Primary Energy Use and Clean Coal Technology

clean coal technology
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns as it is a significant source of CO2 emissions and other airborne pollutants, and it is almost totally based on oil as its energy source. An important aspect of future changes in transportation depends on what happens to the available oil resources, production and prices. At present, 95% of all energy for transportation comes from oil. (more…)

Flex Fuel Vehicles Auto Industry Ford, Chevrolet, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan

Because transportation is such a large contributor to global warming, both globally and in the United States, climate and energy experts say finding clean alternatives to gasoline is also key to replacing fossil fuels and slowing global warming. Just as there is debate and competing research about which type of alternative transportation fuel should be developed to produce electricity, however, there is also competition among possible new transportation fuels. So far, in the United States, significant funding has been put into two transportation technologies—ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells. Many energy commentators say cars powered by electric batteries are the technology closest to mass production capability, however. (more…)

Alternative Transportation Fuels And Alternative Fuel Vehicles

Alternative Fuel Vehicles
At present, in the United States and worldwide, motor vehicles are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum based gasoline (or reformulated gasoline) and diesel fuels. Since the first oil price shock in 1973, efforts have been made to seek alternative fuels to displace gasoline and diesel fuels and achieve energy and environmental benefits. Some of the alternative fuels that have been researched and used are liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), methanol (MeOH), dimethyl ether (DME), Fischer– Tropsch diesel (FTD), hydrogen (H 2 ), ethanol (EtOH), biodiesel, and electricity. Production processes associated with gasoline, diesel, and each of these alternative fuels differ. (more…)

New Car Tax Credit Promoting Higher Fuel Economy in Japan

new car tax credit
This latter form of new car taxes can actually serve as an impediment to higher fuel economy to the extent that increased energy efficiency is attained with high-cost technology, such as continuously variable automatic transmissions, hybrid electric vehicles drive trains, and variable valve controls, and such taxes add to the cost of these technologies. (more…)

New Tax Credits For Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)

hybrid car tax
Under both former President Bush and new President Obama, the U.S. government has vowed to reduce reliance on imported oil. The nation is encouraging development of a transportation fleet that uses biofuels, fuel cell vehicles and hybrid electric technologies.

Us Government Program To Reduce Reliance On Imported Oil

To that end, the federal government, in late 2008, put in place new incentives – and extended others – designed to create a strong up-tick in sales of unconventional vehicles. As a result, the U.S. Energy Information Administration anticipates that hybrid cars will grow from 2% of new light-duty vehicles sold in 2007 to 38% by 2030. (more…)

Oil and Gas Exploration, Production, and Processing

Oil Gas Exploration
Most major oil and gas firms engage in both upstream (i.e., hydrocarbon exploration and production) and downstream (i.e., hydrocarbon refining and marketing) businesses as well as related activities such as chemicals, and their R&D activities serve the needs of these businesses. During the past decade or so, the R&D spending of oil and gas firms has generally declined. According to a DOE survey, R&D spending by major energy producers within the United States declined from $3.05 billion in 1994 to $1.33 billion in 2000. Although not true of all producers internationally, the broad global trend over the past decade or so seems to be along similar lines. (more…)

Fuel Taxes in Europe to Reduce Fuel Consumption

Fuel Taxes in Europe
Analysis of future light-duty transportation energy use require estimates of the impact of fuel prices on travel and fleet fuel economy, estimates of the fuel price elasticity of travel, fuel economy, and fuel consumption are ubiquitous in the literature. However, there is substantial disagreement about the magnitude of these elasticities because travel volumes, fuel economy, and fuel consumption are dependent on several variables other than fuel price and because fuel prices have tended to be volatile during the past few decades, thereby complicating attempts to estimate long-run elasticities. Thus, the magnitude of the effect of changes in fuel taxes in US on fleet fuel economy and on travel volumes and fuel consumption is also subject to considerable disagreement. (more…)

The Future Of Renewable Fuels And Hybrids

Do we have the resources? Rudolf Diesel developed the diesel engine which ran on biodiesel vegetable oil in the late 1800s. At the time, he speculated that his discovery seemed insignificant, but later could prove to be as important as mankind’s uncovering of future energy uses for petroleum and coal tar. Given the U.S.’ rapid expansion into biofuels, it would appear his vision was correct due to the drawbacks of biofuels. But widespread adoption of biomass-based fuels is not a foregone conclusion. Two questions haunt its progress. First, will it truly reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels? And second, is there enough farmland to accommodate widespread production, without jeopardizing food supplies? (more…)

Sulfur Gasoline as Source of Automotive Emissions

In recent years, there has been a greater understanding of the role of automotive emissions as environmental pollutants. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide degrade the earth’s atmosphere and are health hazards. Carbon dioxide adds to the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases and in turn accelerates the process of global warming. (more…)

Alternative Fuels and Vehicles Cost-Competitive

alternative fuels vehicles
The increase in the prices of major fuels, like gasoline and diesel fuel products is a major global problems recently. Those prices are increase associated with the global economic crisis. Now, it is the ideal time to move all the focus and effort to alternative fuels for vehicles. There are different types of alternative energy sources for fuel to choose from. But the hard fact is that the areas of alternative fuels have not passed many real qualitative and quantitative surveys and breakthrough research. (more…)

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