Does Corn, Cadillac Esclade and Formula 1 have anything in common? Next year, they could !

Following the trend set by other racing series’ like IndyCars and the American Le Mans Series, Formula 1,  in a move to make the scenario much greener and eco-friendly, is looking at ethanol to be the sport’s adopted fuel.

According to retired two-time champion Emerson Fittipaldi, Formula 1  boss Bernie Eccelstone met Brazilian ethanol suppliers last year. Fittipaldi himself owns a sugar cane plantation in his home country Brazil, and is presently constructing an ethanol refinery to produce the fuel.

F1 teams are already preparing their cars to function with a hybrid drive system for next year’s races and this move is a direct indication of Formula 1’s concern and interestedness in adopting biofuels to save the planet and shed their dependency on crude oil which has become costlier.

Racing on ethanol fuel will not contain the thrill or the speed. All cars in the IndyCar series use E100 ethanol as fuel. In the ALMS some of the teams including the GT1 Corvette C6Rs use cellulosic E85. The Audi R10s run on GTL diesel fuel while the rest of the pack is fueled by E10 meaning cars won’t get slower due to the switch in fuel.

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It is official. GM announced today that all 2009 Escalades will be flexfuel capable- will run on E85 or conventional gasoline or a mixture of both.

E85, a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline is a clean burning fuel that can cut down green house gases by as much as 23% compared with normal gasoline. The flexfuel Escalades is the company’s latest move to reach its goal of selling half of its vehicles produced in the U.S flexfuel capable by the year 2012. 12 new E85 stations were inaugurated earlier this week by GM and many more are set to come in the future to serve the vehicles.

Entire press release after the jump!

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In a move by the Dubai Government to curb pollution and fuel usage on taxis, ten General Motors’ Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid SUV’s started their test runs in the city.

This is not the first time that a government is looking at alternative sources of energy to propel taxis. New York City is presently using Ford Escape Hybrids. The trial program was flagged off by His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai at a function held at the Monarch Hotel in Dubai. The guests at the program were also treated with a  “documentary” on hybrids that portrayed the efforts to reduce emissions and fuel consumption in the UAE (of which Dubai is a part).

GM’s press release after the jump!

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A new entrant in the world of alternate-fuels, Ronn Motor Company has come out with a 40 mpg hydrogen hybrid car named Scorpion. Hydrogen hybrid? Yes! and it is a very interesting concept.

The Scorpion is capable of achieving a 0-60 mph sprint in a supercarish 3.5 secs and an awe-inspiring top speed of 200 mph. The system behind all of this is as impressive as the performance.

Hydrogen is obtained by breaking water molecules absorbed from water stored in a small tank. The liberated hydrogen is then sent into the intake manifold where it blends with gasoline in a 30 to 40 percent ratio. The concoction is fed into a 3.5 liter, VTEC, V-6 Acura engine. As the water from the tank produces the requires hydrogen, the system completely does away with filling stations or high pressures lines and tanks. Pretty smart then!

Press Release after the jump!

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Well, the picture says it all! Tesla’s new dealership-to-be is located on Santa Monica Blvd., just east of the 405. There was speculation that there were problems with the Roadster, and with the ex-CEO quitting, who knows what’s going on anymore! But there’s a new CEO in the hot-seat, and now this new development seems to indicate that they’re still in the game, albeit they’ve not sold but one Roadster yet (Or, at least nobody’s actually driving one yet!)

Maybe this is where it all starts? We’ll just have to sit back and wait…

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On Tuesday Exxon made public a new development within it’s chemicals business which they feel will be key in future batteries for EV’s being lighter and more efficient. They have developed a film which is used to separate the positive and negative electrodes apart which can withstand much higher heat levels than the current alternatives. This will allow for larger Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries which won’t overheat. The beauty of Li-Ion batteries is that they hold a charge for much longer than nickel-methyl hydride batteries, and are much lighter. Unfortunately, it’s tendency to overheat, or even catch fire has been a hindrance in it’s use in EV’s. According to Jim Harris, senior VP of Exxon Mobil Chemical Co., although the Li-Ion battery will continue to be hot, the new film will allow for larger Li-Ion batteries stable enough to utilise in EV’s.

The first thing that came to mind for me was, if there supposedly is no problem with oil production and we continue to operate with the “business-as-usual” attitude (even though it’s plainly evident that something’s awry,) then why is an Oil Giant who is making huge profits at the moment suddenly interested in battery technology for powering of EV’s, unless only because they know something we don’t (or at least isn’t being made public?) O.K. this might be a little “conspiracy theory,” but check out this site, and then download and read this report, and let me know what you think. If you read between the lines, it certainly appears that there is at least some truth to this, and that’s pretty scary! I don’t carry the same cynicism though - I feel that it probably will be a tough road, but humanity will find a way - We always have!

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United Parcel Service (UPS) rolled out a delivery service in California specifically for small parcels with a 100% EV fleet recently. They bought 42 electric cars and trucks (ZAP Xebra) from the well-known EV manufacturer ZAP. This is a first for UPS in that they have never used electric vehiclesbefore. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the conventional UPS delivery vans to do small parcel deliveries, and with the added benefit of lower fuel consumption and emissions it seemed the obvious choice. Drivers will now also be monitoring the electricity usage to analyse the cost savings and emission reductions being achieved.

ZAP CEO Stever Schneider said that “This is the missing link for small package deliveries in congested areas. Packages go from the airplanes, to the tractor trailers, to the delivery vans, then to the drop-off nodes. From there the ZAP trucks make the final delivery to the consumer in a zero-emission vehicle that costs less to operate. It’s a perfect example of how green technology can help corporate America’s bottom line.”

UPS will be setting up distribution points where their conventional trucks will transfer their packages to the EV Fleet, which will be responsible for the delivery to the final destination, specifically smaller communities and downtown areas, which the conveniontal trucks are finding harder to deliver to due to their size.

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Imagine for a moment that your utility company draws power on occasion from your EV to stabilise the grid and pays you for it. Pretty far-out right? Well, apparently not!

Google, the IEEE, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a former CIA director, a U.S. senator held a symposium on the 19th of September and discussed just this, along with other relevant topics. The discussion revolved around the concept of a “smart grid” which allows EV’s to communicate with the grid and charge itself when demand and price is at its lowest, and when demand is at high levels, the grid can syphon off a small percentage of power from those EV’s that are plugged in and not in use. So basically, you’re only paying the lowest possible rate, and being paid for power that’s drawn from your EV’s battery from time to time.

There are, of course some difficulties with this concept. One concern is how this would affect battery life of the EV. Periodic demands from the grid, even if for only a tiny amount of the battery’s stored energy, would obviously affect the cells’ life span, but no one knows how much.  Utility and finance companies are looking into the idea of leasing the batteries to EV owners and then charge a fixed rate to recharge it, and pay back when “drawing” a small amount of electrical power from it to the grid. Then once your battery performance becomes too low to use in your EV, the company swaps it out with a new one, refurbishes the old one and utilises it for storage of power generated from renewable source power stations - something power companies have thus far never accommodated for at any scale.

For this concept to work, technology and policy advances are required, and is under intense development all around the world.

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One of the biggest downfalls we hear critics talk about the EV is the amount of time it takes to recharge. Charge times of anything from 2 hours to 12+ hours on various models have been mentioned. That’s a long break at a filling station! So if I told you that it may be possible in the near future to fully charge your EV in about 10 minutes, would that quieten the critics?

Thanks to Altair Nanotechnologies, the design of a battery with high-surface-area nano-patterned electrodes and an unusually stable lithium chemistry, EV batteries can now be safely charged to full capacity in about 10 minutes - not recommended you try that with most lithium batteries (ka-boom?!)

BUT before we start breaking out the bubbly, there’s a small problem. Whilst the technology for the battery is a brilliant break-through, in order to be able to accomplish a “10-minute-fill” you’d need about 250 kilowatts of power— five times more than an average office building uses at its peak. So that means, unless you have an electrical substation in your back yard, you’re probably not going to be able to use this technology at home. Even rapid charge filling stations with an average of 4 filling points would require the power-equivalent an electrical substation to charge all 4 points at the same time, and I’d guess that we’d put a huge amount of pressure on the power grid if you had thousands of EV’s being rapid-charged all at once! So is that it for the rapid-charge theory? I’d say it’s just the beginning!

This is a brand-new technology. Obviously with further R&D I’m certain new developments will arise which allow for this concept to be more practical. Sven Thesen, supervisor of PG&E’s Clean Air Transportation group says PG&E is exploring the idea of installing battery storage facilities at its substations to facilitate rapid charging. The batteries would be charged overnight when the demand on the power grid is at its lowest, and the stored power can then be used for the rapid-charging process. It’s not just all talk either - PG&E plans to install an EV charging station capable of rapid charging at its Davis California facility utilising this concept in 2008.

Certainly a partnership between electrical companies and filling stations could see this become a reality, and open up a lot of new opportunities for the savvy entrepreneur…!

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In order for us to be able to compare the two most popular options for alternative vehicle propulsion systems (Hydrogen and Electric), we need to understand The Hydrogen Fuel cell a little better.

First off, in order for the Hydrogen Fuel cell to work properly, one would need a pure form of Hydrogen gas (I.E. carbon-free), oxygen which can be derived from the air, and a catalyst for the reaction in order to create electricity, which in turn propels the car. So basically it’s a mini power factory generating electricity derived from Hydrogen which is stored in high-pressure tanks on the vehicle (that’s a scary topic all it’s own , but I guess we ARE comfortable with flammable/toxic petrol in our cars, so whatever!) The only “waste” would be water. However, even under tremendous pressure, prototype hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have a range of about 100 miles. The popular theory that one could extract Hydrogen from water stored in tanks on the vehicle through electrolysis is far too expensive, inefficient and impractical to implement anytime in the near future. A slightly different option may be to use a large on-board reformer that would pull hydrogen out of a fuel such as methanol, but you would still be left with toxic pollutants including CO2, and the demand for whichever fuel is required would rise steeply, which would defeat the purpose.

With all that in mind, you may or may not know that car manufacturers are anything between 10 to 25 years away from seeing mass-market hydrogen-powered vehicles, since the technology is still a way off. And what of infrastructure? Well, you’d basically have to convert every single petrol station into a Hydrogen station - that’s a HUGE project, and a LOT of money! It would take a long time to replace the existing infrastructure with a hydrogen manufacturing, distribution and fueling infrastructure , and involves many risks, expenses and by-products we may even still be unaware of. On the other hand, a battery powered electric vehicle uses an infrastructure that is already available in every modern country known to man: you household’s electricity supply.

You may think “OK, 10-25 years, plus maybe another 10 years to fully replace the infrastructure. No big deal, we can wait.” I beg to differ! What of our “global warming issue?” But more practically, let’s look at our oil supply issue. Ex CEO of Total, one of the major global oil companies, predicted that oil output would peak around 2020. The Current CEO says that 100 million barrels per day production is “in my view, an optimistic case.” Here’s where the crisis lies: calculations based on the current global trends (for example, 15% per annum growth in Chinese demand on for oil) suggests that 140 million barrels per day would be needed by 2030. I think the figures speak for themselves - roughly translating to global economic depression long before 2030!

The bottom line is that EV’s are by far the most suitable substitute available to us right now, both economically and for the health of the Earth. I don’t necessarily rule out that a technology of tomorrow may come about which proves otherwise, but for now pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking isn’t helping the situation! EV technology is available today, and constantly improving, allowing for the transition from conventional vehicles to EV’s to be a relatively painless process, and as mentioned earlier, the infrastructure basically already exists. You may feel that my position on this is biased, but I challenge you to find facts that prove me wrong!

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