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"Asset Managed Parts help our environment by saving energy and natural resources."
www.hobsonindustries.co.uk
PLANES SHOULD FLY ON BIOFUELS
22 Jul 09. Planes 'should fly on biofuels'. Biofuel research should focus on planes and not cars, the think tank Policy Exchange has said. A crop area the size of the USA would be needed to biofuel all the world's cars and alternatives, such as electricity, exist for them, it added. Instead, it said the EU should fund research into using plant-based fuel for aviation to help cut emissions. Sceptics say some biofuels create more carbon than they save and push up the price of food for the poor. Most biofuels are derived from crops such as corn, sugarcane and rapeseed. Bioethanol is usually mixed with petrol, while biodiesel is either used on its own or in a mixture. The UK government, which is funding a £27m research centre to find economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels, says 25% of greenhouse gas emissions come from transport. In April 2008, it introduced a "Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation", requiring 2.5% of all fuel sold at petrol stations to be biofuels, having revised its target from 5%. The EU also changed its stipulation that 10% of transport fuel had to be from crop-based fuel, instead saying the targets could be met by any renewable source, including fuel cells, hydrogen or solar power. Policy Exchange has previously said the government should spend its £550m annual biofuel subsidies on halting the destruction of rainforests and peatland, which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Now the centre-right think tank says the EU should switch policy to subsidising development of biofuels for aviation because planes cannot run on other sources of energy. (Source: BBC)
RICARDO TO EVALUATE LUBRICANT CHALLENGES
29 Jul 09. Ricardo Launches Consortium To Evaluate Lubricant Challenges
Of Future Low Carbon Engine Technologies. With the environmental demand to reduce CO2 emissions and take vehicle fuel economy to new levels, significant innovations in lubricants will be needed to enable implementation of many very promising low friction and high efficiency engine technologies and increasing use of biofuels. While previous advances in engine technology have been based on separate and parallel developments by the fuels and lubricants industries, it is increasingly apparent that further significant improvements in diesel and gasoline engine fuel economy will require an integrated approach between automakers, tier 1 equipment providers, oil companies and lubricant additive manufacturers. By bringing together interested parties from each of these industry sectors, Ricardo aims to create a framework in which fundamental challenges in this area can be investigated and researched in a pre-competitive manner for the mutual benefit of participating companies. Particular areas of interest for the consortium include: the implications of extreme engine downsizing and increased specific power; tolerance to increasing volumes of exhaust gas recirculation in combustion systems (with consequent issues for soot in oil, wear and sludge formation); the chemical impacts on lubricants of biofuel dilution; advanced component designs and new material applications, and; the drive towards thinner, lower viscosity lubricants for reduced friction. The work of the consortium will be structured into a series of modules, the first of which will focus on the effect of downsized light duty gasoline and diesel engine technologies on lubricant soot levels and engine wear. Subsequent modules - to be discussed and agreed in advance by the participating members - are likely to focus on enabling ultra-low viscosity lubricants and their potential benefits in terms of friction reduction on fuel consumption, and lubricant effects on emissions and aftertreatment performance in future engines. (Source:Business4Media.com)
Protonex PARTNERS WITH UltraCell
28 Jul 09. Protonex Technology Corporation has partnered with UltraCell Corporation, a producer of portable fuel cell products, to cooperate in the development, marketing, demonstration, commercialization, and sale of advanced fuel cell power solutions and fuels for the U.S. Military. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies plan to focus on three distinct
types of cooperative efforts: 1) collaboration on existing military hardware, 2) development of a common fuel, and 3) joint sales and marketing efforts. On the hardware side, the companies will integrate and test power solutions using UltraCell's XX25 and XX55 fuel cell power sources with Protonex' Soldier Power Manager (SPM) and Battlefield Power Manager (BPM) products. Both companies will further develop and promote a new portable power plug-and-play standard for the U.S. Military. The resulting power solutions are anticipated to add significant customer advantages to deliver specific portable power capabilities that are currently unavailable to the market.
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