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Volkswagen wants to expand its presence in the European fleet market and plans to use a new version of the Passat to do it. In early 2008, VW will start building a Passat that can run on compressed natural gas that can be easily refueled at central fleet locations. The CNG Passat is scheduled to be equipped with the 1.4L TSI four cylinder with a 150hp output. In Europe, CNG can be had for 0.90 euro/L compared to gasoline 1.35 euro/L. At some point after the CNG Passat is launched, the CNG option will be added to the Touran, Golf and Caddy.
Fundació Gas Natural has published a study on how CNG vehicles can improve the air quality in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain. Of course, Gas Natural sells natural gas and is quite interested in this happening, but the study was performed with the Mare Nostrum supercomputer in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya's Campus Nord in Barcelona. It's claimed that this is the 9th most powerful computer in the world, and the most powerful in Europe.
According to their results, Barcelona could improve its air quality if 50 percent of its delivery vans used CNG (compressed natural gas) instead of diesel. Barcelona is considered one of Europe's most polluted cities because of its configuration, surrounded by hills and is currently taking (yet to be effective) measures to cut down on pollution. In the case of Madrid, and because of different traffic patterns (more highways and more extension), a similar target would be achieved if 10 percent of private cars ran on CNG.
At the same time, Madrid's city hall, Repsol-YPF, SEAT, the Federación Profesional del Taxi and the Asociación Gremial de Auto Taxi (the two taxi-drivers' unions) have signed an agreement to promote the use of LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) in taxis, in order to replace as many diesel cars as possible. Taxis are considered a key segment to reduce pollution because one percent of cars in the city are taxis, and they are responsible of 20 percent of the trips in the city. SEAT sold discounted 1.6 gasoline Toledo models (pictured above) which were transformed to LPG use by Repsol-YPF for free. Buyers even got a 1,100 EUR LPG card.
[Source: NGV Global and Europa Press via Econoticias]
Energtek has announced that it's collaborating with the Filipino government and PNOC-EC to convert three-wheeled vehicles to natural gas-powered systems by means of storing it in tanks of Adsorbed Natural Gas. Energtek says ANG is safer because it uses lower pressures to store natural gas and allows for easier refuelling. The company has also announced a similar project in India,
The three-wheeled ANG vehicles are expected to be the fastest-growing segment of the automotive market with 200 million sales expected, most of them in Asia. Running these critters on natural gas seems like an affordable way to relieve some of the potential pollution that they will bring, although burning ANG still produces CO2.
Salzburg AG, an Austrian energy company, is opening next month in Eugendorf its first cellulosic biomethane gas station, although the blend on sale will be 80 percent of regular natural gas and 20 percent of methane obtained from renewable resources. The opening of the fuelling station will also include a new pipeline that will feed it to the city's natural gas grid.
This biomethane is obtained from fermenting smooth meadow-grass (Poa pratensis, known in the US as Kentucky bluegrass), which is common in Austria's grasslands. The company states that this type of grass grows well and needs little care while conserving the landscape. These factors reduce pollution from farming as well as transport.
According to Salzburg AG, an acre of this crop (when used in this natural gas blend) can power a car from 10,000 to 15,000 miles. Future plans will increase the biomethane blend up to 80 percent.
FuelMarker Corporation, makers of the Phill home CNG refuelling station, has announced that it is going to be on sale in the Netherlands. While Germans have quite a large network of public CNG fuelling stations, Netherland's infrastructure is more limited.
Phill is being introduced in the country as part of GM's new marketing initiative of its natural gas version of the Opel Combo and Zafira: the first 50 buyers will get a Phill fuelling charging station at home for free.
Phill is now commercially available in Italy, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland and the United States (check here for a video). Future plans include making the station available in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Barbados, the U.K., Australia, Lithuania, and Pakistan.
According to the AutoblogGreen search box, it's been over a year since we last mentioned hythane. I guess we can say with some certainty that hythane is not the green fuel of choice these days. What hythane is is a blend of hydrogen and natural gas, so I'm certain that there is a portion of our readership that will claim this fuel isn't green at all. Fair enough. Still, this cleaner-burning version of natural gas for vehicles has been used for many years around the world.
In any case the news today is that the San Francisco International Airport will use a new grant worth almost $500,000 to convert 14 ground shuttles to run on hythane. The grant comes from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and will be used to "facilitate the replacement of existing gasoline-powered and diesel-powered airport shuttles with Hythane(R) versions of the shuttles which are expected to dramatically decrease emissions. Specifically, the Hythane(R) shuttles are expected to reduce nitrous oxides by 56%, non-methane hydrocarbons by 30%, and carbon dioxide by 40% over the existing versions. The Hythane(R) model is also expected to outperform comparable natural gas shuttles by emitting 30% less hydrocarbons and 20% less carbon dioxide."
Hythane is a patented fuel, and the Hythane trademark is owned by Brehon Energy PLC. The Hythane Company, LLC, which is based in Denver, is responsible for integrating hythane technology with existing natural gas fueling stations.
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is often mentioned on AutoblogGreen for their work with plug-in cars and the work the company is doing in evolving the smart grid in California (see here and here for just two recent examples). Today, though, the news from PG&E revolves around cars powered by natural gas. At least it's still in California.
PG&E has donated $1 Million USD and two natural gas Honda Civics to the University of California Merced School of Engineering department. The utility has a five-year partnership with the school to "support its student recruitment and retention programs," as it's described in the press release after the jump. The Civics are destined for use by engineering students when they go off campus using natural gas provided by PG&E.
Mapquest launched a new interactive map service today called Mapquest Gas Prices. It feels much more like a fresh website than, say, the government's site designed to do a similar job.
The idea is to find the lowest-priced fuel in your area. As a resource of great potential, Mapquest Gas Prices has built in a filter to find all sorts of alternative fuels: biodiesel, E85, hydrogen, EV charging stations, CNG and more. If you don't have an alternative-fueled car, you can also find the lowest price for standard gas in your area. You need to at least select a fuel type and a city and state (or zip code) to get results. You'll have to do the math yourself using your car's mpg to find out if it's cheaper to drive there vs. paying a few more cents per gallon around the corner (the environment would appreciate it if you visit the local store instead of driving somewhere else to fill up, but if the cheapo gas is on your way somewhere you're already going, then by all means...). You can do this using the pop-up gas price calculator, which is actually kind of fun to play with. Here's one example: an 80-mile-trip in a gas guzzling SUV (at 15 mpg) with gas that costs $3.08 will run you $16.43 total. That same drive in a 40-mpg hybrid will be just $6.16. You can input trips up to 9,999 miles, so some people will be able to use this to calculate average annual fuel costs for your car if you don't want to do it by hand.
The page just launched today, and there might be a bug or two. I can't get it to load correctly in Firefox, but it looks just fine in Safari. Also, as a disclaimer, both Mapquest and AutoblogGreen are AOL properties.
In this second part of our chat with Honda's Stephen Ellis we continue our discussion of the Honda Home Energy Station and get into the costs and practicality of hydrogen as a fuel. Read part one here.
ABG: What kind of efficiency are you are looking at right now for the Home Energy Station? How long does it take to produce how much hydrogen? How efficient is the process? How would the cost of operating such a device compared to what we use today?
SE: I think Home Energy Station puts into perspective that here we are now removing the tail pipe from the equation of emissions and now looking to the upstream. So whether it is the energy to charge an electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid or to fuel any other car we have to look to the upstream.
Home Energy Station is a research project still that is targeting these efficiencies such that we have this near 50 percent CO2 reduction on a well-to-wheel basis when matched with hydrogen fuel cell car. And that is again taking advantage of these efficiencies. Today, using steam methane reformation of making hydrogen from natural gas in these large plants, we have shown this graphically that we have over 50 percent CO2 reduction when combined with the FCX. This new FCX using that same process now will moves that to 60 percent. So that's a step in the right direction.
Following the unveiling of the new Honda FCX Clarity at the recent LA Auto Show, I sat down for another chat with Stephen Ellis. Steve is the Marketing manager for alternative fuel programs at Honda of America. We discussed the new car, Honda's Home Energy Station and hydrogen cost and availability.
AutoblogGreen: Let's talk a little bit about what, if anything, aside from the front end has changed from the concept. Are there any major mechanical changes from the concept or is it basically the same as what we drove last year.
Stephen Ellis: Mechanically they are same except, I think, the interior is well-appointed, a completely finished interior. Also now you are seeing that it has the climate controlled seats with heating and ventilation cooling built-in.
ABG: You are going to start series production of this vehicle next summer. It is going to be available at least initially in Southern California, Los Angeles area based on availability of hydrogen refilling stations. Once more stations become available, will the availability of the vehicle be expanded?
SE: That is the idea is that we look long and hard at this, if you think about two years ago when we were doing a lot of planning, the idea was that we would a few more stations, both in volume and what you call accessibility.
Shane wrote about the CNG powered American Roadster last week and it is indeed an odd bird. The long-nosed, three-wheeler has unique styling, but its creator John Green claims it has amazing handling and stability. The Roadster is available with a choice of two natural gas-fueled engines, an air-cooled four cylinder boxer engine that looks vaguely familiar to the ones that used to power a certain German small car. The other option is a water-cooled three cylinder. We came across Mr. Green at the LA Auto Show and had a chance to talk to him about his creation. You can listen to the conversation here.
Daimler-Benz's branch for buses and industrial trucks (Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses) has introduced 16 new buses and trucks with different driving systems and "greener" fuels. This introduction follows the manufacturer's guidelines to reducing emissions and fuel consumption. These vehicles belong to all the group's brands: Freightliner, Mitsubishi Fuso, Mercedes-Benz, Orion and Thomas Built Buses. The vehicles were introduced at Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart (Germany).
As part of the display, the company highlighted new hybrid technologies. Daimler considers them a keystone for reducing fuel consumption by 30 percent. At the same time, emissions can be reduced by about the same amount. Thus far, Daimler hybrid sales have been noticeable: 1,500 Orion buses, more than 100 Freighliner trucks, and 200 Fuso trucks and cars. The company has also sold more than 1,500 Mercedes CNG (Compressd Natural Gas) buses and trucks.
Andreas Renschler, board member of Daimler, said that these trucks are an important step for the company to offer even greener vehicles. He also announced that the new hybrid powertrains will be introduced in new models and regions. Such is the case of Freightliner, which is expected to build 1,500 hybrid M2 trucks, and Thomas Built, which is launching a hybrid school bus before the end of 2007. Finally, a second generation of the Mitsubishi Fuso Aero Star Eco will appear in three years time, while the first Mercedes-Benz Atego BlueTec vehicles are going to be sold next year in Germany, France and the Czech Republic.
European supermarkets are quietly showing off that they want to protect the environment. This initiative, although not being so brave as Tesco's use of Modec electric vans, caught our eye.
Monoprix has bought 18 natural gas fuelled trucks from Renault as part of a delivery test project for its Monoprix and Monop' shops in Paris. The supermarkets will get deliveries as close as possible to the city center using rail freight, counting on Fret SCNF (the French railways) as a rail partner. Then the goods will be loaded onto these trucks and delived to Paris centre-ville shops. Monoprix, with 60 shops in inner Paris, expects to deliver 210,000 pallets (about 120,000 tons of merchandise). The project is expected to cut CO2 emissions by 280 tons and NOx emissions by 19 tons per year.
The trucks include special panelling for temperature control during transport, as well as a lift gate. Mechanically, they will use automatic Allison gearboxes and the refrigeration units will be able to run with the engine off, both to reduce tailpipe and noise pollution
This fleet is the first private French Natural Gas distribution fleet.
OK, China, you're on notice. Not by Stephen Colbert, but by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Oh, and it's not everyone in China, but just "manufacturers for automobiles powered by new energies." What are new energies? Chinaview says it means "hybrid cars, battery electric vehicles (BEV), fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), hydrogen-fueled vehicles and vehicles powered by other new types of fuel."
Basically, this announcement means that automakers who go green are going to need to make sure their cars are produced in a sensible manner and be reliable when they're on the road. As Professor Zha Daojiong, director of the Center for International Energy Security at Renmin University of China in Beijing, explained, "Enterprises wanting to manufacture new-energy cars should pay attention that their development of new type of energies should be truly 'energy-efficient' rather than only 'new in name. It is also crucial to avoid creating new sources of pollution in the process of the production of vehicles fueled by new energies."
Boy, if this regulation is taken seriously and China greens up its auto industry for real and Wal-Mart is able to muscle its product producers to go green, China's environment might not become a total wasteland after all. Just a little wasteland, like so many other places.
So, not only natural gas being used in an attempt to break the land speed record, it's also being used in a winning rally car. The OMV CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) Rally Team won the Ostarrichi Rally a few days ago.
The pilots, Beppo Harrach and Andreas Schindlbacher, drove a converted Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI running on CNG. They finished a solid 47.7 seconds ahead of the second-place vehicle. The win is believed to be the first for a CNG vehicle in an international rally championship event. The car averaged 104.8 km/h (65 mph) during the race.
These CNG Mitsubishis were entered the rally championship with a goal of finishing within the top ten, but they're exceeding expectations. This victory also secures the team a first place finish in the alternative fuel class division (IV) for the season.
FuelMarker Corporation, makers of the Phill home CNG refuelling station, has announced that it is going to be on sale in the Netherlands. While Germans have quite a large network of public CNG fuelling stations, Netherland's infrastructure is more limited. 
So, not only natural gas being used in an attempt to 
