Green Car Congress

2013 Cadillac XTS will feature first GM application of sensor fusion; milestone toward semi- and fully autonomous vehicles

2012-02-10T12:11:10-08:00

Autonomous sensor systems for vehicle safety. Source: GM. Click to enlarge.

The 2013 Cadillac XTS will feature GM’s first application of a Driver Assistance Package using sensor fusion, which combines the information of several, generally heterogeneous sensors and positioning technologies to alert drivers more accurately of road hazards and help them avoid crashes. Sensor fusion and the challenges of its implementation have been topics of interest in the active safety community for a number of years.

The introduction of the advanced active safety and driver assistance system also marks a significant milestone toward the development of self-driving vehicles, according to GM. The system’s use of radar, cameras and ultrasonic sensors enables advanced safety features, including:

Sensor fusion. Click to enlarge.

Rear Automatic Braking
Full-Speed Range Adaptive Cruise Control
Intelligent Brake Assist
Forward Collision Alert
Safety Alert Seat
Automatic Collision Preparation
Lane Departure Warning
Side Blind Zone Alert
Rear Cross Traffic Alert
Adaptive Forward Lighting
Rear Vision Camera With Dynamic Guidelines
Head Up Display

We believe sensor fusion will enable future active safety systems to handle a greater number of inputs to provide 360 degrees of crash risk detection and enhanced driver assist features. A system that combines the strengths of multiple sensing technologies and expertly manages those inputs can provide advisory, warning, and control interventions to help drivers avoid collisions and save lives.
—Bakhtiar Litkouhi, GM Research and Development lab group manager for perception and vehicle control systems

Sensor fusion also is a building block in the development of semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles, which are designed to maintain lane position and adapt to traffic environments. It is envisioned that more sophisticated self-driving technology, that could enable semi- and fully autonomous driving, will be available by the end of the decade.

GM and V2X
General Motors is also developing vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V, or vehicle-to-car V2C) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications (collectively, V2X) systems. (Earlier post.)
These systems communicate with devices used by other drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and roadway infrastructure to provide advance warning about hazards ahead, such as slowed or stalled vehicles, slippery roads, sharp curves or intersections and stop signs.
GM has been testing the technology in two mobile platforms: a transponder about the size of a GPS unit and a smartphone application that can be tied to the vehicle’s display unit.
The system and underlying architecture enables a smartphone to host a variety of applications and seamlessly integrate with vehicle services. This approach facilitates the deployment of new services without changes to the vehicle architecture, notes Donald Grimm, General Motors Research & Development Center.

GM’s work on sensor fusion draws on its experience with The Boss, a fully autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe developed by GM, Carnegie Mellon University and other partner companies, and named for GM R&D founder Charles F. “Boss” Kettering. In 2007, The Boss navigated 60 miles of urban traffic, busy intersections and stop signs in less than six hours to win the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge competition.

Sensor fusion development also is bolstered by GM’s work on the EN-V, three semi-autonomous electric concept vehicles unveiled at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. (Earlier post.) By combining GPS with vehicle-to-vehicle communications, distance-sensing and object detection technologies, EN-V can be driven both manually and autonomously, the latter allowing it to automatically select the fastest route based on real-time traffic information.

Among the technologies that GM is looking to develop for future active safety systems is LIDAR, a light detecting and ranging technology that can measure the distance to a vehicle or object by illuminating it, often using pulses from a laser. Although LIDAR is no replacement for driver vision, it can become another set of eyes when visibility has deteriorated due to inclement weather or darkness. When combined with radar, cameras and ultrasonic sensors, LIDAR has potential crash avoidance capability.

A more advanced positioning system, using more accurate GPS and digital mapping, also is expected to play an important role on future active safety systems because it helps locate vehicles in relation to one another. While GPS effectiveness can be limited in urban canyon environments where high-rise buildings can interfere with satellite signals, the technology is still considered an asset when “fused” with other sensing and positioning technologies.

No sensor working alone provides all the needed information. That’s why multiple sensors and positioning technologies need to work together synergistically and seamlessly. Sensor fusion will help facilitate that.
—Bakhtiar Litkouhi

Resources

Altendorfer, R., Wirkert, S., and Heinrichs-Bartscher, S. (2010) Sensor Fusion as an Enabling Technology for Safety-critical Driver Assistance Systems, SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars - Electron. Electr. Syst. 3(2):183-192 doi: 10.4271/2010-01-2339
Zeitler, W. and Wybo, D. (2006) Enhanced Sensor Fusion for Car Safety Applications, SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-0598 doi: 10.4271/2006-01-0598.

A123 Systems to supply six battery energy storage solutions to Northern Powergrid for UK’s largest smart grid project; 2.85MW total

2012-02-10T09:42:36-08:00

Li-ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems will supply six Grid Battery Systems (GBSs) to Northern Powergrid, an electricity distribution network operator that delivers power to more than 3.8 million customers in the UK. The GBSs will be designed for peak-load shifting and to manage fluctuations in voltage on the power grid.

Expected to be operational by the end of 2012, the systems will be deployed as part of the Customer-Led Network Revolution (CLNR), the UK’s largest smart grid project funded through the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets’ (OfGEM) Low Carbon Networks Fund.

The six GBSs that A123 will supply to Northern Powergrid include a 2.5MW system, two 100kW systems and three 50kW systems. Each will be designed to maintain these power capabilities for up to two hours, adding flexibility to the distribution network and helping to provide consistent delivery of reliable power to customers.

Endesa develops prototype charger enabling electric vehicle to return power to the grid; hoping for deployment by 2020

2012-02-10T07:29:16-08:00

Endesa, Spain’s largest utility, has developed a prototype V2G (Vehicle to Grid) charger that enables electric vehicles to return stored power to the grid. The company projects that the technology could be a reality in 2020, and would allow electric vehicle users to sell surplus energy.

Developed by Endesa in conjunction with the CITCEA centre of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), this system is currently being validated in a lab before being rolled out to Endesa’s Smartcity in Malaga for testing in a real environment with real users.

Connection of the EV to the grid has been carried out using models that are compatible with the established standards, so that this system can be tested in all commercial vehicles equipped with this technology. Endesa will use the Mitsubishi i-MiEV to carry out the trials with the V2G charger.

In addition to selling vehicle power to the electricity market, users will be able to use the electricity from their vehicles to power their homes.

The development of a sustainable transport policy is a cornerstone of Endesa’s 2008-2012 Strategic Sustainability Plan. In Spain, the company is involved in rolling out e-mobility projects (MOVELE project) in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville, and in major technological initiatives (Cenit VERDE, DER22@ and REVE projects). It also recently entered into agreements with leading companies to promote e-mobility.

In Europe, Endesa is part of the Green eMotion consortium and is also the only Spanish company involved in the ELVIRE consortium aimed at developing the necessary technology, solutions and services to enable on-going interaction between drivers, their power suppliers and the smart grid. These projects also evaluate the impact of a large-scale introduction of EVs on the power grid. In Spain Endesa is taking part in the Zem2All project, a €60-million (US$79 million) initiative which will test the new services and advantages offered by e-mobility in cities on a mass scale.

Endesa was one of the first companies to join international standardisation and regulation groups for e-mobility equipment, systems and solutions. It is also European chair of CHAdeMO, the Japanese association that provides fast charge services for EV users and is aimed at expanding the installation of these recharging points worldwide and setting recharge standards.

Toyota will introduce FT-Bh hybrid city car concept in Geneva

2012-02-10T07:17:21-08:00

Toyota will stage the world debut of the FT-Bh concept, an ultra-lightweight, full hybrid city car study, designed to achieve low emissions within an economically viable production framework, at the Geneva Motor Show.

The team that produced FT-Bh purposely avoided expensive materials and complex manufacturing processes, working instead only with those that are already commonplace in the auto industry.

Toyota wil also unveil the production version of the Yaris hybrid, as well showing the NS4 and FCV-R concepts in Europe for the first time. NS4 is a next-generation plug-in hybrid vehicle, designed to address customer demand for added value from hybrid motoring, together with advanced design and a more involving drive. FCV-R represents Toyota’s next step towards mass production of hydrogen-powered vehicles, paving the way for the launch of a saloon-type fuel cell vehicle by 2015.

Tesla Model X electric crossover to begin production in late 2013

2012-02-10T06:40:52-08:00

Tesla Motors unveiled its current prototype of the Model X electric crossover Tuesday night at its Los Angeles Design Studio. The six-seater, featuring “Falcon Wing” rear doors, will come in rear-wheel drive, dual motor all-wheel drive, and performance dual motor all-wheel drive options, with a choice of a 60 kWh or 85 kWh pack.

Tesla notes that the second motor enables more than all-weather, all-road capabilities: it increases torque by 50%. When outfitted with AWD, Model X Performance accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds.

Tesla expects to begin production of Model X in late 2013, ramping up deliveries in early 2014. Model X will be priced comparable to a similarly equipped Model S. More details will be announced as production nears.

California-based Tesla designs and manufactures EVs and EV powertrain components for partners such as Toyota and Daimler. Tesla has delivered more than 2,000 Roadsters to customers worldwide. The Tesla Model S,the company’s second production vehicle, begins deliveries in mid-2012.

Linde Engineering purchases Choren’s Carbo-V biomass gasification technology

2012-02-10T03:45:00-08:00

Linde Engineering Dresden GmbH has acquired the Carbo-V biomass gasification technology (earlier post) of the insolvent (earlier post) Choren Industries GmbH from the insolvency administrator Dr. Bruno M. Kübler.

The Carbo-V Technology constitutes a multi-stage biomass gasification technology. During the first process stage, the biomass reacting in a Low Temperature Gasifier (LTG) is converted to biocoke and carbonization gas. The second process stage comprises the partial oxidation of the carbonization gas that takes place in a High Temperature Gasifier (HTG), and during the third process stage, the biocoke is blown into the hot gas stream of the HTG.

After suitable preconditioning, the synthesis gas produced may be subsequently processed to renewable fuels. It is possible that wood and wood-based biomass, that already today can be produced in an environment friendly way will be used as feedstock for the gasification process.

In the future we plan to offer the Carbo-V Technology as licensor and also as an engineering and contracting company for commercial projects on a strongly growing market.
—Jörg Linsenmaier, managing director of the Linde Engineering Dresden GmbH

The acquisition of the Carbo-V Technology comprises all related patents and trademarks. The parties have agreed that the purchase price will remain undisclosed.

California Energy Commission awards UCLA $1.9M for research on sustainable communities; reduction in use of automobiles and VMT

2012-02-10T03:10:00-08:00

The California Energy Commission has awarded the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) $1.9 million to develop the California Center for Sustainable Communities. The Center is to research the potential energy savings from better community design, integrated land use, and transportation practices.

The center will conduct and coordinate research and development activities on sustainable communities, serving as a statewide resource for metropolitan planning organizations, local governments, and policy makers. UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability will serve as the lead for the center, which will be a multi-campus effort that includes UC Berkeley and UC Davis.

The center will provide data, models, methods, tools, and case studies to support:

Creating more sustainable communities and assist in developing regional land use strategies;
Reducing the use of automobiles and trucks and vehicle miles traveled (VMT); and
Better land use planning and design of community systems.

The Commission also approved $83,355 to California State University, Sacramento to develop a workforce training and development program for the clean energy jobs needed to support California’s smart grid. The Commission’s funding leverages Sacramento State’s $749,992 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act award from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The project will identify the smart grid technologies requiring additional workforce training and support. The project will also create a smart grid workforce development model that can be replicated throughout the nation.

Funding for both projects comes from the Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. The Public Interest Energy Research program supports public interest research and development that helps improve the quality of life in California by bringing environmentally safe, reliable, and affordable energy services and products to the marketplace.

Researchers develop technique to create new tailored molecule with high density of active catalytic sites; potential low-cost alternative to platinum for splitting water

2012-02-10T02:37:00-08:00

Using a molybdenite complex and the PY5Me₂ ligand, Berkeley Lab researchers synthesized a molecule that mimics catalytically active triangular molybdenum disulfide edge-sites. The result is an entire layer of catalytically active material. Molybdenum atoms are shown as green, sulfur as yellow. Credit: Berkeley Lab. Click to enlarge.

Researchers with the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite. This technique holds promise for the creation of catalytic materials with high densities of active sites that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water that is acidic.

Molybdenite (molybdenum disulfide, MoS₂) is the crystalline sulfide of molybdenum and the principal mineral from which molybdenum metal is extracted. Molybdenite is one of the most widely used catalysts in industry today as the standard for hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of petroleum and natural gas. However, recent studies have shown that in its nanoparticle form, molybdenite also holds promise for catalyzing the electrochemical and photochemical generation of hydrogen from water.

Christopher Chang and Jeffrey Long, chemists who hold joint appointments with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, led a research team that synthesized a molecule to mimic the triangle-shaped molybdenum disulfide units along the edges of molybdenite crystals, which is where almost all of the catalytic activity takes place.

As is the case with many inorganic solids, the catalytic activity of MoS₂ is localized to rare surface sites, whereas the bulk material is relatively inert. High-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy studies and theoretical calculations performed on nano-particulate MoS₂ structures that form under sulfiding conditions implicate the formation of disulfide linkages or triangular MoS₂ units along the fully sulfided catalytically active edges of the layered structure. However, the precise molecular structures and modes of action of these sites remain elusive. Because of the bulk material’s layered structure, which favors the growth of plate-like crystals, a single crystal with a large edge dimension is extremely challenging to prepare.

Here, we report the synthesis of a well-defined molecular analog of the proposed MoS₂ edge structure, a side-on bound MoIV-disulfide complex. Electrochemical reduction of this molecule leads to the catalytic generation of hydrogen from acidic organic media as well as from acidic water, lending support to the proposed active site morphology in the more active heterogeneous catalyst.
—Karunadasa et al.

Since the bulk of molybdenite crystalline material is relatively inert from a catalytic standpoint, molecular analogs of the catalytically active edge sites could be used to make new materials that are much more efficient and cost-effective catalysts.

Chang and Long are the corresponding authors of a paper in the journal Science describing this research; other authors are Hemamala Karunadasa, Elizabeth Montalvo, Yujie Sun and Marcin Majda.

Using molecular chemistry, we’ve been able to capture the functional essence of molybdenite and synthesize the smallest possible unit of its proposed catalytic active site. It should now be possible to design new catalysts that have a high density of active sites so we get the same catalytic activity with much less material.
—Christopher Chang

Inorganic solids, such as molybdenite, are an important class of catalysts that often derive their activity from sparse active edge sites, which are structurally distinct from the inactive bulk of the molecular solid. We’ve demonstrated that it is possible to create catalytically active molecular analogs of these sites that are tailored for a specific purpose. This represents a conceptual path forward to improving future catalytic materials.
—Jeffrey Long

Preparing molybdenite with a high density of functional triangular molybdenum disulfide edges in a predictable manner is extremely challenging, the authors note. Chang, Long and their research team met this challenge using a pentapyridyl ligand known as PY5Me₂ to create a molybdenum disulfide molecule that, while not found in nature, is stable and structurally identical to the proposed triangular edge sites of molybdenite. It was shown that these synthesized molecules can form a layer of material that is analogous to constructing a sulfide edge of molybdenite. The synthesized molecules performed robustly in evolving hydrogen from water, even using crudely filtered California seawater.

The electronic structure of the molecular analog can be adjusted through ligand modifications, Long says, suggesting that the material’s activity, stability and required over-potential for proton reduction can be tailored to improve its performance.

In 2010, Chang and Long and Hemamala Karunadasa, who is the lead author on this new Science paper, used the PY5Me₂ ligand to create a molybdenum-oxo complex that can effectively and efficiently catalyze the generation of hydrogen from neutral buffered water or even sea water. Molybdenite complexes synthesized from this new molecular analog can just as effectively and efficiently catalyze hydrogen gas from acidic water.

The ability to prepare, characterize, and evaluate molecular analogs of the active components of inorganic solids has broad implications for the design and optimization of functional metal sites, not the least of which is control over the density of these units. For example, recent electronic structure calculations conducted on nanoparticulate MoS₂ indicate that only a quarter of the edge sites are used for hydrogen production. Increasing the number of active edge sites per unit volume by tailoring progressively smaller nano-structures or changing the electronics of the system to increase the enthalpy of hydrogen adsorption is a major challenge in inorganic materials and nanoscience. We present an alternative strategy using discrete molecular units, which in principle can be tailored to give a high density of catalytically active metal sites without the rest of the inactive bulk material.
—Karunadasa et al.

This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science, in part through the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub.

Resources

Hemamala I. Karunadasa, Elizabeth Montalvo, Yujie Sun, Marcin Majda, Jeffrey R. Long, and Christopher J. Chang (2012) A Molecular MoS₂ Edge Site Mimic for Catalytic Hydrogen Generation. Science 335 (6069), 698-702. doi: 10.1126/science.1215868
Hemamala I. Karunadasa, Christopher J. Chang and Jeffrey R. Long (2010) A molecular molybdenum-oxo catalyst for generating hydrogen from water. Nature 464, 1329–1333 doi: 10.1038/nature08969

Tata Toyo adopts DuPont Zytel PLUS Nylon for charge air coolers

2012-02-10T02:30:00-08:00

Tata Toyo has adopted DuPont Zytel PLUS nylon (earlier post) for three hot- and cold-side charge air coolers used on four vehicles of a major Indian auto OEM across passenger car, UV (Utility Vehicle) and LCV (Light Commercial Vehicle) segment.

Charge air cooler. Click to enlarge.

Charge air coolers quickly cool hot air generated by the turbocharger before it is forced through the induction system. Cooler air improves combustion efficiency. Tata Toyo, a leading heat-exchange technology supplier based in Pune, India, selected Zytel PLUS to replace specialty nylon resin product for added protection against the harsh elements associated with turbo-diesel systems and now has an eye on replacing metals in other applications.

Improving powertrain efficiency while reducing weight and cost is critical to improving fuel economy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Turbo systems are one of several technologies the industry is quickly adopting to boost the performance of smaller, more efficient engines. The environment these power-boost technologies create is challenging the capabilities of many existing engineering thermoplastics.
—Patrick Ferronato, director of automotive, DuPont Performance Polymers

Last year DuPont introduced the family of high-performance nylon and PPA materials that deliver long-term resistance to heat, chemicals and pressure. Unlike specialty nylon resins, Zytel PLUS retains processing ease typical of traditional nylon resins. This family is targeted primarily at automotive underhood and engine applications.

Tata Toyo selected Zytel PLUS nylon as a replacement for the specialty nylon because it retains rigidity at high temperatures, offers a better surface appearance and processes with ease.

DuPont says that last year it launched more than 1,700 new products and invested 22% of its $1.7 billion R&D budget on developing new chemistry and materials to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Econolite and ISS introduce new hybrid sensor technology for Intelligent Transportation Systems

2012-02-10T02:00:00-08:00

Econolite and Image Sensing Systems, Inc. (ISS) introduced Autoscope Duo, a first in a new generation of hybrid sensor technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Autoscope Duo converges the capabilities of radar and video to provide an alternative to in-ground detection systems that offering the highest detection accuracy in all conditions with the lowest total cost of ownership.

Autoscope Duo has been field-tested for nearly a year. Integrating radar and video detection algorithms expands the benefits of non-intrusive detection, and ensures years of low maintenance when compared to the expense of installing and maintaining inductive loop detectors. Autoscope Duo also represents a gateway to employing new ITS programs.

The Autoscope Duo Detection System uses intelligent decision logic to monitor the current operating conditions and to combine the best of radar with the best of video data, continuously—lane-by-lane and second-by-second. These two sensor technologies lead to performance improvements and provide the highest accuracy attainable for advanced intersection control requirements. Duo orders begin shipping early second quarter 2012.

In business since 1933, Econolite is a leading transportation solution provider and manufacturer of advanced traffic controllers (NEMA & ATC/2070), Centracs and Aries Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS), Autoscope vehicle detection systems, RTMS, arterial systems masters, vehicle and pedestrian signals, traffic control cabinets, data collection and management systems (DCMS.2), Intelligent Intersection technology, and a full line of transportation maintenance services.

Image Sensing Systems, Inc. is a provider of software-based detection solutions for the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) sector and adjacent markets including security, police and parking.

California Energy Commission soliciting proposals for $18.7M in awards to develop hydrogen fueling infrastructure

2012-02-10T01:20:00-08:00

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has issed a competitive grant solicitation (PON-11-609) for projects to develop the infrastructure necessary to dispense hydrogen transportation fuel. The goal of this solicitation is to provide grant funds to projects which expand the network of public retail and public-private fleet-based hydrogen fueling stations to serve the current population of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and to accommodate the planned large-scale roll-out of FCVs commencing in 2015.

The total funding available for grants awarded pursuant to this solicitation is $18.7 million (comprising $10.2 million from the 2010-11 Investment Plan and $8.5 million from 2011-12 Investment Plan).

Projects that upgrade existing public and private hydrogen fueling stations are also eligible for funding under this solicitation.

Applications must correspond to and support FCV manufacturers’ deployment of FCVs and hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles (HICEV) in identified “early-adoption” clusters in California. Alternatively, successful projects may establish hydrogen fueling stations where FCV or HICEV populations are sufficient.

To be eligible under this solicitation, projects must be located in California and include at least one of the following activities:

Installation of new retail or fleet hydrogen dispensing stations and equipment.
Upgrade/refurbishment of existing hydrogen dispensing stations and equipment.
Installation of hydrogen dispensing equipment at a multi-fill station. (A multi-fill station is a station which has dispensers for more than one alternative fuel.)
Installation or upgrade of fill systems to supply hydrogen to fueling stations such as specialized trailers or installations to connect a station to a nearby hydrogen pipeline.
Installation of equipment for onsite production of renewable hydrogen fuel that is in excess of what is needed to comply with SB 1505.

CEC is encouraging applicants to coordinate their project activities with the upcoming Department of Energy (DOE) hydrogen infrastructure solicitation for advanced fueling technologies, which is anticipated to be released in the first quarter of 2012.

Stations must have a minimum 100 kg per day nominal capacity with 20 kg per hour peak fueling capacity to be eligible.

CEC will hold an application workshop on 22 February; the deadline for submissions is 15 March.

Hertz participating in Plugless Power’s pilot program for wireless EV charging

2012-02-09T16:28:50-08:00

In partnership with Plugless Power, The Hertz Corporation and Hertz Global EV are trialing the first wireless charging system for electric vehicles (EVs) in the car rental industry. Plugless Power is a Level 2 (240V at 30A, 3.3 kW rated power output) inductive charging system, with a transfer efficiency of 90%. (Earlier post.)

The trial will follow Hertz and companies from five other industry segments, as they trial Plugless Power systems on their own electric vehicles. Participants will provide feedback on daily usage routines, user interfaces, and any additional functionality needed. The Plugless Power system is supplied by Evatran based in Virginia.

Installation at Hertz’s corporate headquarters will be completed in February 2012.

Hertz has deployed EVs and PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric) in the US (available to the public in New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco); the UK (available in London); and China (available in Shanghai).

Hertz plans to increase its global EV presence by deploying vehicles in other countries in the coming months. Hertz Global EV will continue to leverage the company’s rental and car sharing locations as bases for vehicles and charging stations, and tap into its technology—including fleet management tools and consumer-facing GPS systems, including Hertz NeverLost in the US—to help form an EV grid.

Evonik presents electric Elise weighing less than 1,000 kg

2012-02-09T11:02:03-08:00

Evonik Industries is presenting the lightweight battery-electric Elise-E at the Car Symposium in Bochum. The vehicle weighs 950 kg (2,094 lb), has a power of 150 kW, accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds and has a top speed limited to 200 km/h (124 mph).

The purpose of exhibiting the vehicle is to show the automotive industry what can be achieved with our expertise in chemicals.
—Klaus Hedrich, Head of the Evonik Automotive Industry Team

The vehicle is a combination of automotive components made with the specialty chemical components of the Essen-based Evonik and the automotive technology of the British sports car manufacturer Lotus. The necessary power comes from a lithium-ion battery with CERIO storage technology.

Elise-E. Click to enlarge.

At the core of this battery is the ceramic high-performance separator SEPARION, which is extremely thin and highly heat-resistant. It separates the anode reliably from the cathode and sets new standards for lithium ion cells in terms of cycle stability, performance output and safety by using additional components, according to Evonik. In addition, the separator allows for the highly compact design of the battery cells, which results in high energy density at a low weight.

The weight of the electrical sports car’s body has also been reduced with Evonik technologies. The sandwich structure with the structural foam ROHACELL and carbon fibers makes the body 60-70% lighter than a comparable steel structure.

Evonik applied a new resin infusion process with an innovative epoxy resin formula based on the VESTAMIN hardener technology to manufacture it. This process allows for class-A surfaces and reliable quality in the serial manufacture of composite automotive body parts.

Side windows made of PLEXIGLAS also contributed to the weight reduction, as they have a weight-saving potential of 40-50% compared to conventional mineral glass. In addition to reduced weight, further advantages of the glazing consist of excellent transparency, high resistance to weather, pleasant acoustics and excellent shaping properties.

Vehicles with less weight and high power have to be safe and sustainable on the road. In this fast-running electrical vehicle, this is ensured by special lightweight tires, which were developed with high-performance Silica ULTRASIL and the silane Si 363 manufactured by Evonik. They reduce the rolling resistance of the tires by approx. 20%, leading to energy savings of about 5%.

NRC vote clears way for issuance of two Combined Licenses for new nuclear reactors at Vogtle

2012-02-09T10:51:04-08:00

In a 4-1 vote, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) found NRC staff’s review adequate to make necessary regulatory safety and environmental findings on Southern Nuclear Operating Company’s (SNC) application for two Combined Licenses (COL) at the Vogtle site in Georgia. This decision clears the way for the NRC’s Office of New Reactors to issue the COLs. (Earlier post.)

The Commission imposed a condition on the COLs requiring inspection and testing of squib valves, important components of the new reactors’ passive cooling system.

In February 2010, President Obama announced that the Department of Energy had offered conditional commitments for a total of $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for the construction and operation of the two new nuclear reactors. (Earlier post.)

The NRC staff is expected to issue the COLs within 10 business days. The COLs will authorize SNC to build and operate two AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle site, adjacent to the company’s existing reactors approximately 26 miles southeast of Augusta, Ga. NRC construction inspectors have been on-site since April 2010, examining SNC’s activities to prepare the plant’s foundation under a Limited Work Authorization the NRC issued on 26 Aug. 2009.

SNC submitted its COL application on 28 March 2008, and supplemented the application on 2 Oct. 2009. The NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) independently reviewed aspects of the application that concern safety, as well as a draft of the staff’s Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER). The ACRS provided the results of its review to the Commission in a report dated 24 Jan. 2011. The NRC completed its environmental review and issued a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Vogtle COLs on 24 March 2011. The NRC completed and issued the FSER on 9 Aug. 2011.

The NRC certified Westinghouse’s amended AP1000 design on 30 Dec. 2011. The AP1000 is a 1,100 megawatt electric pressurized-water reactor that includes passive safety features that would cool down the reactor after an accident without the need for electricity or human intervention.

Researchers propose low-temperature SOFC unit for reducing NOx and oxidizing HCs in lean-burn engine exhaust

2012-02-09T10:10:50-08:00

Concept of the SOFC emissions control system. Credit: ACS, Huang et al. Click to enlarge.

A team from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, reports that a low-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) emissions control system for lean-burn engines can simultaneously reduce the high concentrations of NO_x and oxidize hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. A paper on their work is published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Their SOFC system can be operated without consuming the anode fuel (a reductant) at temperatures near that of the engine exhaust to eliminate the need for reductant refilling and extra heating.

The NO_x concentration in the exhaust of an automotive gasoline engine with spark ignition can be as high as 4000 ppm. However, the exhaust of the lean-burn engines contains excess oxygen and so the three-way catalytic converter for the stoichiometric-burn engine cannot function to reduce NO_x. Urea-based ammonia selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is one of the most promising methods for NO_x removal from diesel engine exhaust. Nevertheless, the urea-SCR after-treatment system is quite complex and raises concerns regarding urea distribution infrastructure, potential freezing of the urea solution, ammonia slip, and the inconvenience and cost of refilling urea. Therefore, every possible means of achieving a low NO_x concentration has been used, including the extensive use of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), which reduces the fuel efficiency. Therefore, a technology for controlling high-concentration NO_x emission is also required to realize highly efficient diesel engines, which requires the deletion of EGR. Notably, EGR deletion can lower the cost of the diesel-fueled automobile by simplifying its engine and the associated after-treatment system.

...Simultaneous NO_x reduction and power generation using solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) has been shown to be feasible; this method is denoted SOFC-DeNO_x. Nevertheless, although SOFCs can generate an electrical current during the reduction of NO_x, operation at the temperature of the engine exhaust, currently below 450 °C, would generate very little electricity and is therefore inefficient for power generation; otherwise, the operating temperature must be increased by extra heating. In addition, the consumption of the anode fuel increases cost and imposes the inconvenience of refilling the anode fuel if it differs from the automotive fuel. Therefore, an alternative SOFC operation at the exhaust temperature and open circuit is sought. Such an SOFC operation should require no extra heating and consume no anode fuel; it should support applications onboard automobiles without refilling the anode fuel; in this setup, the anode fuel acts merely as a reductant to generate the open-circuit voltage and can be enclosed in the anode side with or without circulation.

This work primarily studies such operation to control high- concentration NO_x emission. Since hydrocarbons (HCs) are usually formed in automotive gasoline engines owing to cylinder wall quenching and other effects, HCs must be treated in an exhaust after-treatment system. Therefore, simultaneous HCs emission control is also studied.
—Huang et al.

Schematic diagrams of the experimental electrochemical reactor. Credit: ACS, Huang et al. Click to enlarge.

The team constructed an SOFC unit with Ni–YSZ as the anode, YSZ as the electrolyte, and La_0.6Sr_0.4CoO₃ (LSC)–Ce_0.9Gd_0.1O_1.95 as the cathode, with or without adding vanadium to LSC. LSC is a well-known cathode material and GDC is a well-known electrode material for intermediate-temperature SOFCs.

They performed an activity test at 450 °C with the SOFC operating at open circuit. The anode gas was pure hydrogen. The inlet cathode gas consisted of 10% H₂O and 10% CO₂ always, 14% O₂ (except where noted otherwise), various concentrations of NO_x, and the balance helium. This composition of the cathode gas was similar to that of lean-burn engine exhausts, the team said.

For designated tests, 300 ppm C₃H₆ and/or 35 ppm SO₂ were added to the cathode gas. The overall flow rate of either the anode or the cathode gas was always 150 mL min⁻¹.

Experimental results indicated:

Very high concentrations of NO_x can be treated using the SOFCs operated at open circuit and 450 °C, which is the operating temperature of low-temperature SOFCs.
The SOFC-based NO_x emission control system can function without consuming any anode fuel (a reductant) and hence can be “care free”. It can also function at near the exhaust temperature and hence requires no extra heating.
Complete oxidation of HCs, in terms of propylene conversion, can be achieved by adding silver to the LSC current collecting layer. Therefore, high-concentration NOx and HCs can be removed from the exhaust simultaneously by the low-temperature SOFCs at open circuit.

The simultaneous control of NO_x and HCs emissions has been demonstrated to be effective using SOFCs at open circuit. Since existing SOFC technologies on both materials development and devices manufacturing are well-established and commercialized, they can be fully utilized for emissions control of automobiles. A care-free exhaust after-treatment converter that is based on SOFCs can be immediately implemented onboard automobiles.

...It is noted that the current device (SOFC) for this novel technology is more suitable for stationary power generation applications. However, the application of this technology can be extended from stationary emissions sources to “lean-burn engine” or even “lean-burn gasoline engine” by designing a more suitable device for the latter. A low-temperature SOFC operating at open circuit, as reported in this article, is a way to use the current device for the latter and also to show the general idea. Notably, one example of a technology extended successfully from stationary emissions sources to “lean-burn engine” (diesel engine) is selective catalytic reduction using ammonia.
—Huang et al.

Resources

Ta-Jen Huang, Sheng-Hsiang Hsu, and Chung-Ying Wu (2012) Simultaneous NO_x and Hydrocarbon Emissions Control for Lean-Burn Engines Using Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cell at Open Circuit. Environmental Science & Technology doi: 10.1021/es2033058

DoD and EPA sign energy partnership agreement

2012-02-09T09:18:44-08:00

Dorothy Robyn, deputy under secretary of defense for installations and environment, and Paul Anastas, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assistant administrator, signed an agreement that formalizes the partnership between the US Department of Defense (DoD) and EPA to develop and implement technologies that will help create sustainable American military bases all over the world.

Under this memorandum of understanding (MOU), DoD and the EPA’s Office of Research and Development will collaborate in the development of innovative technologies to help create sustainable and resilient military bases across the country and overseas. The advanced research of EPA and DoD scientists and engineers will be used to develop and demonstrate tools and technologies that will aid DoD in achieving its vision of sustainability.

The mission of DoD is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and protect the security of the US. To execute this mission successfully, US military departments must have the energy, land, air, and water resources necessary to train and operate, today and in the future, in a world where there is increasing competition for resources, according to DoD. Sustainability provides the framework necessary to ensure the longevity of these resources, by attending to energy, environmental, safety, and occupational health considerations.

The MOU underscores the department’s commitment to fostering collaboration among federal agencies. In addition to enabling the sharing of resources, this agreement provides an opportunity for the department, in collaboration with EPA, to use its military bases as test beds for innovative technologies that can then be shared more broadly in communities across the country.

University of Texas and Oak Ridge Lab teaming to bid for DOE Batteries and Energy Storage Energy Innovation Hub

2012-02-09T09:11:41-08:00

Statesman. The University of Texas is teaming with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in a joint bid for the newly announced US Department of Energy (DOE) Batteries and Energy Storage Energy Innovation Hub. (Earlier post.)

The goal of the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub is to accelerate the discovery of new electrochemical energy storage concepts and incorporate these into new prototypes for storing energy in a reliable, economic, and efficient manner. Rather than initially focusing on a single technology or incremental improvements to current technologies, the Hub is to deliver “revolutionary research that will result in new technologies and approaches.”

The Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will be funded up to a total of $20 million in the first year; up to $10 million of those funds can be devoted to infrastructure start-up for the Hub, including building renovation (but not new construction), lease arrangements, equipment, and instrumentation. DOE anticipates that the Hub will be funded up to $25 million per year for Hub operations in the final four years of the award period, pending Congressional appropriations, for a total of $120 million in funding.

“It is meant to be the center of research for this area for the country,” said Raymond Orbach, an undersecretary for science at the Energy Department who is now director of UT’s Energy Institute. “What is riding on this is everything. It would make UT-Austin an energy university and the City of Austin an energy city. This will be the focus of the Energy Institute for the next four months. We are going to go flat out on this. This is a defining moment for Texas, and we have no intention of losing.”

...“We have the best possible team in the country,” he said, naming UT professors John Goodenough and Arugam “Ram” Manthiram as two of the most respected battery researchers in the world.

Mitsubishi Motors to introduce the New Outlander at Geneva show; plug-in hybrid Outlander to debut during fiscal 2012

2012-02-09T06:23:31-08:00

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) will present the global debut of the all-new Outlander at the 82^nd Geneva International Motor Show, 6-18 March. During fiscal 2012 Mitsubishi Motors will add an EV-based Outlander model which will use a plug-in hybrid system derived from MMC’s already existing EV technology.

Also on display on the Mitsubishi Motors stand will be the MiEV House, a model for a near-future “EV (electric vehicle) lifestyle” that maximizes household energy usage with the help of an EV.

The new Outlander will be launched first in Russia this summer, after which it will make its debut in European, Japanese, Oceania, Chinese and North American markets.

The European-market specification Outlander is offered with a choice of gasoline and diesel engines. Gasoline models are powered by the 4J11 2.0-liter in-line 4-cylinder SOHC MIVEC engine which employs an all-new valvetrain. Diesel models use the 4N14 2.2-liter in-line 4-cylinder turbocharged MIVEC engine with a very low compression ratio of 14.9:1 that meets European diesel emission regulations.

The diesel Outlander (2WD drivetrain, 4N14 engine with 6-speed manual transmission) is targeting CO₂ emissions of under 130 g/km through the use of MMC’s Auto Stop&Go idle-stop system and its lighter body that stems from optimization of the body structure, the use of high-tensile strength paneling and from improved aerodynamics.

The new Outlander will also be equipped with an “eco-friendly driving system” that notifies the driver when he or she is driving at maximum efficiency. With this system, the driver can choose to drive at maximum efficiency to enhance actual fuel consumption of the vehicle.

Norway to start seismic surveys in the Barents Sea; “High North” strategy

2012-02-09T04:30:00-08:00

Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced that the Norwegian Government intends to start additional seismic surveys further north in the area of the Barents Sea previously disputed with Russia. Seismic surveys will start this summer and will continue into 2013.

The survey will provide us with important knowledge about possible oil and gas resources in the area. The area near the maritime delimitation line between Norway and Russia may contain significant oil and gas resources. As a result of the maritime delimitation treaty, which entered into force last summer, Norway and Russia are now able to explore these opportunities. This creates new possibilities for employment and growth in the High North.

The historic treaty signed by Norway and Russia last year provides for continued excellent relations between neighbors and good resource management in the Barents Sea.
—Prime Minister Stoltenberg to the Oslo Energy Forum

The Norwegian-Russian Treaty on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean was signed on 15 September 2010 and entered into force on 7 July 2011. The treaty establishes the boundary between Norway and Russia in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

In the new Norwegian areas in the southern part of the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Government has initiated an opening process for petroleum activities aimed at awarding new production licences. Geological surveys in the area by Norwegian authorities started in the summer of 2011 and will continue this year.

The Norwegian authorities need geological data from the relevant areas in order to safeguard Norwegian interests in accordance with the maritime delimitation treaty if transboundary oil deposits are found. The Russian state-owned company Rosneft has been granted production licences covering most of the Russian part of the previously disputed area.

The Norwegian Government is now stepping up our geological surveys in the Barents Sea to safeguard our interests in accordance with the Treaty on Maritime Delimitation.
—Minister of Petroleum and Energy Ola Borten Moe

The Norwegian Government therefor has decided to conduct geological mapping to cover all of Norway’s new areas in the Barents Sea. This activity will however not alter the framework conditions set for petroleum activities in the 2011 management plan for the Barents Sea–Lofoten area.

New Air Products hydrogen plant integrated with ExxonMobile refinery yields 15% improvement in energy efficiency, reduces CO2

2012-02-09T04:02:00-08:00

Air Products and ExxonMobil marked the start-up of a new world-scale hydrogen production plant in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Integrating ExxonMobil’s refinery with Air Products new hydrogen plant will lead to a 15% improvement in energy efficiency and reduce related CO₂ emissions by 200,000 tons per year.

The Air Products plant uses ExxonMobil refinery’s excess gas to produce hydrogen. The refinery uses hydrogen for the desulfurization of oil products and in the manufacture of petrochemicals. The new plant uses advanced processes and technologies to make the hydrogen production considerably more efficient than the previous hydrogen supply to the refinery. The hydrogen plant also delivers steam to the refinery. The synergy in the production processes of the two plants will improve overall energy efficiency by more than 15%.

As a location, the ExxonMobil Botlek site offers significant synergy in terms of our products and feedstock flow. It also allows us to connect the new plant into our extensive Rotterdam hydrogen pipeline network, which supplies hydrogen to several other customers in the region.
—Jeff Byrne, Air Products’ global vice president and general manager - Tonnage Gases

Air Products, in conjunction with Technip—its main contractor on the project—began construction of the new hydrogen plant in June 2010. The start-up of the new hydrogen plant took place in December 2011; It took approximately one million man-hours to build the plant.

Green Energy Oilfield Services building fleet with 60 Peterbilt LNG trucks

2012-02-09T03:19:00-08:00

Green Energy Oilfield Services, LLC., a portfolio company of Lone Star Investment Advisors, is building a fleet of 60 Peterbilt Model 388 LNG (liquefied natural gas) trucks.

The Peterbilt Model 388 tractors are equipped with a Westport HD 15-liter natural gas engine and fuel system. Click to enlarge.

Green Energy Oilfield Services, located in Fairfield, Texas, will use the trucks to service XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and major producer in the Freestone play oilfield in Freestone County, Texas. Green Energy Oilfield Services will operate 50 trucks as vacuum trucks, used to remove and dispose of formation water, and 10 as winch trucks, used to transport frac tanks. The trucks are expected to enter operation in April. Clean Energy will provide the LNG fuel for the vehicles.

The trucks were sold to Green Energy by Rush Truck Center – Austin and will be supported in the field by Rush Truck Center – Waco through aftermarket parts and mobile service operations with LNG-certified technicians.

We believe that Peterbilt is a leader in alternate fuel technology. These vehicles offer us the quality and reliability we need for rugged oilfield operation, while enabling us to honor our commitment to operate alternate fuel powered trucks in the field.

Because the trucks are LNG-powered, we will not bill a diesel surcharge, allowing us to pass on an estimated $5 million in savings annually to XTO Energy. Even further, we can return support for our customer’s business by powering our trucks with LNG fuel.
—Roger Nevill, President and COO of Green Energy Oilfield Services

The Peterbilt Model 388 tractors are equipped with a Westport HD 15-liter natural gas engine, Eaton 13-speed transmission, 40,000 lb Dana Spicer rear axles and a Peterbilt Airtrac suspension.

Rush Truck Financing helped secure the financing for the 60-truck deal. The LNG truck deal is one of the largest of its kind in Texas for Rush Truck Centers, although Rush Truck Centers has been involved in sales and service of alternate fuel vehicles for more than a decade in other parts of the country. Rush Truck Centers has provided more than 200 Peterbilt LNG refuse trucks to the City of Los Angeles, California and Peterbilt LNG Day Cabs to the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

VW Beetle TDI diesel going on sale in US this summer

2012-02-09T03:14:00-08:00

2013 Beetle TDI. Click to enlarge.

Volkswagen will bring the new Beetle TDI diesel (earlier post), unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show, to market in the US this summer as a 2013 model. Pricing of the diesel model, which is joining the gasoline-fueled Beetle 2.5L and Turbo in the lineup, will be announced closer to market launch.

From 1998 until 2006, the New Beetle was fitted with a 1.9-liter turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine. Since then, this engine has been heavily revised to accommodate increasing demand for improvements in exhaust emissions and acoustics. One of the most fundamental improvements was converting the Pumpe Duse (unit injector) fuel-injection system to a common-rail design, as well as increasing the capacity by 72 cc thanks to a 1.5-mm wider bore. (Developed in cooperation with Bosch, the unit injectors were located at each cylinder to deliver the fuel for combustion.)

The new Beetle TDI uses the company’s 2.0-liter turbocharged, common-rail direct-injection Clean Diesel engine that delivers 140 hp (104 kW) and 236 lb-ft (320 N·m) of torque. VW estimates fuel economy of 29 mpg US city, 39 mpg highway (8.1 and 6.0 L/100 km, respectively).

The current engine features a cast-iron cylinder block and an aluminum-alloy cylinder head. It also utilizes some design elements that contribute to longevity and the reduction of noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). The forged steel crankshaft, for example, uses four counterweights instead of eight to reduce bearing load and noise emissions. The pistons incorporate annular channels into which oil is sprayed for cooling the piston-ring zone. A pair of counter-rotating balancer shafts is situated below the crankshaft in the oil pan.

Dual overhead camshafts are driven via a toothed belt that also powers the coolant pump and the high-pressure fuel-injection pump. The cams themselves are linked by means of spur gears that have an integrated backlash adjuster that helps to ensure quiet operation. Each cylinder has two intake and two exhaust valves.

The TDI engine’s intake manifold uses flap valves that are powered by a step motor that is in turn activated by the Engine Control Module (ECM). At idle and low engine speeds, the flap valves are closed in order to cause high swirl into the combustion chamber, resulting in an optimal mixture. During regular driving, the flap valves are adjusted continuously according to load and engine speed to ensure optimum air movement; above 3000 rpm, the valves open fully for maximum filling of the combustion chamber.

The engine’s turbocharger features adjustable guide vanes that maintain the optimal aspect ratio for low- and high-speed performance. In order to meet current tailpipe emissions standards in all 50 states, the engine makes use of both high- and low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation over all engine speeds, as well as an exhaust system that has a particulate filter and no fewer than three catalytic convertors: for oxidation, oxides of nitrogen (NO_x), and hydrogen sulfide.

The engine is mated to either a six-speed manual transmission or VW’s dual-clutch DSG six-speed automatic. DSG combines the comfort and ease-of-use of an automatic, with the responsiveness and economy of a manual. The six-speed, transversely-mounted DSG unit features two wet clutches with hydraulic pressure regulation. One clutch controls the odd gears—first, third, fifth and reverse—while the other operates the even gears.

With DSG, the set-up allows the next-higher gear to be engaged but remain on standby until it is actually selected. In other words, if the Beetle is being driven in third gear, fourth is selected but not yet activated. As soon as the ideal shift point is reached, the clutch on the third-gear side opens, the other clutch closes and fourth gear engages under accurate electronic supervision.

Since the opening and closing actions of the two clutches overlap, a smooth gearshift results and the entire shift process is completed in less than four-hundredths of a second. In addition to its fully automatic shift mode, DSG has a Tiptronic function to permit manual gear selection.

The 2012 Beetle is 71.2 inches wide (3.3 inches wider than the new Beetle), 58.5 inches tall (0.5 inches lower) and 168.4 inches long (7.3 inches longer). The new focal point is the C-pillar. The development team also increased the car’s track widths and wheelbase. The changed proportions give the Beetle a powerful and dynamic appearance. The TDI differs externally from the 2.5 and Turbo in having unique 17-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, TDI badging, and a chrome trim line that caps the top of the door’s sheetmetal.

Beetle TDI models are fitted with a strut-type front suspension with a lower control arm and a 22-mm-diameter anti-roll bar. At the back, there’s a torsion beam arrangement that has coil springs and telescopic dampers. Like the Beetle Turbo, the TDI uses rack-and-pinion steering with electric power assistance.

All Beetle models have standard anti-lock brakes (ABS) with electronic brake pressure distribution (EBD). The Beetle TDI has 11.3-inch-diameter vented front discs and 10.7-inch-diameter rear disc brakes.

The Beetle feature a rigid body structure that uses ultra-high-strength, hot-formed steels in the crash-load paths and seamless laser welds. Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is standard, as are driver and front passenger airbags and Side Curtain Protection airbags in front and rear. The Beetle includes Volkswagen’s advanced Intelligent Crash Response System that shuts off the fuel pump, unlocks the doors, and switches on the hazard lights if the car is involved in certain types of collision.

There are three Beetle TDI Clean Diesel trim lines: TDI; TDI with Sunroof; and TDI with Sunroof, Sound, and Navigation.

Mazda develops resin material for vehicle parts for weight reduction; bumpers for the CX-5

2012-02-09T02:40:00-08:00

Mazda CX-5 bumpers. Top: Front bumper, Bottom: Rear bumper. Click to enlarge.

Mazda Motor Corporation has developed, jointly with Japan Polypropylene Corporation, resin material for vehicle parts that maintains the same rigidity as parts made with conventional materials while achieving significant weight reduction. Using this material, the parts manufactured are thinner than those using conventional resin, resulting in a significant reduction in the resin required to manufacture parts.

When the material is used for both front and rear bumpers, it contributes to weight reduction of approximately 20%. In the bumper production process, this reduced thickness allows for a shorter cooling period for molding, and by using computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology, the fluidity of the resin material has also been optimized.

As a result, bumper molding time, previously 60 seconds, has been halved to 30 seconds, leading to major reductions in the amount of energy consumed in the production process.

Mazda plans to adopt the lightest bumpers in the class (displacement between 1500 to 2000 cc) using this resin material in the all-new Mazda CX-5 SUV to go on sale this spring, as well as other upcoming new models.

Bumpers are positioned at the very front and rear end of a vehicle and their weight has a major impact on fuel economy and driving performance. On the other hand, bumpers are multi-functional, requiring both rigidity to absorb impact, and molding and painting properties suitable for excellent exterior design.

Mazda blended two components found in polypropylene and rubber, the constituents of resin, that have different properties, and succeeded in distributing them in a double-layer structure in line with the required function for the surface and the inside of the base bumper material. As a result of this achievement, the surface has excellent paint film adhesion and the inner section retains high rigidity and impact absorption, with reduced thickness.

California Energy Commission Approves $800K in four regional grants to prepare for electric vehicles

2012-02-09T02:10:00-08:00

The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP) approved four regional planning grants to prepare for electric vehicles. The grants were awarded to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG); the Ventura County Air Quality Management District; the Bay Area Air Quality Management District; and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. These areas of the state are expected to experience heavy electric vehicle use within the next ten years.

The CEC proposed awarding nine grants this year under this particular program (Solicitation PON-10-602, Regional Plans to Support Plug-In Electric Vehicle Readiness.) The four awards just approved included:

$199,379 to SANDAG. The grant will allow SANDAG to create the “San Diego Regional Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council (REVI),” a group of public and private leaders from counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. In addition, SANDAG will provide $50,451 in match funds. The council will help promote the use of plug-in electric vehicles in the San Diego area and create a set of consistent best management practices to simplify their introduction.

Members of REVI will include San Diego County; the Cities of Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del Mar, Escondido, San Diego, and Solana Beach; and three regional public agencies including the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, the San Diego Air Pollution Control District, and the San Diego Unified Port District.

Also included is the San Diego Regional Clean Fuels Coalition (designated as the US Department of Energy Clean Cities Coalition); the California Center for Sustainable Energy; the University of California, San Diego; Miramar College Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Center; electric vehicle technology companies ECOtality and AeroVironment; and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), the local utility.
$200,000 to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, the project’s lead entity, will create “Plug-in Central Coast,” a coordinating council of public and private leaders from counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. The council will help promote the use of plug-in electric vehicles in the tri-county area.

Members of Plug-in Central Coast include Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, along with their respective air-quality management districts who will provide a total of $50,000 in match funds; the Ventura County Transportation Commission; the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments; the Community Environmental Council, which serves as liaison to Plug-in Santa Barbara; the Central Coast Clean Cities Coalition; the Cities of Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, Ventura, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and Ojai; and local utilities Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
$200,000 to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The grant will allow the air quality management district to serve as lead entity for the “Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council” (PEVCC), a group of public and private leaders representing counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will also contribute $200,000 in match funds. The council will help encourage the use of plug-in electric vehicles and create a set of consistent best-management practices to simplify their introduction into the marketplace. The council considers the 2011-2013 time frame to be a critical “tipping point” in the move to electrified transportation.

Government agencies that will make up the Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council will include the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the Transportation Authority of Marin, and the Sonoma County Transportation and Climate Protection Authority.

Non-governmental organizations include the Bay Area Climate Collaborative; the EV Communities Alliance; CityCar Share, a non-profit vehicle-sharing program; Plug-in America, an electric vehicle advocate; and Bay Area Clean Cities Coalitions, promoters of electric vehicle use in fleets.

Cities taking part include San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and Berkeley, along with Marin County.

PEVCC members from private industry include the Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers, a leading venture fund in Silicon Valley; Itron, a leader in Smart Grid infrastructure and services; Coulomb Technology, manufacturer of PEV technology; ECOtality, a clean energy technology company; electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla; and Pacific Gas & Electric, the area’s local utility.
$200,000 to the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. The will allow the council, the project’s lead entity, to create the “Capital Area Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council (CAPEVCC).” The council will include public and private leaders from counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. The council will help promote the use of plug-in electric vehicles in the Sacramento area and create a set of consistent best management practices to simplify their introduction.

SACOG will lead the coordinating council with support from the non-profit association Valley Vision, which will also provide match funding of $47,420. Other core members of council include the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District; the Greater Sacramento Regional Clean Air Coalition (Clean Cities); the Yolo/Solano Air Quality Management District; the University of California, Davis; Sacramento County and the cities of Sacramento, Citrus Heights, West Sacramento, Folsom, and Elk Grove; the local utilities Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), Roseville Electric, and Pacific Gas & Electric; and the John L. Sullivan Automotive Group.

The Capital Area Region includes 22 cities in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Assembly Bill 118 (Núñez, Chapter 750, Statutes of 2007) created the California Energy Commission’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program. The statute, amended by Assembly Bill 109 (Núñez, Chapter 313, Statutes of 2008), authorizes the Energy Commission to develop and deploy alternative and renewable fuels and advanced transportation technologies to help achieve the state’s climate change policies. Under the statutes, the Energy Commission invests nearly $100 million a year in a variety of projects, leveraging existing federal, state and local funding and private investments in the process.

NASA seeking proposals for Green Propellant technology demonstrations

2012-02-09T02:00:00-08:00

NASA has issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA, NNM12ZZP03K) seeking technology demonstration proposals for green propellant alternatives to the highly toxic fuel hydrazine. As NASA works with US companies to open a new era of access to space, the agency seeks innovative and transformative fuels that are less harmful to the environment.

Hydrazine is an efficient and ubiquitous propellant that can be stored for long periods of time, but is also highly corrosive and toxic. It is used extensively on commercial and defense department satellites as well as for NASA science and exploration missions. NASA is looking for an alternative that decreases environmental hazards and pollutants, has fewer operational hazards and shortens rocket launch processing times.

Propellants that greatly reduce the handling hazards of hydrazine have been under development for many years and have been termed “green propellants”, a general name for a family of propellants (liquid, solid, mono- or bi-propellants, hybrids) which offer safer handling conditions and lower environmental impact.

Beyond decreasing environmental hazards and pollutants, promising aspects of green propellants also include reduced systems complexity, fewer operational hazards, decreased launch processing times and increased propellant performance.

NASA is seeking demonstrations of a hydrazine alternative in a storable liquid monopropellant chemical propulsion implementation relevant to at least one of the following applications: in-space reaction control propulsion; in-space primary propulsion; launch vehicle reaction control propulsion; and launch vehicle power generation. Proposals may address more than one application and may also include bipropellant implementations as an extension of the base monopropellant system.

NASA also desires demonstrations of complete propulsion and power generation systems including such items as engines, tanks, valves, injectors, igniters, thrust chambers, feed and control systems. Demonstrations may include one or more thrust and/or power generation classes.

The candidate technologies must be mature, exhibiting a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of at least 5 at the time of proposal submission, and the proposed demonstration must raise the technology readiness of the new capability, to TRL 7 or higher, such that infusion into the critical path for future missions may occur immediately following successful demonstration.

Maturing a space technology, such as green propellants, to mission readiness through relevant environment testing and demonstration is a significant challenge from a cost, schedule and risk perspective. NASA has established the Technology Demonstration Missions Program to perform this function, bridging the gap between laboratory confirmation of a technology and its initial use on an operational mission.

NASA invites any capable domestic organization, of any type, to respond to this solicitation. Participation by non-US organizations is generally welcome, but subject to NASA’s policy on no exchange of funds. However, as specified by law (Public Law 112-55, Section 539(a)), proposals must not include bilateral participation, collaboration, or coordination with China or any Chinese-owned company or entity, whether funded or performed under a no-exchange-of-funds arrangement.

NASA anticipates making one or more awards in response to this solicitation, with no single award exceeding $50 million. Final awards will be made based on the strength of proposals and availability of funds. The deadline for submitting proposals is 30 April.

High performance green propulsion has the potential to significantly change how we travel in space. NASA’s Space Technology Program seeks out these sort of cross-cutting, innovative technologies to enable our future missions while also providing benefit to the American space industry. By reducing the hazards of handling fuel, we can reduce ground processing time and lower costs for rocket launches, allowing a greater community of researchers and technologists access to the high frontier.
—Michael Gazarik, director of NASA’s Space Technology Program

The Technology Demonstration Missions Program is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Toyota to increase Highlander output, including hybrid and exports, in Indiana

2012-02-08T11:33:00-08:00

Toyota will increase production of the Highlander mid-size SUV in late 2013 at the company’s Princeton, Ind. plant. Hybrid and export versions will be included. The project is expected to create approximately 400 new jobs at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana, Inc. (TMMI).

The company will invest about $400 million to support global demand for the Highlander, which will no longer be built in Japan by late 2013. Toyota builds Highlander in China for that market only. Annual Highlander production volume is expected to increase by approximately 50,000 units at TMMI.

Highlander is currently sold in Russia and Australia, and TMMI will export to those countries.

TMMI currently employs 4,800 and builds the Highlander, Sequoia full-size SUV and Sienna minivan.

ARPA-E releases two RFIs: Draft $150M Open Funding Opportunity and accelerating commercialization of Electrofuels

2012-02-08T11:28:01-08:00

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) released two Requests For Information (RFIs). The first (DE-FOA-0000663) concerns a draft Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). ARPA-E intends to formally issue a revised version of this Open FOA in early March 2012. The Open FOA is expected to support transformational and disruptive high-impact energy R&D projects related to renewable power, bioenergy, transportation, conventional generation, the electrical grid, and building efficiency, among other technology areas.

The second (DE-FOA-0000671) is focused on accelerating the development of transformative market-ready non-photosynthetic biofuel technologies. ARPA-E’s Electrofuels program has supported several technologies on the lab-scale that allow microorganisms to combine chemical or electrical energy with carbon to create liquid transportation fuels. (Earlier post.) Now, ARPA-E is seeking input from industry, academia, and other interested stakeholders on the steps and challenges necessary to scale-up and apply these and related technologies in a commercial-scale facility.

Open Funding Opportunity. ARPA-E’s first FOA, issued in 2009, was a similarly open call for the most transformative energy technology solutions to the most pressing security, economic, and environmental challenges.

Applicants for this FOA may propose any idea that addresses ARPA-E’s Mission Areas and the types of projects that ARPA-E funds. The mission of ARPA-E is to identify and fund research to translate science into breakthrough energy technologies that are too risky for the private sector and that, if successfully developed, will create the foundation for entirely new industries. Successful projects will address at least one of ARPA-E’s two Mission Areas:

Enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that result in reductions of imports of energy from foreign sources; reductions of energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; and improvement in the energy efficiency of all economic sectors.
Ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.

While all technology-focused applied research will be considered, the agency says, two instances are “especially fruitful” for the creation of transformational technologies:

the first establishment of a technology upon recently elucidated scientific principles; and
the synthesis of scientific principles drawn from disparate fields that do not typically intersect.

ARPA-E will not support basic research aimed at discovery and fundamental knowledge generation, nor will it undertake large-scale demonstration projects of existing technologies.

The FOA provides a framework of 8 broad categories of interest:

Renewable power (non-bio). Sub-categories include: Wind - Energy Capture; Wind - Energy Conversion; Geothermal Energy; Ocean Energy; Solar - PV/CPV; Solar - Thermal; Renewable Generation; and Renewable Power - Other.
Bioenergy. Sub-categories include: Biomass Production; Biofuel Production - Biological Methods; Biofuel Production - Nonbiological Methods; Bioenergy Supply Chain; and Bioenergy - Other.
Transportation. Sub-categories include: Alternative Fuels (Non-Bio); Engines - Transportation; Electric Motors – Transportation; Fuel Cells - Transportation; Advanced Vehicle Designs And Materials; Transportation Management; Power Electronics - Transportation; Non-Vehicular Transportation; Batteries - Transportation; Non-Battery Storage For Transportation; and Transportation - Other.
Conventional Generation (Non-Renewable). Sub-categories include: Combined Processes - Conventional Generation; Stationary Engines/Turbines For Conventional Generation; Stationary Fuel Cells For Conventional Generation; Nuclear Power Generation And Materials; Carbon Capture, Use, And Storage; Exploration And Extraction (Non-Geothermal) Of Conventional Resources; Planning And Operations For Conventional Generation; Combustible Gas Infrastructure; Chemical Conversions From Fossil; Water Conservation In Conventional Generation; and Conventional Generation – Other.
Grid. Sub-categories include: Grid Transmission; Grid Distribution; Modeling, Software, Algorithms, And Control For The Grid; Batteries - Grid Scale; Grid Scale (Non-Battery) Storage; Grid Security; Grid – Other.
Building Efficiency. Sub-categories include: CHP; HVAC; Building Energy Demand Management; Lighting; Building Envelope; and Building Efficiency - Other.
Other. Sub-categories include: Water Production/Reuse; Thermal Energy Storage; Advanced Manufacturing; Behavior/Education; Appliance And Consumer Electronics Efficiency (End Use); Data Centers And Computation; Industrial Efficiency – Materials; Industrial Efficiency – Other; Heat Recovery; High Temperature Materials; Semiconductors; Portable Power; and Critical Materials.
None of the Above. Technologies which do not fit in any of the above categories.

The RFI provides instructions for submitting comments on the draft Open FOA, which must be received by 5 PM Eastern Time on 29 February 2012. Neither the RFI nor the draft Open FOA constitute the formal request for applications. Applicants must refer to the final FOA that is expected to be issued in early March 2012 for instructions on preparing and submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.

Electrofuels. ARPA-E created the Electrofuels applied research program to encourage development of new biological routes to fuels that bypass the limits of photosynthesis. Specifically, the Electrofuels program relies on the biology of chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms.

These microorganisms derive energy from the oxidation of various reduced inorganic compounds, such as hydrogen, reduced metals, and, in the case of “electrotrophs,” electrons, which live on direct electrical current. As autotrophs, these organisms can use inorganic carbon as the only carbon source and thus are capable of growth and production in the complete absence of either sunlight or reduced carbon. Prior to creation of the Electrofuels program, no concerted effort had been made to investigate the potential for chemolithoautotrophy as a platform for biofuel production.

So far, the Electrofuels program has demonstrated technical feasibility; however, the program is not anticipated to deliver technology beyond Technology Readiness Level (TRL) – 4. ARPA-E is looking for information regarding the transition of chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production technologies to TRL – 6, representative of the technology maturation required for eventual demonstration-scale to full-scale deployment (TRL – 7-9).

ARPA-E is seeking views regarding various microbial systems, energy assimilation strategies, bioreactor development, scaling parameters, fuel/fuel precursor products, and cost of fuel/fuel precursor products, overall cost of program development and path to market adoption.

The agency is also seeking responses that address the most relevant metrics to achieve performance, and cost data necessary for confident modeling of a 1 million liters product per day production facility. ARPA-E prefers to receive responses that address each of the following questions, however responses that address only a subset of these questions will be accepted:

What is the maximum theoretical energy efficiency for an ideal chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production platform, as measured by the energy content of the final fuel/fuel precursor product to energy content of input energy/reducing equivalents (include a break-out of energy required for generation of reducing equivalents)?
Assuming that the overall cost of the final fuel/fuel precursor product is most sensitive to the cost of input energy/reducing equivalents, what energy efficiency (relative to theoretical) is necessary for economical fuel/ fuel precursor production?
What are the critical technical challenges to achieving > 2 gram per liter per hour volumetric productivity?
At what reactor scale could one expect performance and cost data that could confidently be useful for modeling of a 1 million liters product per day production facility?
What is the largest feasible and optimal scale for a chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production platform?
How important is product flexibility for an ideal chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production platform?
What final fuel/fuel precursor is most achievable at > 2 gram per liter per hour? If the final fuel/fuel precursor is not a hydrocarbon, what is the downstream efficiency of conversion to a hydrocarbon?
What is a reasonable level of investment required to scale a chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production technology from TRL – 3-4 to TRL – 6?
Assuming that a commercial partnership is necessary, what other considerations are important for moving chemo/electro-autotrophic fuel production technology to market?
Any additional information deemed relevant.

Responses must be received by 30 April 2012. As a result of the RFI, ARPA-E may choose to hold a public workshop. If a formal FOA is issued, it will be issued under a new FOA number.

MIT team provides new insight into the performance of lithium iron phosphate cathodes; potentially important for new cathode materials

2012-02-08T10:19:22-08:00

A theoretical investigation of the effects of elastic coherency on the thermodynamics, kinetics, and morphology of intercalation in single lithium iron phosphate nanoparticles by MIT associate professor Martin Z. Bazant and postdoc Daniel Cogswell has provided new insights into the performance and behavior of this important Li-ion battery cathode material.

Their results, reported in a new open-access paper published in the journal ACS Nano, show that the material behaves quite differently than had been thought; help to explain its performance; and possibly open the door to the discovery of even more effective multi-particle cathode materials. This study is an extension of the research they reported last year in the journal Nano Letters.

When it was first discovered, lithium iron phosphate was considered useful only for low-power applications. Later work by researchers—including MIT’s Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics and co-founder of A123 Systems—showed that its power capacity could be improved significantly by using it in nanoparticle form, an approach that made it one of the best materials available for commercial high-power applications.

However, the reasons why nanoparticles of LiFePO₄ worked so well remained elusive. It was widely believed that while being charged or discharged, the bulk material separated into different phases with very different concentrations of lithium; this phase separation, it was thought, limited the material’s power capacity. But the new research shows that, under many real-world conditions, this separation never happens.

Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) has emerged as an important high-rate cathode material for rechargeable batteries and is unique because of its strongly anisotropic diffusivity, its strong elastic anisotropy, and its tendency to phase-separate into lithium-rich and lithium-poor phases.Despite conclusive observations of phase boundaries in chemically delithiated LiFePO₄ nanoparticles, the general consensus has been that phase boundaries always form during electrochemical discharge, thereby limiting battery performance. However, this limitation is inconsistent with dramatic rate improvements resulting from smaller nanoparticles, doping, and surface coatings.

The feasibility of phase boundary formation has recently been challenged by both phase-field models and ab initio calculations. In a companion paper, we demonstrate that high discharge currents can suppress phase separation in reaction-limited nanoparticles, making the spinodal a dynamical property of intercalation systems. In this paper we consider the additional effect of elastic coherency strain and find that it leads to a quantitatively accurate phase-field description of Li_XFePO₄ that is useful for interpreting experimental data. Via mathematical analysis and numerical simulations of galvanostatic discharge, we conclude that coherency strain strongly suppresses phase separation, leading to better battery performance and improved mechanical durability.
—Cogswell and Bazant

Bazant’s theory predicts that above a critical current, the reaction is so fast that the material loses its tendency for the phase separation that happens at lower power levels. Just below the critical current, the material passes through a new “quasi-solid solution” state, where it “doesn’t have time to complete the phase separation,” he says. These characteristics help explain why this material is so good for rechargeable batteries, he says.

Previous analyses of this material had examined its behavior at a single point in time, ignoring the dynamics of its behavior. But Bazant and Cogswell studied how the material changes while in use, either while charging or discharging a battery, and its changing properties over time turned out to be crucial to understanding its performance.

Researchers had thought that lithium gradually soaks into the particles from the outside in, producing a shrinking core of lithium-poor material at the center. What the MIT team found was quite different: At low current, the lithium forms straight parallel bands of enriched material within each particle, and the bands travel across the particles as they are charged up. But at higher electric-current levels, there is no separation at all, either in bands or in layers; instead, each particle soaks up the lithium all at once, transforming almost instantaneously from lithium-poor to lithium-rich.

The new finding helps explain lithium iron phosphate’s durability as well. When there are stripes of different phases present, the boundaries between those stripes are a source of strain that can cause cracking and a gradual degradation in performance. But when the whole material changes at once, there are no such boundaries and thus less degradation. Similarly, Bazant and Cogswell predict that operating at a slightly higher temperature would actually make the material last longer, which runs counter to typical material behavior.

In conclusion, although phase boundaries have been observed experimentally, we suspect that most electrochemical data for high rate liFePO₄ are inconsistent with phase boundaries forming inside nanoparticles. This is largely a dynamical effect, since our theory predicts that coherency strain reduces the critical current for homogeneous intercalation to only a few percent of the exchange current. This very strong suppression of phase separation during battery operation (in addition to the high solid diffusivity due to few Li/Fe anti-site defects) helps to explain why LiFePO₄ nanoparticles have much greater rate capability and cycle life than the original material.
—Cogswell and Bazant

In addition to seeing how the material changes over time, understanding how it works involved looking at the material at scales that others had not examined. While much analysis had been done at the level of atoms and molecules, it turned out that the key phenomena could only be seen at the scale of the nanoparticles themselves. “It’s a size-dependent effect,” Bazant says.

Troy Farrell, an associate professor of mathematics at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, who was not involved in this work, called the findings of great significance for those doing research on lithium batteries.

[This new understanding] enables material scientists to develop new structures and compounds that ultimately lead to batteries that have longer life and higher energy density. This is what is required if battery technology is to be used in high-power applications like electric vehicles.
—Troy Farrell

Inside a particle of lithium iron phosphate, while being charged or discharged at a moderate rate, the material separates into bands that are either lithium-rich or lithium-poor. At higher current levels, this separation never occurs, the MIT team found. Phase-field simulation of a 500x500nm particle. Video: Bazant laboratory

Resources

Daniel A Cogswell and Martin Z. Bazant (2012) Coherency Strain and the Kinetics of Phase Separation in LiFePO₄. ACS Nano doi: 10.1021/nn204177u
Peng Bai, Daniel A. Cogswell and Martin Z. Bazant (2011) Suppression of Phase Separation in LiFePO₄ Nanoparticles During Battery Discharge. Nano Letters. doi: 10.1021/nl202764f

Ioxus acquires Japanese ultracapacitor manufacturer Power Systems, Ltd.

2012-02-08T08:39:57-08:00

US-based ultracapacitor company Ioxus, Inc. has acquired Power Systems, Ltd., a Japanese manufacturer of flexible, slim-pack electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) with an extensive customer base in the Asia-Pacific region. With Power Systems’ proprietary high-power flat cell design, Ioxus says it gains the technological building blocks for creating flexible ultracapacitor energy storage solutions for a variety of applications.

The Power Systems acquisition comes a year after Ioxus’ purchase of Advanced Energy Conversion (AEC), a company that specializes in advanced power electronics and ultracap module designs. Power Systems adds another technology asset to the Ioxus product family with its flat prismatic ultracapacitor design in slim, flexible pouch cells.

Ioxus will continue to serve Power Systems’ customer base in Japan as part of its ongoing expansion into the Asia-Pacific region. The acquisition increases the scale of Ioxus’ business, especially in Japan, where Power Systems enjoys a significant share of the market for 100 Farad-plus-sized ultracapacitors.

TM4 and Prestolite Electric Beijing forming JV for heavy-duty electric traction systems

2012-02-08T08:36:38-08:00

TM4, a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec, and Prestolite Electric Beijing Limited (PEBL), have entered into an agreement for the creation of a sino-foreign equity joint venture company named Prestolite E-Propulsion Systems (Beijing) Limited (PEPS). Leveraging TM4’s licensed technologies, the new company will develop, manufacture, sell and supporting electric traction systems for trucks and buses, as well as commercial, off-road and marine vehicles.

The new joint venture will target clients in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN countries.

TM4 currently offers a range of motor electric power control systems for the transport sector (earlier post), including:

TM4 MФTIVE Series, electric powertrains for electric and hybrid vehicles of all ranges;
ISAM, Starter/Alternator/Motor Units for heavy-duty buses and trucks;
MФGEN, hybrid powertrain; and
The Wheel Motor, a wheel/hub motor.

TM4 will continue to supply the ASEAN markets with technologies related to light electric vehicles. As well, all TM4 technologies related to the transportation and energy sectors will be offered on other markets across the globe.

The joint venture’s first objective is to be able to accept orders with delivery dates in 2013.

According to the Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, China accounted for 40% of the world’s production of heavy-duty buses in 2010 and PEBL products are contained in 85% of the medium and large buses and 38% of the heavy duty trucks made in China. PEBL has 23 district offices, 31 regional distributors and more than 170 service points in Asia.

This new agreement falls within the range of activities stemming from the economic mission to China led by Québec Premier Jean Charest in August 2011.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Hydro-Québec established in 1998, TM4 commercialized the electric propulsion system technology developed by Hydro-Québec’s research center (IREQ). Products include customized electric drivetrains for electric vehicle and hybrid vehicle manufacturers, and generators for wind turbine and gen-set manufacturers.

Prestolite Electric (Beijing) Limited (PEBL) was established in March, 2001. In the markets it serves, PEBL is the largest and most modern manufacturer of heavy-duty rotating electric systems in China. Its customers include nearly every manufacturer of small to large displacement diesel engines, mid-size to large-size buses, light-duty to heavy-duty trucks, mid-grade to high-grade off-road equipments and marine engines and gen-sets. PEBL has an annual production capacity of one million alternators and five hundred thousand starter motors.