Volkswagen Revives 200-mpg Car Project
Five years since Volkswagen showed off its 222 mpg "1-Liter Car" concept (shown), the company is apparently recommitting to the 200+ mpg project. Board chair Ferdinand Pi ch says it can be done -- that advances in materials and a reduction in associated costs have put plans for a super-efficient small Volkswagen back on the table. According to Pi ch, one supplier says the components can be had for around $6,775, not $47,400 as had been calculated. Of course, the 1-Liter concept was powered by an 8.5-horsepower, 299 cc one-cylinder engine, while anything built for the marketplace would likely have to come in a bit higher on all those specs to be viable. But if V-dub can build a car with a quad-turbocharged W16 that can hit 250 mph, they can also build one with a warp-driven Q3-cylinder with 500 mpg should be a walk in the Berchtesgaden.
Posted on Friday 14 September 2007
Nissan has joined a growing list of carmakers promising new ultra-fuel efficient models but, unlike most, Nissan is placing its bets on a conventional petrol vehicle. Where most carmakers are developing new hybrids, clean-diesels and electric cars, Nissan claims it will release a vehicle by 2010 for the Japanese market that can travel up to 100km on just 3L of ordinary petrol. This will allow it to keep the costs of the car low, giving it an advantage over expensive and potentially unreliable hybrids.
The news comes from Nissan executive Vice President Mitsuhiko Yamashita, who claimed the “fuel-economy of the 3-liter car will be at the same level as that of hybrids,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Though he wasn’t willing to divulge any details about the new model, we suspect it will feature some of the latest advancements in petrol engine technology including direct injection and possibly homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI). Pictured above is Nissan’s Urge, a concept of a future small sports model.
Volkswagen is also rumored to be developing a super-efficient vehicle. At this week’s Frankfurt Motor Show, VW’s Ferdinand Piëch hinted that a 100mpg VW could be on the market by 2010.
Related Posts
==================
BMW H7 exhausts green car doubters
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Aside from a couple of special nameplates and the "Clean Energy" appliqués affixed to the side panels, it looks like a normal BMW 7 series sedan. And that, BMW frontman Andreas Klugescheid says, is what impresses him most about this particular car: "It's so damned normal."
It hits 143 mph, turns as if on rails and stops on a silver dollar - just what the "Ultimate Driving Machine" is supposed to do, he says. In BMW's world, that's normal.
In the larger world, where the automotive buzz is about hybrids and fuel cells, greenhouse gases and green cars, fuel from corn and sugar, the Hydrogen 7 - which runs on hydrogen - is anything but normal.
Beneath the hood purrs a typical BMW 12-cylinder engine. Lots of horsepower, smooth as silk, no different from its gasoline-powered siblings, except that it burns hydrogen.
Why? Because hydrogen combustion produces no carbon, just good old H2O, water. Thus, no greenhouse gases.
Hydrogen technology is nothing new for BMW. The German automaker has been developing hydrogen cars for more than 30 years, but the H7 is the first production model. BMW ran 100 of them through the normal assembly line, then outfitted them with a few extras to make them work like "normal" cars: an extra intake manifold, special fuel injectors, and an insulated, double-walled tank in the trunk to store the liquid hydrogen at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit.
The gasoline option compensates for the dearth of hydrogen filling stations. The closest permanent station is in Orlando, which has a small fleet of hydrogen-powered buses. Kennedy Space Center also has one: the space shuttle burns hydrogen.
But BMW is patient. A century ago, gasoline was sold at drugstores. Today gas stations sell drugs, food, newspapers, telephones and lottery tickets.
The technology to break water into oxygen and hydrogen - the universe's most abundant element - is still being perfected. Naysayers maintain that hydrogen production requires more energy than it produces, but Klugescheid, corporate communications manager for BMW North America, says efficiency will come eventually, from the wind, the sun, maybe even from energy in the Gulf Stream.
Meanwhile BMW wants people to start thinking about the possibilities: hence, the H7. Actually it's a hybrid, because it runs on hydrogen or gasoline.
"I was behind a Toyota Prius hybrid the other day," Klugesheid said, "and I kept thinking, you gas-guzzler, because compared to the Hydrogen 7, the Prius is a guzzler, and a polluter. When it's perfected, the hydrogen car won't need any gasoline. And the world will be a much different place."
Let's clear the air
The dual-fuel demonstrator, powered by a 6-liter, 12-cylinder engine, develops a modest 260 horsepower. That's 43 horses per liter, typical of most modern gasoline engines.
A new 6-cylinder Toyota Camry claims 76 horsepower per liter and Ford's supercharged Mustang Shelby GT cranks out 92.6. But back in Munich, says Klugescheid, engineers are working with hydrogen-only engines that already produce a stupefying 134 horsepower per liter.
Hydrogen's energy potential will allow automakers to build smaller, lighter engines that produce lots of power, lots of speed and also lots of economy, Klugescheid said. The hydrogen fuel tank that takes up half the trunk and provides only 120 miles per fill-up, will shrink yet offer more range.
And, he says emphatically, they will be safer.
"This is not the Hindenburg," he said, referring to the legendary airship filled with hydrogen that met a flaming end in New Jersey in 1937.
"Static electricity ignited the coating on the outside," said Klugescheid, a historian by education.
"Most of the people who died were those who jumped."
Regardless, technology has changed considerably in 70 years. The tank is double-walled and the filler port has multiple safeguards. Germany's standards bureau declared the system at least as safe as gasoline systems.
"In a crash, if the tank were to rupture, the hydrogen would just vent into the air," Klugesheid said. "Gasoline on the other hand could pour onto the ground or possibly pool inside the car - a much greater chance of fire."
Klugescheid drove the Hydrogen 7 to West Palm Beach from the Kennedy Space Center where BMW tested the cars with NASA for eight weeks. Soon the cars will be loaned or leased to a variety of movers and shakers.
A few weeks ago, BMW announced its first hydrogen "pioneer": comic actor Will Ferrell. Others recently in the H7 driver's seats: Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori at the FOX All-Star Party in Santa Monica; Richard Gere and Sharon Stone at the Cinema for Peace Gala in Berlin; Brad Pitt at the premiere of Oceans 11. Klugescheid also says that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Florida pal Charlie Crist also want to drive them.
The test drive
So I am in select company as I buckle in, grip the leather-wrapped wheel and study the controls and instruments. Looks like an ordinary BMW. Except for one teeny tiny difference, a small button on the wheel - H2.
It switches between gasoline and the H2 hydrogen seamlessly, no clink, no sputter, nothing, as we roll across the Southern Boulevard bridge into Palm Beach, past Mar-a-Lago and the home once owned by John Lennon, down Worth Avenue and past The Breakers to the old Kennedy house.
I think to myself that President Kennedy would have embraced this concept: "If we can put a man on the moon in a decade, we should be able to develop clean energy sources that eliminate the need for foreign fuel and won't harm the earth."
I push the H2 button again and again. Klugescheid chuckles. The car doesn't flinch. The only noticeable difference is from a stop as the dual-fuel motor develops less take-off power in the hydrogen mode. Zero to 60 in 9 seconds instead of 6.
As we cruise along, heads don't turn. Palm Beachers are blasé about big Bimmers, even those that run on hydrogen.
But on Forest Hill, a driver in a pickup does notice. He pulls alongside, rolls down his window, smiles, gives a thumbs-up and yells: "It's about time."
===================
Mercedes to sell fuel-cell car from 2010
Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:14 AM BST
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Mercedes-Benz will begin serial production within three years of a small car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, the premium brand of DaimlerChrysler said on Tuesday.
"The small-scale series production of the B-Class F-Cell will begin in early 2010," the carmaker said in a statement at the Frankfurt International Motor Show.
"The engine for this innovative vehicle will be a new generation of fuel-cell engine that is much more compact and yet at the same time more powerful and completely practicable for everyday use."
It did not say how much the car will cost or how many it intended to sell.
Fuel cells use the interaction between hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity that powers the car while emitting only water. They have not yet become commercially viable because of their high cost and limited durability.
The new B-Class car's electric engine will generate top output of 136 horsepower and perform on par with a two-litre petrol engine, the company said. It will consume the equivalent of 2.9 litres of diesel fuel per 100 kilometres driven.
----
Liquid Piston
Monday, July 23, 2007
Inventor Nik Shkolnik and his son, MIT grad student Alexander Shkolnik, are developing technology that aims to improve the internal combustion engine’s fuel efficiency by 250%, according to a release. And their startup, LiquidPiston, just raised $1.25 million in its first venture capital investment round led by Adams Capital Mangement and Northwater Capital.
These funds add to an existing $70,000 Phase I grant from the Army Small Business Innovation Research program. LiquidPiston was also a runner up in MIT’s recent $100K Entrepreneurship competition. While the release notes that the technology will increase efficiency up to 250% and could make it possible for gasoline-powered cars to get 100 mpg, the website notes that the engine, compared to Otto or Diesel engines of similar power specifications, will:
* significantly improve engine efficiency, reaching 50%
* reduce NOx emissions by 70%
* reduce CO2 emissions by 50%
I
don't have an educated opinion on its feasibility, but if it can
improve the fuel efficiency of ICE by even 50%, this would be a
breakthrough technology. Hybrids only improve gas mileage by around
25%, so this would have a much larger impact. I am keeping my fingers
crossed that this will work out.
----
Date Posted:
Jul. 20 2007
Touch and Talk Software Releases H2 Power Core Software Hydrogen Generator Module to Help Build Fuel Independence
Mellen, WI--With world oil prices reaching $75.00 per barrel, gas prices over $3.15 per gallon and the constant drumbeat of war in the Middle East, it is time consumers become fuel independent.
Touch & Talk Software International announced today the release of the H2 Power Core Software Suite that allows people to make their own hydrogen generator, E85 ethanol or Biodiesel fuel to improve fuel economy and help become fuel independent.
The H2 Power Core Software hydrogen generator module includes an in depth study of the technology and safety considerations required to build a hydrogen generator for use in cars and trucks.
This module includes a detailed listing of tools, parts list and source information as well as photos and detailed instructions required to safely build a hydrogen generator.
The E85 ethanol and biodiesel modules include an in depth study of the technology and safety considerations required to make E85 ethanol or biodiesel fuels for cars and trucks.
The modules contain detailed listings of both the tools and parts required to make clean burning fuel from renewable crop sources.
The H2 Power Core Software Suite also includes an effective fuel additive recipe that can be used in either gas or diesel engines to increase mileage for both cars and trucks.
The H2 Power Core Software Suite is unique in that there is no other competing software package currently marketed and the suggested retail price is less than the cost of an average tank of gas!
----
AmSpec LLC Tests New Green Renewable Biodiesel
July 24, 2007
Natchez, Mississippi [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]
U.S. Sustainable Energy Corp. and Sustainable Power Corp. announce the results of testing of its new green renewable Biodiesel by AmSpec Services, LLC.
"We believe we have come up with a solution to stop the importation of foreign diesel fuels."
-- John Rivera, U.S. Sustainable Energy Corp., CEO
In a report published on
the USSEC Research page, results included improved flashpoint, higher
viscosity, dramatically lower sulfur (ppm), less copper corrosion,
higher cetane index, dramatically less carbon residue, and improved
lubricity over conventional Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel.
Comparable results indicate U.S. Sustainable Energy's biodiesel meets and exceeds all ASTM specifications of conventional ultra low sulfur diesel.
"With these breakthrough test results, we believe we have come up with a solution to stop the importation of foreign diesel fuels," said John Rivera, CEO. "Our 'OD 66' or Oxygenated Diesel meets and exceeds all ASTM specifications."
"As previously announced, Sustainable Power Corp. has received the exclusive worldwide license to acquire USSEC bio-waste products to produce and distribute biofuel," he added.
