fuel

Now there's an app to tell you how to make commercial buildings more energy efficient.

Startup FirstFuel announced today it has raised $2.4 million from venture capital companies Nth Power and Battery Ventures to commercialize a software system to remotely evaluate and measure commercial building efficiency.

What's unusual about the application is that it doesn't require a person to be dispatched to perform an energy audit or install meters to gather data. Instead, the company collects utility data on hourly energy consumption and combines it with weather information to create a profile of a specific building. … Read more

Recently, I took a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles to drive the 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid. When I told friends that I'd driven over 5 hours one-way just spend even more time driving when I got there, the question I got most often was, "Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just fly?"

Had I known about the Cost2Drive Web service and iOS app at the time, I'd have been better equipped to answer that query.

After entering a starting address, ending address, and a make, model, and year of a vehicle, Cost2Drive … Read more

Electric vehicles may seem like the inevitable evolution of the conventional gas-powered automobile, but not every carmaker agrees. Hyundai will sit out the pure-electric car round, and instead concentrate its efforts on designing the next-generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

As part of a decision by the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Hyundai--which owns 51 percent of Kia--will stop all efforts to develop and produce electric vehicles, according to Korean newspaper The Chosun Iblo. The auto manufacturer previously planned to produce the all-electric BlueOn, but it has shelved those plans and instead will focus on developing the Tucson ix Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle. … Read more

A Hyundai Tucson left San Francisco this morning, heading to Los Angeles in the first leg of a cross-country trip. But this trip is no family vacation; the Tucson will be picking up handprints from children as it makes stops at pediatric cancer facilities. And the car will not burn any gasoline in its travels, as its fuel cell stack converts hydrogen into electricity for its drive motor.

Hyundai's Hope on Wheels tour is designed to raise awareness of pediatric cancer, and present 71 hospitals with $100,000 grants to fund researchers. Childhood cancer patients and survivors will add … Read more

Michigan's Mass Transportation Authority isn't waiting around for the hydrogen highway to come to its neck of the woods. The transit organization is building an alternative fuel testing ground for its planned fleet of propane and hydrogen-electric buses. When it's completed, the entire facility will be powered by an on-site solar farm, including the hydrogen generators.

Mass Transportation Authority canceled its orders for electric buses that achieved only a 40-mile range, and instead will be purchasing hydrogen-electric buses that have a 300-mile range to meet its clean-energy needs, according to an article in the Flint Journal.

Working … Read more

Don't give up on the newspaper industry just yet--it could soon be powering your car. Researchers at Tulane University have discovered a strain of bacteria that can turn paper into butanol, a biofuel substitue for gasoline.

The bacteria, dubbed "TU-103," was found when the folks in David Mullin's lab in Tulane's Department of Cell and Molecular Biology were weeding through the contents of some animal droppings one day. It turned out to be some lucky scat--TU-103 is believed to be the first bacterial strain from nature that produces butanol directly from cellulose, an organic matter found in everything from paper to Caesar salads.

"Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many," said Harshad Velankar, a postdoctoral fellow in Mullin's lab, in a statement last week. "In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year." … Read more

Could sewage be the holy grail for clean fuel? The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) in Fountain Valley, Calif., recently opened the world's first tri-generation fuel cell and hydrogen energy station, which uses sewage biogas to produce heat, electricity, and hydrogen. The end result of the system is a constant stream of hydrogen that doesn't require large amounts of electricity to produce.

Sewage waiting to be processed at the OCSD treatment plant produces methane gas. A system designed by FuelCell Energy collects the methane and reformulates it into hydrogen, then sends it to a fuel cell. Electricity from … Read more

The Obama administration yesterday said it will give more than $175 million to car companies and research centers to spur clean auto technology and production of advanced car batteries.

The announcement came ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to a battery factory in Michigan, and followed the introduction of the country's new standards for auto fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions.

"The Department of Energy is investing in new advanced technologies that will significantly improve vehicle fuel economy, save consumers money, and create skilled jobs for Americans," U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a … Read more

The Obama administration today announced higher efficiency standards that will bring fuel-saving techniques to more medium and heavy-duty trucks.

The White House this morning introduced the set of rules saying they will save $50 billion in fuel costs from 2014 to 2018. The efficiency measures will reduce oil imports during that period by 530 million barrels and cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 270 million tons, according to the White House.

There will be two sets of standards, with one requiring engine manufacturers to increase efficiency and another geared at the fuel economy of trucks in different categories, such as … Read more