc. has become the latest company to invest in waste-to-fuel conversion technology developed by Terrabon. Waste Management, the leading provider of comprehensive waste management and environmental services in North America, joins Valero Energy Corporation, the largest refiner in North America, which also invested in Terrabon in April 2009 and recently increased its investment in Terrabon.

This investment from Waste Management and Valero will be used by Terrabon to advance the scalability of their technology. Waste Management will also assist Terrabon in securing organic waste streams, which Terrabon will use to produce high-octane gasoline using its MixAlco™ technology. MixAlco is an acid fermentation process that converts biomass into organic salts.

“Food—Fuel—Future” is the theme for this year’s Wisconsin Farm Technology Days coming up July 21-23, 2009, in Waterloo, Wisconsin.

This year, the state’s largest agriculture exposition takes place at The Crave Brothers Farm in southern Dodge County.

The Crave Brothers are living examples of the event theme of “Food—Fuel—Future.” Since 2002, they have increased milk production on their family farm, doubled the size of their on-farm cheese plant, and formed a unique partnership with Clear Horizons of Milwaukee with two anaerobic manure digesters that create enough electricity to power 550 average Wisconsin homes.

A team of students from Ohio State University are in the lead after the first phase of the three-year EcoCar: the NeXt Challenge that took place last week in Toronto, Canada. The actual challenge was to convert a Saturn VUE into an electric vehicle with increased fuel economy and lower tailpipe emissions.

The team from Ohio State utilized a battery pack and E85 to power a 1.8 liter Honda engine which a rechargeable battery pack. The team’s engineering achieved a 300 percent increase in fuel economy.

Launched in late 2008 by the Government of Canada, General Motors, the U.S. Department of Energy, and others, 17 university teams from the U.S. and Canada competed. Approximately half of the teams, including the Ohio State team, designed extended-range electric vehicles, six teams utilized plug-in hybrids, two teams experimented with fuel cell plug-in hybrids using renewable resources, and one team designed an all-electric vehicle. Every team used lithium-ion batteries and then retrofitted them to become plug-in batteries.

GM provided the vehicles, parts, seed money, mentoring, and operational support. The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory research facility provided team evaluation, technical and logistical support, and competition management.

The first step in the challenge was to design the vehicles using advanced software and computer modeling tools given to the teams by GM. In years two and three, students translate their design into reality and develop a working vehicle that meets the competition’s goals. The teams come together at the end of each academic year to compete against the other university teams in more than a dozen static and dynamic events.

California-based AE Biofuels is partnering with Merrick & Company to commercially implement its enzyme-based technology for the production of cellulosic ethanol.

Merrick provides engineering and architectural design-build, procurement, construction management, and geospatial services.

According to a press release, the companies will work together “to rapidly deploy AE Biofuels’ next-generation biofuels technology to address the significant demand for cellulosic ethanol created by the revised Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).”

The combination of AE Biofuels’ industry-leading technology and Merrick’s leading position as a world-class engineering and services provider brings to the market a solution that is both cost-effective and commercially viable to address the growing demand for non-food, advanced biofuels.

An Illinois-based technology services company recently unveiled a new set of “2nd Generation” technologies aimed at increasing the sustainability and profitability of corn-based ethanol plants.

According to MOR Technology, the MOR-Frac Plus+ Milling System in combination with their supercritical CO2 corn oil extraction technology can help plants “increase and diversify revenues by producing premium, value-added food-grade products, while also decreasing operating costs and environmental footprint.”

The company says its MOR-Frac™ Plus+ Milling System combines both dry and wet milling technology to offer the product purity and product yields achieved in wet milling, but with the energy efficiency, environmental impact, and capital/operating costs much closer to those of dry milling.

MOR is currently working with a number of customers, design-build firms and financing institutions to install the technology in corn-based ethanol plants around the country.

In addition, MOR Supercritical – an affiliate of MOR Technology based in Allentown, Pennsylvania – has started construction on a state-of-the-art plant that will showcase the company’s breakthrough supercritical fluid extraction technology for low-cost, high-volume commodity products. The 15 tonne-per-day plant will be located in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, and officials expect to complete construction in the third quarter of 2009.

MOR Supercritical has developed a corn oil and commodity oilseeds extraction system that uses proprietary breakthroughs in supercritical CO2 technology allowing for operating costs and energy use below that of hexane or mechanical extraction while also producing an all-natural, hexane-free corn oil for human consumption.