The City of Santa Monica becomes the first region to purchase and make use of the first US built electric trucks called the ZeroTruck. This purchase of the ZeroTruck signals the start of the eco-friendly drive of the City of Santa Monica as far as their Sustainability Plan to reduce carbon emissions and the incremental reduction of fuel use.
This truck meets the needs of our Water Division and the goals of our Sustainable City Plan to reduce emissions and reduce our use of petroleum. A zero emission medium-duty truck is something that has never been available to us until now.”
The ZeroTruck is a medium duty truck that is based on the Isuzu N series chassis, the only US built electric vehicle offered in the United States. It boasts of a low cab forward design, automatic transmission and can go up to 100 miles. It likewise comes with advanced lithium batteries, an onboard battery charger, regenerative braking, and powered by a UQM PowerPhase 100 advanced electric motor.
General Motors has officially launched the Global Battery Systems Lab, a new facility that is expected to be a haven for the expected swarm of electric cars thriving on electric batteries. This new facility is likewise expected to speed up the car manufacturing efforts of General Motors for new hybrid vehicles which also includes the Chevy Volt.
The state-of-the-art facility is the size of seven basketball courts and is the largest in the United States. A team of more than 1,000 engineers will work on energy alternatives and advanced technologies that reduce dependence on petroleum, improve fuel economy and reduce emissions; putting cleaner, more efficient cars on the road more quickly and affordably.
You can check the video on this new battery lab here.
The oil and gas industry may very well be in good hands as a new player that bring technology and advancements will be entering the market soon. The Freudenberg Group has been intensifying business activities within the oil and gas industry for several years. Through OACIS, the Group will continue to strategically develop and foster its growth in this target market.
OACIS will focus its attention on the entire value stream – from the drill bit to the filling pump – which includes development and production (upstream) to transportation and storage (midstream) to processing and treatment at refineries (downstream).
OACIS brings together the product and service strengths of several companies with histories of providing superior sealing solutions to the oil and gas industry. Vestpak based in Sandnes, Norway; TBS based in Aberdeen, Scotland; Imperial Rubber based in Nisku, Alberta, Canada; Petroleum Elastomers and Tetralene based in Houston; and Simrit Oil & Gas based in Plymouth, Mich. provide the foundation for OACIS.
After the successful debut of the Toyota Prius, it looks like Toyota Motors is taking it to the next level as it is reportedly planning the car of the future using bioplastic materials made from seaweed.
Named the 1/X (pronounced 1-x’th) after the fraction of its carbon footprint compared to other vehicles, the hybrid is greener than others not only because of it gas mileage: Compared to standard petroleum-based plastic, bioplastic allegedly produces up to 60 percent less carbon dioxide and uses about 30 percent less energy as well.
Toyota plans on presenting their 1/X concept car at the Melbourne Motor Show on Feb. 28, even though it could be another 15 years until this seaweed car actually makes it to production.
Yokohoma Tires has been around long enough to realize that they have to continuously develop new tires if they are to keep their niche. Apparently that is what Yokohama had in mind when they decided to join the call for eco-friendly business solutions and products. This time around, they have turned to “orange oil technology,” a process that uses the environmentally friendly Super Nano-Power Rubber to produce environmentally friendly tires.
The product’s production process utilizes a new compound that requires about 20 percent less synthetic rubber, which reduces the amount of petroleum necessary in the manufacturing process.
Tires using the same orange oil technology will be available to U.S. consumers this summer, in the dB Super E-spec™, a tire that was researched and tested on the race track.
Human waste or poop power seems to be the next type of alternative fuel on the horizon. Human produced methane seems to work well under the hood of cars and this development should capture the eye of environmentalists looking to address issues as carbon emissions and waste problems.
Motorists continue to weigh their options on alternative fuel and human poop-power seem to be another option we will be seeing real soon.
Check out this video from BBC’s Top Gear where a drag race between cars powered on petroleum, animal waste and human waste shows us the difference among the three:
