X Prize competition for 100 MPG vehicle includes two biofuel teams

FROM BLOG: Biofuels Digest - Biofuels Digest - daily biofuels business and financial news.

In California, 22 auto teams have applied and been accepted for the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE competition to develop the first production-scale vehicle that achieves a fuel economy rating of 100 mpg. Among the contenders for the price are two biofuels teams: North Carolina’s Nelson Tywa Power with its EMC2 Plus, and Florida’s Millmac with its Ceata. A total of $10 million in prize money will be awarded to winners of the competition.

X Prize for aviation biofuels: “The race to refuel American aviation is on,” Transportation Secretary says

LiquidMaze expects to receive air permit; water permit next for long-delayed Colorado ethanol project

North Dakota gives $50,000 to Lakota Biofuels for feasibility study

John Deere debuts corn ethanol contract insurance; will permit farmers to make higher delivery commitments

Biofuels Stock and Financial Outlook for October 18: Stock futures mixed as banking sector weighs on Dow; more plant delays and cancellations announced by ethanol producers

New Mercedes BlueTEC engines: Diesel Engines Greening SUVs

FROM BLOG: EcoFuss - Ecofuss is an environmental-friendly blog with daily posts written by our dedicated writers. We speak about environmental issues and ways to get the Earth greener.

While Detroit automakers GM, Ford, and Chrysler are literally on the verge of bankruptcy or another reckless government bailout, BMW is still trucking along, and doing so in a manner that consumers actually demand and appreciate unlike their domestic competitors. BMW is promoting their new, innovative diesel engines which are some of the most efficient and cleanest diesel engines in the world.

These beastly green machines are Mercedes-Benz BlueTEC engines.

So for the facts:

• When the BlueTEC engine was used first in 2007 in a Canadian Mercedes, and the vehicle was voted “World Green Car of the Year” due to it’s clean, efficient characteristics
• The engine is 20-40% more fuel efficient than its comparable gas counterparts
• It reduces the polluting nitrogen oxide normally released in emissions by an astounding 80%

Currently, the engine is utilized in Canadian Mercedes models, and is supposedly one of the only vehicles to meet the future, stricter emissions standards.

So a quiet running, fuel efficient, green, low emissions [renewable] diesel powered vehicle. You’re thinking, great, but I cannot afford it. Which is the same thing I’m thinking, but….

Mercedes is not keeping their innovative engine technology proprietary, but they’re instead opening up the technology to other car manufacturers. Presumably, they’ll license this great technology as a socially responsible company so it could potentially be available to the masses very soon.

While diesel technology inherintly has its drawbacks like every current, plausible energy source, it does have its environmentally sound niche as shown by BlueTec. So if/once US automakers get on the right foot and begin making green cars people want, lets hope that BluTEC esque technology finds its ways into our automobiles.

Should cloning be used to resurrect extinct species?

FROM BLOG: The Conservation Report - The Conservation Report presents the latest environmental news and comment from a moderate perspective. From air pollution to zoonotic diseases and everything else in between.

Should science resurrect extinct species? Some scientists think so. I find megafauna like mammoths and elephant birds fascinating, but I also realize that one of the greatest challenges today is protecting living flora and fauna from human expansion and habitat degradation, loss, and fragmentation—so I don’t know. On one hand it would be remarkable, but then again those resources can be used to conserve living wildlife. From the New York Times, United States:

Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this long time staple of science fiction were a realistic possibility, saying that a living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million.

The same technology could be applied to any other extinct species from which one can obtain hair, horn, hooves, fur or feathers, and which went extinct within the last 60,000 years. Though the stuffed animals in natural history museums are not likely to burst into life again, these old collections are full of items that may contain ancient DNA which can be decoded by the new generation of DNA sequencing machines.

If the genome of an extinct species can be reconstructed, biologists can work out the exact DNA differences with the genome of its nearest living relative. There are now discussions of how to modify the DNA in an elephant’s egg so that generation by generation it would progressively resemble the DNA in a mammoth egg. The final stage egg could then be brought to term in an elephant mother, and mammoths might once again roam the Siberian steppes. The same would be technically possible with Neanderthals, whose full genome is expected to be recovered shortly, but ethically more challenging.

A scientific team headed by Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller at Pennsylvania State University report in today’s issue of Nature that they have recovered a large fraction of the mammoth genome from clumps of mammoth hair. Mammoths were driven to extinction toward the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago, after the first modern humans learned how to survive and hunt in the steppes of Siberia.

Re-Charge Your Battery in 20 Minutes

FROM BLOG: Hybrid Car Reviews - Hybrids are the latest rage in the auto industry. And unlike all the other alternatives, hybrid cars are available today. Find out more about how this affects you at hybridreview.blogspot.com

Ener1 and Kyushu Electric have signed a a memorandum of understanding to work together on creating a rapid recharging systems for the next generation of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. (source: press release found via GreenCarCongress) The system is target to re-charge lithium-ion batteries up to 80% of capacity in less than 20 minutes.

Currently, reported re-charging times are 6-8 hours through common house-hold plugs.

The companies are targeting the first integrated systems for March, 2009. They are hoping the relationship will accelerate the development of charging systems to match the 'anticipated growth' in electric vehicles.

Ener1 and KEPCO will work together to create and manufacture rapid recharging systems for electric vehicles. KEPCO has already developed one of the most advanced rapid charging stands and plans to customize that solution with the EnerDel High Energy Pack System. KEPCO's next-generation electric vehicle rapid charging station has exhibited one of the highest levels of performance for rapid charging in Japan.

"Drivers need to know they can recharge an electric car as easily as they fill the tank in today's conventional vehicles," said Ener1 Chairman and CEO Charles Gassenheimer. "The batteries are here. What we need is the infrastructure to charge them quickly. We have often suggested that the customer for electric drive is not just the auto manufacturers, but also the integrated power and utility companies. Together with ITOCHU Corporation, we are privileged to work with such prestigious partners on this important project. The opportunity underscores Ener1's strategy to be a total systems and solutions provider in pioneering the electrification of the automobile."

"We are excited to be working with Ener1, which we consider to be an early leader in the development of this industry," said Toshiro Noguchi, General Manager of the Research Laboratory at KEPCO. "We believe that Ener1's state of the art technology is now ready for rapid adoption and are excited to be partnering with them at this critical time."

---

More Hybrid Car information can be found at http://hybridreview.blogspot.com