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Emerging Technologies


Forget biodiesel, algae could produce hydrogen

In recent years, algae has gotten a fair bit of attention for its potential use as a feedstock for producing biodiesel. While the net carbon output of algae sourced liquid fuels could be a huge boon to the environment, there is a possible path that could yield zero carbon emissions. Researchers at the University of Tennessee are working on a process to produce hydrogen from algae via photosynthesis. The process would separate a particle produced by the algae during photosynthesis. The particle would then produce hydrogen in the presence ... Read more →

REPORT: Toshiba's SCiB battery will find a home with five automakers Sebastian Blanco

Last month, when Toshiba announced it would build a second plant to produce its lithium titanate Super Charge Batteries (SCiB), no automakers had publicly declared they would use those particular ...

Nissan LEAF named one of Time's top 50 inventions of 2009 Sam Abuelsamid

As we approach the waning days of 2009, it's time for everyone to compile their lists of best and worst of this and that for the year. Time magazine is no exception to this grand tradition and ...

Continental nominated for PACE Award for smart NOx sensor Sam Abuelsamid

Continental has developed a smart NOx sensor to help manage automotive emissions and Automotive News has recognized it with a nomination for its annual PACE awards. As more and more sensors are added ...

Ford adds wheat straw plastic to a small corner of the 2010 Flex Sebastian Blanco

Soy seats aren't Ford's only way to introduce as many bio-materials as possible into a production vehicle. See also: Mazda's biofabric and Toyota's "ecological plastics." Ford announced today ...

Project Sartre uses road trains to save fuel on the highway 10 days ago on Autoblog Green

Do you get bored when driving along the interstate? Ever wish you could just pull out your laptop and check Facebook on a long straightaway? If a EU-funded project called Sartre ever becomes a reality, you could. Sartre is a sort of drafting software that would use wireless controls to group up ...

Bio-plastics could almost completely replace petroleum plastics 11 days ago on Autoblog Green

Aside from fuels, one of the biggest uses of petroleum is in the production of polymer materials like plastics. Just as automakers have attempted to reduce the use of petroleum-based fuels, researchers are also working on reducing the other dino juice applications. One of the best known ...

It's Friday: Swedish automatic PHEV charging prod gets a big WTF? from us [w/VIDEO] 14 days ago on Autoblog Green

Is it too harsh to say that the Trinnovator is a solution without a problem? At the very least, we don't think that a flexible, extendable prod coming out of the front bumper of a plug-in car and creepily finding its way into a grid of receptacles is the best way to recharge a vehicle. This is ...

LA Auto Show Design Challenge entrants reveal Youthmobile 2030 designs 15 days ago on Autoblog Green

This year's iteration of the annual Design Challenge at the LA Auto Show asks the question: How will a new generation of drivers age 16-23 – raised with cell phones, web cams and online communities – emotionally connect to the automobile in 2030? We don't know the answer either, but ...

Rendered racing fantasy: 1-Liter Racing surfs to the future 16 days ago on Autoblog Green

We recently saw a rendering for the purely-speculative Audi Avatar, which was based on the outlandish vehicles seen in some futuristic racing video games. A new set of renderings takes the unreal racing game concept a bit further and imagines an entire league that uses hyper-efficient racing ...

Turn those blister packs into fuel with the Envion oil generator 17 days ago on Autoblog Green

It's no secret that we generate a phenomenal amount of garbage, especially here in the United States, and a lot of that trash consists of plastics. Plastics hit us in a number of ways. Most plastics are are produced, at least in part, from petroleum and the plastics don't decompose when put it in ...

STUDY: Lots of local, green electricity possible for most of the U.S. 17 days ago on Autoblog Green

One of the reasons that a vehicle powered by something other than gasoline is such a popular idea in the U.S. is that it helps us become less reliant on other countries for our transportation needs. To this end, biofuels and electric vehicles offer great potential to use local sources of energy ...

GM awarded DOE money to research Shape Memory Alloy heat engines 18 days ago on Autoblog Green

General Motors has been awarded $2.7 million by the Department of Energy to create a working prototype engine using Shape Memory Alloys (SMA). The idea is for the prototype to use SMA tech to capture heat energy from engine exhaust gasses via an electric generator and transfer that energy to ...

Coming Soon to an Automobile Near You: Plastic engines? 20 days ago on Autoblog Green

Automakers and consumers alike all want lighter cars. "Adding lightness" has a lot of desirable effects, most notably in overall fuel efficiency and performance. While numerous efforts have been made to reduce the weight of automobiles – including downsizing, subtracting unnecessary components ...

REPORT: Bolivia will make its own lithium-ion batteries by 2018 21 days ago on Autoblog Green

Asia and Michigan, watch out. It's a long-term goal, but Bolivia is looking to capitalize on its large in-ground lithium supply by producing li-ion batteries by 2018. While lithium might not ever be in short supply, Bolivia certainly has the advantage of not needing to import the valuable material. ...

Fanciful rendering of Audi Avatar shows what ultralights could be like in 2032 23 days ago on Autoblog Green

There are a lot of fanciful renderings out there that try to imagine what kind of vehicles we'll be driving in the coming decades. The renderings from Yanko Design are some of the strangest, including the latest, the Audi Avatar Concept. The ultralight, three-seat Avatar is supposed to be ...

REPORT: Generation Y will "redefine" automotive market, trends green and big 24 days ago on Autoblog Green

Were you born somewhere between 1976 and the early 1990s? Are you the child of a so-called Baby Boomer? If so, you, like me, are a member of Generation Y. So, what does that mean? Well, nothing really, but it's a convenient way to classify a large chunk of the American population... and we ...

What's old is new again: VW developed auto start/stop, DI in 1980 25 days ago on Autoblog Green

The great risk in predicting the future is that the odds are great that you will be wrong. Every once in while, though, you nail the ideas almost dead on. For some amusement, it's always fun to go back and peruse old issues of magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics to see what they ...

Volkswagen and Stanford to expand technology collaboration at "CARS" 27 days ago on Autoblog Green

Volkswagen is no stranger to working with Stanford University, having collaborated with the Palo Alto school on the DARPA Grand Challenge competitions for autonomous vehicles. Volkswagen also already has a technology research facility in Palo Alto. The university and automaker are now opening a ...

HFO-1234yf: Get used to hearing it 27 days ago on Autoblog Green

What the heck is HFO-1234yf? That's the name of a new refrigerant that's reportedly 350-times less damaging to the atmosphere than the current HFC-134a (or 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane, if you prefer). You may recall that today's refrigerant was actually put into widespread use back in the early ...

How can EEStor be valued at $1.5 billion? 29 days ago on Autoblog Green

We've long given up on waiting for announcements from EEStor (and, to a lesser degree, their partner ZENN) to come true. But, with the latest move by ZENN to drop their plans to launch the cityZENN high-speed electric car and will instead focus on becoming a supplier of ZENNergy Drive electric ...

VIDEO: Argonne National Lab developing Omnivorous Engine 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Gasoline, ethanol, methanol, butanol, natural gas... there are a ton of choices when deciding on what fuel is best suited for automotive use, and each of them offer at least some reason to recommend them over another. Which to choose? Here's a better question: What if you didn't have to choose ...

GM's OnStar EV Lab opens its doors, loves the Chevy Volt 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

One of the features that GM is promoting with the Chevy Volt, due late next year, is a completely new level of connectivity for the plug-in hybrid. Well, completely new isn't quite right. The Volt will certainly communicate with the grid and with GM in new ways, but the underlying OnStar ...

Auto X Prize announces 43 qualified teams still fighting for $10 million 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

The white stars on the map above could be used as the guidelines for a really fun road trip, if you're interested in learning as much as you can about the future of clean vehicles. From established companies (Tesla, Tata) to start-ups (Aptera) to high-school teams (West Philly EVX), these are the ...

Lists? Yeah, electric vehicles get on lists. Hopeful, hopeful lists 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Here are five technologies that "could change everything": Advanced car batteries Carbon capture and storage Space-based solar power Utility storage Next-generation biofuels This is the list culled by the Wall Street Journal, and we note that plug-in vehicles benefit/are tied to ...

ThinkWrap, Auto X Prize partner for "near-real time" race vehicle monitoring 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Got a favorite team in the Automotive X Prize? Once the road race portion of the AXP starts up (which is when, again?), we'll be able to follow the contest and specific vehicles online thanks to AXP's just-announced partnership with ThinkWrap. Vehicles will be monitored in "near-real time" thanks ...

Coskata's new Lighthouse cellulosic ethanol plant, in depth 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Coskata's newly-opened semi-commercial flex ethanol facility in Madison, Pennsylvania is as small as it can possibly be. Co-located at a Westinghouse facility that also in some fashion uses nuclear energy, the Lighthouse project, as it's called, is running 24/7 to turn wood chips into ethanol. ...

Redox flow batteries promise near-instant recharging times 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal, Germany, are currently working on improving a new type of battery system that promises recharge times on par with the refilling of a conventional fuel tank using something called redox flow batteries. How do they ...

CleanFlex Power System finds a way to burn ethanol in diesel engines 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Diesel engines like to burn diesel fuel. Most, especially older ones, will also run just fine on biodiesel. But ethanol? You can't put ethanol in a diesel engine, right? According to National Corn Growers Association chairman and Nebraska corn farmer Bob Dickey, there actually is a way to mix ...

Mexico developing 'smart' speed bumps to increase safety, decrease fuel consumption 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/Smart_speed_bumps_increase_safety_decrease_fuel_consumption'; Speed bumps are the bane of many an urban driver all around the world. We understand that the little protrusions were first installed to promote safety by getting drivers to slow down in congested ...

Coskata opens doors to first semi-commercial flex ethanol facility 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Coskata caught our attention back in January 2008 with the announcement that GM would take an equity stake in the cellulosic ethanol producer in an effort to bring the biofuel to market at a cost of just $1 a gallon. Since then, things haven't gone quite as smoothly as Coskata executives might ...

Israeli researchers at Innowattech capture energy from traffic 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Capturing lost energy with regenerative braking systems is one thing. This, however, is another ball-game entirely. Researchers in Israel have been experimenting with power generators placed underneath the road's surface to capture the mechanical energy of cars passing above and turn it into ...

Coal plants could emit 90% less CO2 thanks to chilled ammonia 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

"But what about the long tailpipe?" Critics of plug-in vehicles often use the "long tailpipe" argument – the fact that CO2 emissions are generated at a power plant somewhere instead of coming from the vehicle – to show that all the "zero emission" cars aren't as clean as they ...

2010 Kawasaki Concours 14 includes Fuel Economy Assistance Mode 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

In case you hadn't noticed, motorcycles are joining in on the bigger-is-better mentality right along with our cars and trucks. Each successive generation of a new model tends to have a slightly larger and more powerful engine, which in turn makes the bike faster and gives buyers a reason to ...

AltCar 2009: EF9's "unlimited clean energy" turbine could go into cars, if it works 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Mark Tanner, who does R&D for EF9 Energy Systems, was pretty wiped out by the time we got to speak with him at the end of AltCar 2009 in Santa Monica last weekend. It's understandable. He'd been explaining how his system for "unlimited clean energy" was supposed to work to hundreds of ...

REPORT: IBM working to develop 500-mile lithium-air battery pack 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Last week, a consortium of some of the nation's leading scientists and engineers reportedly met in California to develop a new battery pack for electric cars. Sponsored by IBM and its Big Green Innovations program, the so-called Battery 500 team hopes to create a power pack capable of propelling a ...

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  • Hyundai 2.4L direct injected Theta II
  • Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL-Hybrid bus
  • Chevy Volt hits the streets in Royal Oak
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