News > May

AT&T Adding 105 Alternative Fuel Vehicles to Fleet
AT&T will add 105 alternative-fuel vehicles to its fleets in more than 30 cities across the U.S. beginning in June — 25 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vans, 65 electric hybrid Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) vehicles and 15 electric hybrid conversion work trucks. The company estimates that the move will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 124 metric tons and conserve nearly 34,395 gallons of fuel annually. The CNG vans are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 30% compared with traditional gasoline vans. The electric hybrid conversion trucks and electric hybrid OEM vehicles are expected to offer an improvement in fuel economy in the range of 38-39% and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28-29% compared with similar gasoline-powered vehicles.
Source: AT&T Boosts Alternative Fuel Fleet by 100+, Environmental Leader

Post Office Finds 30,000 Ethanol Vehicles Burn More Gas, Get Fewer Miles
The U.S. Postal Service purchased more than 30,000 ethanol-capable trucks and minivans from 1999 to 2005, making it the biggest American buyer of alternative-fuel vehicles, but gasoline consumption jumped by more than 1.5 million gallons as a result. Although the Postal Service bought the ethanol vehicles to meet alternative-fuel requirements, a study found that the vehicles got as much as 29% fewer miles to the gallon because the new vehicles’ larger engine size and ethanol’s lower energy content actually lowered mileage. According to the Department of Energy, it takes 1.33 gallons of E85 (85% ethanol) and 1.03 gallons of E10 (10% ethanol) to travel the same distance as with one gallon of pure gasoline. Furthermore, mail carriers were only able to use the corn-based fuel in just 1,000 of the vehicles due to lack of fuel availability. “You're getting fewer miles per gallon, and it's costing us more,” said the Postal Service's vice president of engineering.
Source: Ethanol Vehicles for Post Office Burn More Gas, Get Fewer Miles, Bloomberg

USDA Head Downplays Calls to Cut Biofuel Mandate
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said ethanol is not having a “major” impact on food prices and downplayed calls by lawmakers and industry groups to make changes to programs that promote increased use of biofuels. Prices for wheat, corn, soybeans and rice have set record highs at the Chicago Board of Trade this year — and around the world, rising food prices have lead to hoarding of wheat and rice, bread lines and food riots. As several senators demand that we revisit a mandate passed last December that calls for a fivefold increase in biofuels output by 2022, Schafer maintains that there would be few benefits from changing the renewable fuels standard. “The change in the renewable fuel standard … isn't going to affect food prices,” said Schafer. “We need to focus on things that will actually have an effect instead of a short-term political solution.”
Source: USDA head downplays calls to cut biofuel mandate, Reuters

Up to 24,000 Deaths Per Year in California Now Linked to Air Pollution
As many as 24,000 deaths annually in California are linked to chronic exposure to fine particulate pollution, triple the previous official estimate of 8,200, according to state researchers. The revised figures are based on new research about the hazards posed by microscopic particles, which sink deep into the lungs. Several major studies now show that these particles are 70% more dangerous than previously thought. The studies found rates of heart attacks and strokes increase exponentially after exposure to even slightly higher amounts of metal or dust. The California Air Resources Board found that Californians exposed to high levels of fine particulates had their lives cut short on average by 10 years. More measures will be needed, air board officials said, including eventually lowering the maximum permissible levels of soot statewide. California already has the lowest thresholds in the world, but researchers say no safe level of exposure has been found. More regulations are being drafted, including one requiring cleaner heavy-duty trucks.
Source: Up to 24,000 deaths a year in California are linked to air pollution, Los Angeles Times

City of Flint to Build Biomethane Plant for Vehicle Fuel
The city of Flint, Michigan and Swedish Biogas International have announced a joint plan to build a plant to convert waste from the city’s wastewater facility into biomethane fuel. Initially, the biomethane will fuel Flint’s fleet of municipal vehicles. The program will receive $6 to $10 million in start up money from state and federal grants, as well as money from Swedish and private funds. “This is the biggest no-brainer in the history of mankind,” says James R. Hiendlmayr, owner of BioGas Technologies in Ohio. “Why waste something you can put to beneficial use?” Sweden already has a proven track record with biomethane — the alternative fuel makes up 2% of the country’s transportation fuel, with buses, taxis, trucks and cars running on the biogas.
Source: Flint to Build Biomethane Plant for Vehicles, NGVAmerica

UPS to Expand Largest U.S. Green Fleet
UPS is expanding its U.S. Green Fleet with an order of 300 compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks and 200 hybrid electric trucks—the largest commercial order of such hybrid trucks by any company. The purchase means that the company’s fleet of vehicles running on CNG will grow to 1,100 and its hybrid electric fleet will increase to 250, putting the largest private alternative fuel fleet in the U.S. at 2,218 low-carbon vehicles by 2009—a growth 30%. UPS expects the hybrid fleet to save the company 176,000 gallons of fuel annually and reduce CO2 emissions by 1,786 metric tons each year—the equivalent of removing almost 100 conventional UPS trucks from the road for a year. The CNG vehicles are expected to yield a 20% reduction in emissions over the cleanest diesel engines available today.
Source: UPS Orders 500 Hybrid, CNG Delivery Trucks, Environmental Leader

DuPont, Danisco Partner to Make Cellulosic Ethanol
U.S. chemical maker DuPont Co. and Genencor, a unit of Denmark's Danisco, plan to form DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a 50-50 joint venture to develop and commercialize low-cost technology for producing cellulosic ethanol. An initial three-year investment of $140 million will initially target corn stover and sugar cane bagasse as raw materials, with other forms of cellulosic raw materials planned for use further down the line. “By integrating our companies' strengths and expertise in this new venture, we are significantly increasing the potential to make cellulosic ethanol from multiple non-food sources,” said DuPont's Chief Executive Charles Holliday. The global joint venture expects its first pilot plant to be operational in the United States in 2009 and its first commercial-scale demonstration facility to be operational within the next three years.
Source: DuPont, Danisco unit to make cellulosic ethanol, Reuters

Nissan Plans to Bring Electric Car to U.S. by 2010
Raising the stakes in the race to develop an all-electric vehicle for market, Nissan has announced plans to sell an electric car in the United States and Japan by 2010. Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Goshn said the company envisions a broad range of electric vehicles, starting with small cars, and expects to sell a lineup of electric vehicles globally by 2012—although initial quantities would be small, starting in the hundreds of vehicles. But he said that the company was determined to achieve “zero-emission-vehicle leadership.” “Nissan is upping the ante tremendously,” said John O’Dell, senior editor at the auto Web site GreenCarAdvisor.com. “They are the first to put it on the line and say we’re going to have an all-electric vehicle for a certain market by a certain date.”
Source: Nissan Plans Electric Car in U.S. by ’10, New York Times

Prius Worldwide Sales Pass One Million—4.5M Tons of Carbon Emissions Saved
Toyota has underlined its dominance of the hybrid vehicle market by announcing that its Prius has passed the one million sales mark worldwide. The company said that, as of the end of April 2008, it had sold approximately 1,028,000 units globally since the car was first launched in Japan in 1997. According to Toyota, these vehicles have contributed to a reduction in carbon emissions of approximately 4.5m tons when compared with gasoline-powered vehicles in the same class. Toyota said that sales remain "robust" in more than 40 countries with growth particularly strong in Japan and North America, adding that it plans to expand sales into new markets and is on track to begin selling the car in South Korea from the latter half of 2009.
Source: Prius passes one million sales milestone, BusinessGreen

Long Island Community Switching to Natural Gas Refuse Trucks
The Town of Brookhaven, Long Island, NY has passed two key resolutions to switch its municipal trash trucks to natural gas vehicles (NGVs). The first resolution awards 13 'NGV only' contracts to private trash haulers for the collection of refuse, recyclables and yard waste for their 35 collection areas. The second resolution awards a contract to Clean Energy for the construction of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station to provide CNG fuel for more than 75 refuse trucks serving the town’s 117,000 homes. The project is expected to displace approximately 700,000 gallons of diesel per year.  
Source: LI Community Announces Natural Gas Refuse Trucks, NGV Global

Paul McCartney 'Horrified' as Eco–Friendly Car is Flown 7,000 miles from Japan
Sir Paul McCartney is said to be “horrified” that his new eco-friendly hybrid car was flown 7,000 miles from Japan. The Lexus LS600H was a gift from Lexus to the former Beatle, who helped promote the hybrid vehicle. But instead of arriving by boat as expected, the car was flown to Britain, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea. Carbon offsetting firm CO2balance.com said the plane journey would have caused a carbon footprint of 38,050kg, compared to 397kg for a three-week boat journey. Co2balance.com Director Mike Rigby said, “That is the equivalent of driving the car around the world six times.”
Source: Paul McCartney 'horrified' as his eco car is flown 7,000 miles from Japan, The Telegraph

GM Showcases Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cell SUV, Says Infrastructure Next Hurdle
Hydrogen-powered fuel cell SUVs were among the lineup of alternative-fuel vehicles offered to fleet customers by General Motors Fleet and Commercial Operation (FCO) during a recent ride-and-drive event in Las Vegas. The modified Equinox SUVs are part of a 100-vehicle fuel-cell fleet currently undergoing field and customer testing to develop commercial versions of the technology that the company says delivers the equivalent of 100 to 150 MPG with no tailpipe or greenhouse emissions. GM has already spent over $1 billion developing fuel-cell technology, which represents the “endgame” in efforts to move away from petroleum-based vehicle fuels, according to John Gaydash, FCO director of marketing. Efforts “over the next five years to create an infrastructure [for hydrogen fueling] will shape the next 50 years,” he said.
Source: GM shows off fuel-cell trucks, Fleet Owner

Largest Procurement of Fuel Cell Systems for Public Transit
AC Transit of Oakland, California will purchase eight 120 kW fuel cell systems with options for an additional 13 units, to power AC Transit’s next-generation hybrid-electric fuel cell buses, scheduled for delivery in 2009 and 2010. This is the largest procurement yet in the US of fuel cell power systems for public transport buses. The ‘PureMotion Model 120’ fuel cell systems will be provided by UTC Power. AC Transit’s first-generation fuel cell buses feature an earlier model UTC Power fuel cell system, in which fuel economy in diesel gallon equivalency has consistently been between 70% and 100% better than a control fleet of AC Transit diesel buses.
Source: AC Transit Orders 8 Bus Fuel Cell Systems, Options 13 More, Green Car Congress

BlueFire’s First Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Will Use Landfill Waste
California-based company BlueFire Ethanol plans to break ground on its first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in the next few months. The facility, which will be adjacent to a county landfill in Lancaster, CA, will have the capacity to produce 3.1 million gallons of ethanol from garden and wood waste and non-recyclable paper. The plant will begin operations next year and CEO Arnie Klann hopes to double the plant’s capacity in a few years as the amount of biomass coming to the new landfill grows. So far, cellulosic ethanol production has been hampered by the difficulty of economically harvesting and collecting enough cellulosic material to continuously run a large plant. BlueFire plans to circumvent that difficulty by locating its plants at landfills that already separate out green waste such as tree and bush trimmings.
Source: BlueFire to Break Ground, Greentech Media

Chevron Doubles its Commitment to Alternative Energy Technologies
Chevron Corp. says it expects that by 2009 it will have invested $2.5 billion in alternative and renewable energy technologies for the three-year period which began in 2007. At an average of $833 million per year, that's more than double the per-year average of $400 million that Chevron invested on such technologies during the preceding period of 2002 through 2006. Chevron said it is investing in a range of energy technologies from biofuel and hydrogen fuel to geothermal and solar energy. The company will be working on transit programs related to buses powered by natural gas and hydrogen fuel, as well as biofuels derived from soybeans.
Source: Chevron commits to `alt' energy, Inside Bay Area

Diverse Nations over Three Continents Look to Natural Gas for Transportation
News from NGVAmerica this week indicates that nations spread over the globe in three different continents are united by a common goal to make a success of using natural gas for transportation:

In Africa, the Federal Government of Nigeria plans to “create a pilot network for the distribution of CNG to establish a basis for displacement of conventional liquid fuels in transportation and other sectors.” According to the Nigerian Minister of Energy, over two million vehicles would be converted to CNG within the next five years.

In Asia, the City District Government of Karachi, Pakistan has initiated a project to introduce CNG buses into the city, which will eventually result in the deployment 2,500 CNG buses. The project, backed by the federal government, will deploy the first fleet of 500 CNG buses in July, with the remaining 2,000 to be phased in over the next five years.

In Europe, the capital of Norway, Oslo, is putting in place a biomethane project to address the problems of managing urban waste and reducing CO2 emissions in public transportation. Funds are in place to implement several initiatives through 2010, including the building of a biomethane plant and the deployment of buses fueled by biomethane.

Source: NGVAmerica

Landfill Gas To Become Natural Gas Fuel For Trucks
Waste Management, North America's largest refuse hauling company, has announced plans to convert landfill gas into clean vehicle fuel through a partnership with Linde North America. The $15.5 million program will purify and liquefy gas created by organic waste at a California landfill. The resulting liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be used to fuel Waste Management's fleet of natural gas collection trucks. The facility could produce 13,000 gallons of LNG each day beginning in 2009 and will be the largest of its kind, says Waste Management. The program would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30,000 tons each year. “Natural gas is already the cleanest burning fuel available for our collection trucks, and the opportunity to use recovered landfill gas offers enormous environmental benefits to the communities we serve,” said Duane Woods of Waste Management. The California Environmental Protection Agency called the program a key milestone in helping to develop “more than 200 million gallons of clean transportation fuel each year from the garbage in California's landfills.”
Source: Livermore Landfill Gas To Become Fuel For Trucks, CBS5

California Offering $7.7M to Expand Hydrogen Fueling Network
The California Air Resources Board said it wants to encourage the hydrogen highway and is making $7.7 million available to help roll out the hydrogen network. The funds are earmarked for the construction and improvement of hydrogen fueling stations in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. “We are shifting California's economy to clean energy and hydrogen plays an important role,” said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the Air Resources Board. “The increased use of hydrogen in the transportation sector would diversify California's energy sources and reduce harmful smog-forming and climate-changing emissions.” The board said there are 24 hydrogen stations currently operating in California, with more planned.
Source: California putting up $7.7M for hydrogen fueling stations, CleanTech

Los Angeles MTA to Purchase 260 New High-Capacity CNG Buses
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will buy up to 260 new high-capacity buses that run on cleaner-burning compressed natural gas (CNG). The new buses have 15% more capacity than standard 40-foot buses and will replace the oldest diesel and CNG buses in Metro's fleet. Funding for the project will come from a combination of federal, state and local funds and delivery will be completed by June 2010. Metro now has a fleet of 2,561 active buses, almost all of them fueled with compressed natural gas. The Metro Board had also intended to purchase gasoline-hybrid vehicles as part of this order, however after review, it was determined that the proposed technologies for the hybrid vehicles are not fully developed and tested.
Source: 260 High Capacity CNG Buses for Los Angeles MTA, NGV Global

Indonesia Reduces Biodiesel Blend to Just 1%
Indonesia’s state oil firm Pertamina has cut the biofuel blend in diesel to 1% — down from 2.5%. Since the company introduced Biosolar fuel in May 2006, it has gradually cut its biodiesel content from an initial 5% to 2.5% in 2007, and again to 1% in 2008. The company cites rising palm oil prices and lack of incentives. The Indonesian government subsidizes biodiesel at the same level as fossil fuels, leaving Pertamina to cover the difference when biodiesel production costs exceed fossil fuel costs. “Soaring palm oil prices have propelled prices of biodiesel, making them not feasible for the firm,” said Djaelani Sutomo, the company's vice-president. Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer, has been pushing the use of biofuels to cut the use of costly petroleum products. However, rising palm oil feedstock and low domestic prices have prompted many biodiesel producers to delay the introduction of biofuel.
Source: Indonesia's Pertamina reduces biofuel blend in diesel, Reuters

San Diego Launches CNG Hybrid-Electric Bus
The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) has launched its first commercial bus with a compressed natural gas (CNG) hybrid-electric drive system. ISE Corporation developed the system and integrated it into a standard 40-foot transit bus. The CNG hybrid prototype bus will further cut emissions and fuel consumption, and provide more power and a quieter ride. Funding for the program was provided by grants from various air pollution control entities. “This new technology is important to California transit agencies. The CNG-electric hybrid technology represents the next step forward in our commitment to a healthier environment,” said San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts. Currently MTS operates 476 buses, of which 75% are CNG. The agency’s goal is to convert its entire fleet to CNG or hybrid technology within the next 6 years.
Source: San Diego Launches CNG Hybrid-Electric Bus, Green Car Congress