SalvaEco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid

SAE’s Automotive Engineering International magazine reports that General Motors is putting more assets into its efforts to utilize electricity – not only for “telematics” – but for drive systems as well. Telematics is the growing use of electricity for control and features on a car (like this). Navigation systems, entertainment systems; steering and window drive systems are examples of telematics. Drive systems refer to more the “heavy iron” part of an automobile: the brakes, the engine, the fuel system, the transmission. Hybrids, various battery technologies, plug-in hybrids (PHEV) are part of that effort.

To emphasize and centralize that “heavy iron” part of work, GM has created a new group, Hybrid Energy Storage Systems, and chose Denise Gray, a mid-career GM electrical engineer, to lead it at its Warren, MI research and development center. Ms. Gray has global responsibilities and have oversight over worldwide GM hybrid development efforts. She is tasked with streamlining the number of systems being studied while making sure all needs are covered.

Ms. Gray said she feels honored to get this development position because it puts her profession of electrical engineering in the front lines of automotive development. She feels that “The E/E (electrical engineering) discipline will be an enabler for making vehicles the best they can be.”

Related:

• General Motors invites us behind the curtain: battery development details revealed

[Source: Automotive Engineering International]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Carbon Offset, Zap

Obvio, the Brazilian automaker with the apparent habit of randomly typing on a numeric keyboard to come up with product names (the 012? the 828?), announced a plan last week to establish a “social carbon fund” with the CantorCO2e organization (yet another name that just cements itself in one’s memory).

Cantorco2e provides financial services environmental and energy markets around the world, and offers “finance, consultancy, technology, and transaction services to clients engaged in using energy and managing emissions across the world.” The partnership will see part of the purchase price of Obvio’s trybrid vehicles (and others, like the ones it is building with Zap!) directed to a CO2 offset fund that is counseled by CantorCO2e.

Ricardo Machado, Chief Executive Officer of Obvio, said that, “Obvio has committed that the fund will contribute to environmentally sustainable projects designed to offset carbon emissions associated with the company, whether in communities near the factory, along distribution and supply routes, or after the car is on the road.”

Obvio’s plants will be shifted so that waste will be minimized and renewable energy will be used for power the company’s manufacturing plant. The U.S. should see Obvio vehicles here in 2008, all distributed by Zap! Current estimates are for 50,000 vehicles in the first year.

The official announcement is available here.

Related:

• Obvio! contracts Lotus to design trybrid cars
• Video: ZAP’s Obvio 828 part of Good Morning America’s The Future Now show
• ZAP cars keep coming with Xebra, Obvio

[Source: CantorCO2e via GreenCarCongress]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Hybrid, Kia

Back in March at the Geneva Motor Show Kia, displayed a hybrid version of their small Rio sedan. They are building about 4,000 of these for a field test fleet for the South Korean Government and a full production run is expected to be available for 2009. Initially the Rio Hybrid will have an 88hp 1.4L engine with a 16hp electric motor with a 1.6L /20hp electric option available as well.

The hybrid system will be a mild hybrid of the type used by Honda where the motor sits between the flywheel and transmission. In this setup the motor provides power boost and regenerative braking capability but can’t drive the vehicle on its own. The 1.4L version should get about 42mpg.

[Source: AutoExpress]Kia Rio Hybrid
To mark the massive expansion of Korea’s hybrid vehicle development programme, Kia Motors is displaying a very special version of the Kia Rio at Geneva. The European premiere of the Kia Rio hybrid celebrates the recent announcement that Kia Motors, together with Hyundai, is to supply the Korean Ministry of the Environment with an additional 3,390 hybrid vehicles over the next two years, as part of the country’s on-going programme of ‘real-world’ testing aimed at creating eco-friendly cars.

The Kia Rio Hybrid sedan (also known as the Kia Pride in some markets), created by Kia R&D to take part in these ‘real-world’ test fleet activities, features a unique powertrain with a 1.4-litre, 90 ps gasoline engine, mated to a high-torque 12kW, 95 Nm AC synchronised electric motor and a CVT gearbox.

The electric motor is mounted between the flywheel and the gearbox and ‘assists’ the gasoline engine during starting, accelerating and hill-climbing. During steady cruising the electric motor switches off, while during deceleration it employs ‘regenerative braking’ to store energy and re-charge its power pack.

The hybrid Rio is the first Kia to employ a CVT (continuously variable transmission) and also features computer-controlled stop/start motoring which switches both engine and motor off whenever the car comes to a standstill for more than a few seconds.

Special lightweight components parts cut the Rio Hybrid’s weight by 220 kg. It accelerates briskly from 0-to-100 kph in 12.2 seconds, can reach a top speed of 180 kph and returns a fuel consumption of 5.29 litres per 100 km (53.4 mpg). Air pollutants are reduced by 37% and fuel efficiency is improved by 44%.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

You are most likely already aware of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and know that FSC certified lumber is preferred for use in green construction because it is sustainably managed and harvested. It also has a chain of custody reporting system that ensures that everyone in the processing chain is following the correct procedures with their materials sourcing and their handling of the material. However, construction is not the only place where you will find FSC certified products.

The printing industry is another huge user of wood and forest products. And, as with construction uses, FSC is heavily involved in promoting sustainable practices for printing and paper-making uses. In order to use the FSC trademark on a product, the producer must be a member of FSC. Every step of the way, from the management of the forest and the cutting of the trees, through the pulping of the wood and the manufacture of the paper must meet FSC guidelines, and the product produced carries a certificate that has been independently verified by a third-party source. For a printer to use the FSC trademark on a catalog, for example, they need to be certified themselves as FSC chain-of-custody certificate holders.

"It's what drove local faucet-maker Moen Inc. to ask St. Ives (a printing company) to print catalogs on FSC-certified paper. As a supplier to the construction industry, which is becoming increasingly green, it's important that Moen demonstrate it's doing its part." Another landmark coming this summer, Scholastic Inc. is also going to be using FSC paper for at least 65% of its initial printing of the seventh book in the Harry Potter series.

As more and more people are learning is the case with green building, printing with FSC paper is not necessarily more expensive. Many kinds of FSC certified paper also contain some recycled content, but because paper degrades as it is recycled, some virgin wood pulp needs to be used to provide the necessary strength. FSC works to ensure that the stock for that comes from sustainable sources.

According to the FSC website, "Over the past 12 years, over 84 million hectares in more than 82 countries have been certified according to FSC standards while several thousand products are produced using FSC certified wood and carrying the FSC trademark. FSC operates through its network of National Initiatives in 40 countries."

via: Ann Arbor News and Newhouse News Service

Links:
Forest Stewardship Council

FSC Paper

Seth Godin has a great post up today titled [More] or (Less).

Many people are arguing for a fundamental change in the way humans interact with the world. This isn't a post about whether or not we need smaller cars, local produce, smaller footprints and less consumption. It's a post about how deeply entrenched the desire for more is.

More has been around for thousands of years. Kings ate more than peasants. Winning armies had more weapons than losing ones. Elizabeth Taylor had more husbands than you.

Car dealers are temples of more. The local Ford dealership lists four different models… by decreasing horsepower. Car magazines feature Bugattis, not Priuses on the cover. Restaurants usually serve more food (and more calories) than a normal person could and should eat.

Is this some sort of character flaw? A defective meme in the system of mankind? Or is it an evil plot dreamed up by marketers?

…

"Fight global warming" is a fine slogan, except it's meaningless. That's like dieters everywhere shouting, "eat less" while they stand in line to get bleu cheese dressing from the salad bar.

As a marketer, my best advice is this: let's figure out how to turn this into a battle to do more, not less.

 

What do you think about what Seth had to say? Are we standing at the salad bar shouting for more bleu cheese salad dressing? Leave your thoughts in the comments here.

Courtesy of WillSteger.com

Will Steger, famed polar explorer whose feats include the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole without re-supply, the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history (1,600 mile south-north traverse of Greenland), and the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica, is now on a new mission. He is an eyewitness to the impacts of global warming, both in the Polar Regions and in his home state of Minnesota. A former science teacher, he has set out to educate people on global warming and the solutions needed to slow it. He returned last week from a four-month trek by dogsled across Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic to interview the Inuit people, who have had to adapt quickly to a new lifestyle because of climate change. Steger will use these interviews to produce a documentary later this year.

I spoke with Will by phone on May 15th. He was in Iglulik, Nunavut; the last stop of his expedition.

Green Options: You’ve traveled both Polar Regions extensively and have documented how climate change is drastically changing their landscapes. What was different about this trip?

Will Steger: This was a new route for me because this was a cultural expedition. We specifically planned the route so we could visit as many villages and talk with as many people along the way as possible. We know global warming is happening and we want to put a human face on it. So we spent a lot of time in villages. Our team included myself, three team members, and three 50- or 60-year-old Inuit hunters. We talked with hundreds of people.

Baffin Island, where I traveled, is like ground zero of global warming because there’s an intact culture that relies very heavily on their surroundings to survive. Changes are noticed almost immediately. Up here, global warming is showing itself most drastically out on the sea ice. As the earth warms, 80 percent of that energy goes into the ocean, which then affects the ice cover. The Inuit are seeing the ice freeze six weeks later, along with earlier break ups of the ice. Generally, the Inuit have had about 8 months where they are able to travel on the ice to hunt, and now that’s cut down to 5 or 6 months. That’s a 25 percent reduction in the amount of time they have to hunt out on the ice, which acts like an extension of their land.

GO: Are the Inuit angry? It is industrialized countries’ pollution that has caused this.

WS: Everyone is talking about global warming up here, there’s no denial about it. But the Inuit are forgiving people. Many of them aren’t worried about it because they can’t change it, and they don’t worry about things they can’t change. They understand that the polluters are industrialized nations, but in general they don’t harbor a lot of anger. They wish we would change, but they’re pretty easy going.

But we still have to take responsibility. Our way of consuming energy is really causing this, and we need to change to avoid the worst of the consequences.

GO: You’ve documented the changes up there before; did anything surprise you about this trip?

WS: Let me first say that no single event “proves” global warming. Global warming is an accumulation of changes happening over time. That said, I did see an effect that really surprised me, and everyone up there was talking about it: There is a large sound called Cumberland Sound. It’s about 50 miles wide and 125 miles long, and we were going to cross it on this expedition. But the ice broke up from the swells from a super storm in the North Atlantic. Everyone was talking about that. So we had to go around it, which was an extra 75 miles. That’s not a major hardship for the team, but it is for the Inuit communities because they depend on the sound for commercial fishing. Now it has shattered the fishing industry. It isn't just abou the environment; it’s the fact that it affects the economy and survival of this entire community.

Another impact really struck me. There’s a place up here they call the “land where ice never melts.” Well, it is melting. The glaciers are shrinking. That was incredibly powerful to see.

GO: Seeing all these impacts from climate change, was this trip depressing or invigorating?

WS: Neither. It was reaffirming: We were ground-truthing the science.

You have to understand that this Inuit culture does not think the way we do. Their world is close to the land. They talk in minute details of the changes in the salt in the sea ice, details that aren’t even in the climate change models. You rely on a lot of satellite info up here, but there aren’t a lot of scientists.

GO: How do the Inuit talk about global warming?

WS: Many of the elders will say the earth’s axis has changed because the sun is rising in a different place. But what’s really happening is that, because our warming planet causes more water to be absorbed up into the atmosphere, they are seeing a diffraction of the sun. It’s like an optical illusion caused by global warming. They also say that the sky color has changed: it’s now a whitish blue in the winter rather than a deep blue. In the wintertime up here, the sun doesn’t rise. But now the Inuit say the light is getting brighter in the winter. Again, the water vapor is diffracting the light in the atmosphere, making it seem lighter.

GO: What are your next steps after you return to the States?

WS: We have a lot of film from our expedition up here. We’ll be heading out to Los Angeles to start producing the documentary. In the summer, we’ll be back up to Baffin Island to do more interviews with the elders.

I’m also back on the global warming campaign trail in November, along with Fresh Energy, an energy policy organization with which I partner. We’ll be educating folks on solutions, specifically speaking a lot with congregations in the faith community.

Governor Tim Pawlenty appointed me to sit on Minnesota’s Climate Change Advisory Group. I’m working with about 50 other people from industry, environmental groups, local and tribal governments, transportation, and agriculture to develop a climate change action plan for the state.

I’ll also be working more with high school students, which I’m very excited about. They must feel empowered to fight this. They’re not taking on the challenge yet, but I think it’s going to happen soon, and I want to be part of it. I want to do now what we did 30 years ago during the Vietnam War; create a movement with young people. That’s when we’re going to see real change.

 

Cross posted at Maria Energia 

James Hunt: Register-Mail PhotoYou pull into the driveway, tired after more than 3000 miles on the road, but what a vacation! You loaded mom and the kids into the SUV, and set off for the ultimate family trip: a tour of America.

First stop, the nation's capital, then to Disney World, Gettysburg, the Black Hills, Yellowstone National Park, and while you’re in the vicinity, a side trip to the Grand Canyon. You visited a few relatives along the way. You’ve stayed in hotels and motels, camped out a couple of times, and eaten at both fast food restaurants and a couple of four star eateries.

The only thing you didn't buy was gasoline. You took the SUV, the gas hog, but you didn’t put one drop of gas in the tank. Let’s see, the price of gasoline is $3 a gallon, plus or minus, and you drove at least 3000 miles in a vehicle that averages 15 mgp. Wow, that’s a savings of at least $600, not bad in this day and age.

And, as you sit at the kitchen table adding up the cost of your odyssey, you offer up a silent "thank you" to a young, disabled Navy vet, 36 year old James Hunt who lives in Galesburg, IL, and attends Carl Sandburg College.

Hunt spent a year and a half working in his garage before taking his new fuel concept project to college officials who liked what they saw, and funded a lab with all the materials needed to continue the work. Hunt formed the CSC Inventors Club, and was joined by several like-minded students who developed working bench models of his system.

What’s the secret? It's hydrogen gas, extracted from those six gallons of water by plasmatic induction, and fed to the motor as a gas to power the engine. When hydrogen burns, it gives off water, which is fed back to that six gallons; the only thing coming out the tailpipe is hot air. It's all perfectly safe: you'll never re-create the Hindenburg disaster in the car. I know, water in the gas tank, it's been done before but stay with me here…

Can this work? Yes. Jim says they have internal combustion engines running on hydrogen gas produced by the energy conversion system in the lab. In June, the students will retrofit a 1991 Chevy Cheyenne 4×4 pickup to begin road testing the system. First they'll tour the Carl Sandburg campus until they receive permission to operate a non-conventional fuel-powered vehicle on city and state thoroughfares.

Is anyone really interested? Hunt says the program manager of GM’s (that’s General Motors) Fuel Cell Technology Development Division contacted him, requesting more information. In a story from Galesburg’s Register-Mail newspaper, Hunt told reporter John R. Pullium that three Fortune 500 companies have contacted him, along with several investors and possible sponsors. In his latest communication to me, Jim said he’s received inquiries from individuals concerning expanded uses for the system, such as fuel to generate electric power for small communities. "We have started to take on private investors" he said "to help raise money for research and development of our final prototype".

How much would it cost to retrofit your vehicle? Hunt figures about $2000. Will it fit in your car? Sure, he says: just replace your fuel tank with his recovery system, add water and drive away. The only thing you’ll change are some non-lethal carbon rods, about once a year. They’ll cost somewhere in the range of what you’d pay for gasoline in one month of driving.

Will it work? Will he get his patent, and will his dream survive the anticipated onslaught from big oil corporations and other interests who’d rather not see this type of energy generation system take hold? In another Register-Mail article, Hunt is quoted as saying, “I’d like to see the world benefit” and added, “I am fearful of the bad guys in the background.” Today, he feels his future is looking up, happy that he’s apparently managed to break the hydrogen safety barrier.

Jim has promised to keep me updated on their progress, and we’ll be watching this story very closely, posting updates as they become available, regardless of the outcome.

SOURCES:

CSC Investors Club BlogSpot: Newspaper Articles

Posted by Dave (in Ireland)

© Innerspace Visions / James D. Watt

The future of the whales will be decided in Anchorage, Alaska, in a couple of weeks time.

As a committed Whale Defender, we need you to make your voice heard once again. The key governments in the debate need to hear from you that you demand that the International Whaling Commission works to protect whales.

“The 59th International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting has begun its preliminary meeting in Anchorage ahead of the key decision making week from May 28th – 31st. Your delegation will be representing not only your government, but your electorate. We ask that you ensure that your delegation is briefed to vote for whale protection at this important meeting.”

Tell your government that you vote NO to commercial whaling »