After the recent success of the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel at the Shanghai Motor Show, Youngman Auto, the lightweight English sports car builder’s Chinese partner has submitted a request that the concept go into production, at least for the Chinese market by the end of this year. The alternatively fueled Lotus made its debut at Geneva in 2008, and what set the car apart from normal flex fuel vehicles that can run on a blend of gasoline and ethanol, the Exige 270E adds methanol into the mix. It is no surprise that the Chinese are so interested in the Tri-Fuel, because back in 2007 China became the world’s largest producer and consumer of methanol. In 2008 nearly 1 Billion gallons of the alternative fuel was blended with gasoline in the panda loving country, and mixtures of methanol/gasoline are already available at many gas stations throughout the land.
Check out the diagrams after the jump to see how Tri-Fuel works.
You may be familiar with the musician Sheryl Crow; but did you know that she and a group of other celebrities are doing their part to conserve the Earth’s natural resources and lower their negative impact on the environment? With the help of her Mercedes Benz R320 BlueTEC the singer songwriter believes that “the newest clean diesel vehicles are eco-friendly and deserve as much attention as other gas alternatives like hybrids.”
These next generation diesel vehicles are extremely quiet, unlike the traditional clackers that you can hear from a mile away. These new diesels are cleaner and have an extremely efficient range of over 500 miles from a single fill up. The best part is that they qualify for similar IRS alternative power train tax credits just like their gas electric hybrid cousins.
What is most shocking is that the EPA estimates that the U.S. is capable of conserving 1.4 million barrels of oil per day, if only one third of the light duty automobiles on the road were state of the art clean diesels, utilizing technology like the Mercedes BlueTEC vehicles.
U.S. President Barack Obama wants to make stricter emissions laws and increase overall MPGs for cars in America. He started by giving California and thirteen other states the rights to enact stricter emissions laws. While this may make us breathe a little easier, is this the beginning of the end for the performance car?
Power doesn’t just come from burning gas but the mixture of air and fuel. The more air available in the engine, the greater the possibility of burning more fuel and creating higher performance. This unfortunately does not coincide with green-minded emissions or MPGs.
California is traditionally the hardest state on emissions, which is why most aftermarket products must be California Air Resources Board (CARB) certified to be street legal. If California gets stricter with the laws, there is a good chance that the new regulations could make some old exhaust systems noncompliant, rendering many cars in the costal state illegal.
Tuners may have to find new ways to unleash power in the constant quest for speed. The engineers at Mitsubishi chose to replace the diamond star standard 4G63 with the new 4B11 in their EVO X because they didn’t feel that they could continue tuning the old iron block and be environmentally compliant.
President Obama is taking a major step toward addressing global warming by cleaning up the American transportation fleet. Hopefully the car companies will be able to sneak a few more modified vehicles on U.S. roads before the hammer drops.
Overindulge this holiday season? You may have just powered your next road trip.
A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon decided to turn waste fat into biodiesel. Dr. Craig Alan Bittner used the fat from his patients for his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator. Bitter wrote on his now defunct lipodiesel.com, "Not only do they (patients) get to lose their love handles or chubby belly but they get to take part in saving the Earth." Classy.
Bitter faced some big problems for his creative fueling. For starters it’s illegal to use medical waste to power vehicles in California. But that’s not much of a problem anymore, because he closed his practice in November and moved to South America.
Bitter’s big change likely doesn’t have to do with just the health code. It seems that during the gas crisis a few months ago others were also taking advantage of the Krispy Kreme-sourced fuel. Three patients are suing the practice for not only allowing Bittner’s girlfriend and assistant to perform surgeries without a medical license, but also taking too much fat and leaving them disfigured.
Posted on 10.30.2008 10:18
by
Myles
Filed under:
| fuel
Exxon Mobil posted the highest quarterly profit for any company by making $14.83 billion in the third quarter of this year. This shattered the previous record of $11.68 billion, which was set in the last quarter also by Exxon Mobil.
But don’t get mad yet. Poor Exxon Mobil will likely lose $500 million from the effects of Hurricane Gustav and Ike, and oil production is down. So it is likely that Exxon Mobile won’t post any record profits for the fourth quarter of 2008.
Although the near $100 fill-up of your SUV may have you want to riot in the streets, remember to not try to burn anything to the ground (you’re likely to have to use Exxon Mobil’s product to do it.) Instead hopefully the U.S. Government will take a page from the older and wiser Brits. It seems parliament is demanding that BP share some of its good fortune.
BP has announced their third quarter profits. The company made £6.4bn ($10.5bn) between July and September, a 148% gain over the same period last year. This amount was not surprising after the price spike in July skyrocketed barrels of oil to over $147. This caused the British government to start commenting on the fact that oil companies are still reaping the benefits of high gas prices even though the price of crude oil has dipped into the $60 a barrel range. "BP have absolutely no excuse for not passing on any fuel price falls to customers. It would be a scandal if they do not." Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said.
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called upon BP and other oil giants to pass along the price drops to motorists. "There has been more than a halving in the price of oil and, just as when the price goes up people see it immediately reflected in the petrol pump prices, we want to see the falling price reflected in the petrol pump prices, and we are determined to see that happens," the British Prime Minister added.
BP chief executive Tony Hayward admitted the company’s profits have been boosted by the cost of fuel: "Although it has since fallen away sharply, the high oil price of the third quarter obviously helped our absolute result." BP was also quick to point out that over the past three years it had paid more than £5bn ($8.2bn) in tax to the UK. Then when fuel, excise duty and VAT were added, the total rose to almost £21bn ($34.75bn).
Or maybe the race is a dash of genius mixed with a whole bunch of crazy. Escape from Berkeley is a madcap alternative fuel race from Berkeley, Ca to Las Vegas. The rules are simple, no petroleum allowed, and fuel must be scavenged along the way. So while the rules are simple the task is anything but. "The basic premise is build a vehicle out of junk, we’ll give you the equivalent of one gallon of gas and you have to drive 600 miles to Las Vegas. Oh, and you can’t buy any fuel along the way," says Jim Mason, the artist and inventor behind the race. "That’s a pretty heavy stone to carry."
The old Dodge pickup, pictured above, was made by Wayne Keith and runs on wood. He gets about 1.6 mpp (miles per pound) so he needs about 1,000 pounds to get there. He’s carrying a chainsaw and a list of lumberyards (He has a whole new way of dealing with fallen trees blocking a road). There are ten teams total running everything from a veggie-oil Lotus 7 to a steam-powered three-wheeler that looks like it rolled right out of the 19th century. While many aren’t terribly practical, including the the solar trike and fully faired tandem bicycle with an ethanol motor, they do prove that the alternatives are there.
The racers are not waiting for any of the automakers to lead us beyond oil. They’ve created an impressive fleet of street-legal and roadworthy cars, proving automakers aren’t the only ones who can make autos. "I think energy will be our next hacking culture," Mason says. "If there’s any goal here, it’s to see how we can move energy from a commodity culture to a hacker culture."
Diesel cars running on vegetable oil isn’t just for hippies anymore... Now its for the at home do-it-yourself crowd. Greasecar Vegetable Oil Conversion System is a kit which contains everything you need to convert your diesel vehicle to run on straight vegetable oil. The kit includes an aluminum heated fuel cell, Quick-flush switching and 10 micron filter.
Using the vegetable oil as fuel not only you reduce the emissions of your vehicle but also reduce fuel costs. If you are interested in buying one you can go here.
With the Volt on the horizon, General Motors wants to calm rumors about electric cars and their impact. This complement a video from earlier this month when GM talked about diesel myths.
Are you an environmentalist buy don’t like looking like one? Do you think that if you drive a Prius, you will be dismissed as a hippy? Well English carmaker Trident may finally have a solution. Trident has been trying to get its Iceni sports car on the road for almost a decade now, and the last time it made news at TopSpeed was two years ago. So, it sounds like the project may be dead in the water, right? In a statement today, Trident says that the new Iceni is about to go into production, and this time its gone green.
The Iceni uses a 550 hp 6.6-liter V8 to propel 3256 lbs. The catch here is the engine is a turbo diesel, which can be run on biodiesel without conversion or harming the warranty. Trident’s green mind is also adding “torque multiplication” technology in the car. It claims that with this new system, the Iceni can achieve 68.9 mpg when driving at a constant 70 mph in track tests and 108 mpg at 30 mph. Trident also promises more than 200 mph top speed and 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds, in a car that costs £75,000 (about $140,000, but there has not yet been announced plans for the U.S.)
Does all this sound too good to be true? Absolutely. Trident is still looking for investors. But this may finally be the right time for a fuel efficient supercar. Besides, Trident has stuck around so long it deserves a chance to get the Iceni on the road. Now all they have to do is start making driving gloves out of hemp.
