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In the future, you're going to hear much more about HCCI, or homogeneous charge compression ignition. Besides universities and national laboratories, virtually every major automaker is working on this promising technology. Research on HCCI, underway for about three decades, is now producing tangible results. General Motors has shared the results of its considerable research in this area with two drivable concept vehicles, a 2007 Saturn Aura and Opel Vectra, each with a 2.2-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engine incorporating HCCI. General Motors claims up to a 15 percent fuel savings with the 180-horsepower engine while meeting current emissions standards. This results from...

Shell said Saturday its U.S. Gulf refining throughput was about 1 million barrels per day out of a total of 1.2 million bpd. Shell said the 285,000 bpd refinery in Deer Park, Texas which it jointly owns with Mexico's state oil company Pemex, was running nearly at planned rates and making gasoline and other products.

Looking Beyond the Short Run It has been 12 days since Hurricane Ike made landfall. As of yesterday, more than 850 thousand barrels per day of crude oil production from the Gulf of Mexico and about 1.7 million barrels per day of refinery capacity were still shut down. To date, about 27 million barrels of crude oil production from the Gulf of Mexico have been shut in due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. As of September 19, about 46 million barrels of refined product have not been produced due to refineries being shut down or running at reduced levels for...

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP's Pasadena, Texas oil products terminal shut late Tuesday due to a fire and will likely resume limited operations later Wednesday, a spokesman for the company said. He said the fire was under control and the company was allowing it to burn out. It did not pose any danger to other structures. The Pasadena terminal supplies the two largest pipelines in the U.S., the Colonial and Explorer pipelines. "The fire overnight at the Kinder Morgan facility in Pasadena will have an impact on Colonial's operations," said Colonial spokesman Steve Baker, adding that the pipeline's main line...

Longhorn Pipeline said on Wednesday it had stopped shipping oil products from its Galena Park, Texas terminal because of a fire earlier at Kinder Morgan's oil products terminal in Pasadena, Texas. "We have ceased pumping from Galena Park, which is our point of origin," said Amber Pappas, a spokeswoman for the pipeline. The 694 mile common carrier pipeline can carry 72,000 barrels per day of different grades of gasoline and diesel

Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce with Fitzgerald+CO advertising raising nationalawareness for alternative fuels with the help of Willie Nelson’s BioWillie® Premium Biodiesel. Atlanta, GA, September 22, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce, copywriters with Fitzgerald+CO in Atlanta, are two guys on a mission to change the way Americans view alternative fuels. At 10 p.m. EST tonight, they will depart from SoHo in New York City on “Willie Run ‘08”, the first-ever non-stop, cross-country trek powered entirely by Willie Nelson’s own BioWillie® biodiesel. “I know the trip sounds crazy, but it’s more important now than ever,” said Bristow. “We’re...

As more gasoline stations reopen, refineries continue to restart operations Independent fuel distributor Link Smith lost his Dickinson office when Hurricane Ike blew through, but all his tanker drivers have stayed at the wheel, scrambling to get gasoline where it's needed. As more area gas stations came back on line Wednesday, tanker truck drivers were in hot demand and sometimes hard to find as they faced the same poststorm issues as everyone else. ... Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co. and Valero Energy Corp. all announced Wednesday that they had reopened more gas stations in the Houston area and were...

Hurricane Ike's pending assault of the Texas Gulf Coast spurred a slew of major oil refineries to shut down Thursday, stoking concerns that the lost output will further strain U.S. fuel supplies and send pump prices higher. The closures included Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown refinery and BP's Texas City plant, two of the nation's largest fuel-making facilities. Ike has raised fears of a repeat of Hurricane Gustav, which last week plowed through a key refining corridor in south Louisiana. Some critical energy infrastructure remains out of commission because of damage from that storm. One analyst estimated Thursday that Ike's current...

If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs. Ford's 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here's the catch: Despite the car's potential to transform Ford's image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe....

Trident Performance Vehicles is the latest small volume company to enter the sportscar market with the Trident Iceni two seater sportscar. At first glance it isn't much to look at but when you dig into the statistics, it becomes apparent this vehicle could be very much in demand. It is powered by a 100% biodiesel engine which pumps out 550bhp and a massive 950lb/ft of torque, it allows the sportscar to propel from 0-60mph in just 3.7 seconds and it can reach a top speed of over 200mph. You may be thinking there is nothing special about these figures, but...

Volkswagen has a number of firsts for its 2009 Jetta TDI. It is the first new diesel powered passenger car on the market in the U.S. to qualify for sales in all 50 states under the Tier 2 Bin 5 (T2B5) emissions standard. And now it's also the first diesel car to qualify for a federal income tax credit under the Advanced Lean Burn Technology Motor Vehicle income tax credit program. The Internal Revenue Service has certified that the 2009 Jetta TDI qualifies for a one-time tax credit of $1,300. That is the same amount that buyers of General Motors...

The Chevrolet Silverado is arguably the best half-ton truck for towing and the Two-Mode hybrid version is arguably the best half-ton Silverado for towing. It's absolutely amazing watching a Silverado pull a 5000 pound trailer and not hearing anything as the rig pulls away. If you're gentle with the gas, you could make it to 30 mph before the gasoline engine fires up. The silent operation is eerie, but the big news is how smooth this half-ton truck feels with a trailer in tow. Some may think of hybrid systems as being fragile or only useful for improving fuel...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Retail gasoline prices fell on average almost a penny overnight, extending declines for the 24th straight day, a survey of gas station credit card swipes showed Sunday. The national average price for a gallon of regular gas fell to $3.818 from $3.826 the previous day. That's down more than 7% from the record high of $4.114 that gas prices hit on July 16. Gas prices have eased substantially in recent weeks amid signs that global demand for petroleum products is slowing. But gas prices remain high in historical terms. Friday's national average price is more than...

Prominent Alaska Natives met with state political leaders Tuesday in Anchorage to discuss what should be done to fix rural Alaska's energy crisis. The quickly arranged meeting at the Hotel Captain Cook coincides with a major debate under way in Juneau: legislators are weighing a bill to provide one-time energy rebates to all Alaska residents to help them pay for skyrocketing fuel prices. The timing of the event was no accident. Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, pointed out that legislation is in flux. "We're making it clear (to legislators) how much people are hurting," she said....

A Northamptonshire man destroyed his garage and badly injured himself at the weekend while attempting to make biodiesel from used cooking oil. A devastating explosion levelled the makeshift reprocessing plant on Saturday afternoon, when sparks from an electric drill being used to mix ingredients ignited explosive vapours. Firemen hastened to deal with the smoking wreckage, in Middleton Cheney, and the unnamed thrifty motorist was airlifted to hospital with 20 per cent burns. "Firefighters would like to urge members of the public to take extreme caution if undertaking such chemical mixtures in their own homes," said a statement from the Oxfordshire...

Oil prices recently hit $140 per barrel. The cost to grow and transport food is rising in tandem, and the global economy is being squeezed. Meanwhile pollution from burning fossil fuels continues to pollute the planet. The world needs an abundant source of clean, transportable, inexpensive fuel. Could microscopic algae hold a key to that future? There has been a lot of hype surrounding oil production from algae lately. Visionaries claim algae holds the key to energy independence, but as exciting as oil produced from algae is, the reality is that a fossil-fuel-free economy is probably farther off than many...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Chihuahua -- While consumers just across the Rio Grande in El Paso are paying about $4 a gallon for gas -- more for diesel -- government subsidies here have kept fuel prices well below the $3 per gallon mark. Those low prices have kept El Pasoans hopping the border to stay ahead of sky-rocketing fuel prices at home in the United States, many of them filling up portable tanks with diesel which sell for between $300 and $1,000 in El Paso. "Over the past three months with the price of diesel up where it is, we've seen an...

If this is a repeat post, my apologies but I did an extensive search and did not find that it had appeared on FR before. And if anyone can find the sources of this -- an email to me from a trusted friend -- please add that info. Thanks ******** SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW OIL: MAYBE NOT By: John David Powell I hang around educated and talented people. Each individual has at least one university degree. Most read, watch, or listen to more than one news source every day. They span generations with ages ranging from the 20s to...

Funny how quickly $4-a-gallon gas can smoke out hypocrites - as last week's Pew Research poll, citing a dramatic spike in the share of Americans demanding more energy sources and less environmental protection, shows. The nation, it seems, now favors developing new sources over "saving the planet" by a hefty 3-2 margin. And get this: The biggest shift came among - yep! - liberals. Seems sanctimonious tree-huggers and caribou-coddlers have their price: $4 gas. The percentage of those on the left who see energy expansion as the bigger priority more than doubled, from 22 to 45 percent, in just the...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. - It's a concept gaining in popularity, homemade hydrogen fuel cells attached to cars and trucks in order to squeeze out a few more miles per gallon. If you're willing to do some homework and make a trip to the hardware store, you could save some money. "It just helps the fuel completely burn in the engine," said Doug Batton. He explains how this hydrogen fuel cell, or booster attached in the bed of his truck, helps him get more miles per gallon on the road. His Dodge truck still needs fuel, this device just helps him...

Later this year, a plant in China will begin churning out liquid fuel made from coal, a technology that -- if all breaks right for the coal industry -- is headed to American shores. From the CTLtec Americas 2008, which begins today at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown, to Capitol Hill, coal-to-liquids is a popular topic, spurred by rising gasoline prices and this country's ever-present need to wean itself from oil imports. Coal-to-liquid proponents insist that the technology would strengthen national security and be a cheaper alternative than current petroleum. Estimates vary widely, but Richard Bajura, director of the...

Here's how rising fuel prices affect an organization with a fleet of 1,273 school buses: The Montgomery County school board today will consider giving Superintendent Jerry D. Weast emergency powers to make students walk farther to school, if need be, in the coming academic year. (snip) Should prices continue to rise, the school system could save money by raising maximum walking distances for students, because more walkers means fewer buses. Currently, elementary school students walk up to a mile, middle school students 1.5 miles and high school students two miles.

With its controlled energy-pricing system under the strain of oil at $130-plus a barrel, China's government said it will increase retail prices for gasoline, diesel and electricity. The moves will pass on some of the gains in global energy prices to Chinese consumers, as many international industry and government officials had urged China to do, at a time when inflation is a rising concern. Those higher rates will in turn push up costs for businesses, potentially pushing up prices for the goods China supplies to the world. But the changes fall short of the wholesale revamping of price controls that...

I work across from the Capital and around 10:15 or so about 250 trucks, led by a police escort, began circling the Capital building with their horns blaring. The police have closed off several blocks around the Capital, and are re-routing traffic. There were hundreds of spectators (from my vantage point) lining the street cheering for them. I'm sure there were more on the other side of the block I couldn't see. This is the only protest I've seen down here that had the public come out and cheer. It was pretty much like a parade. Unfortunately, the truckers are...

Johnathan Goodwin can get 100 mpg out of a Lincoln Continental, cut emissions by 80%, and double the horsepower. Does the car business have the guts to follow him? “Check it out. It's actually a jet engine," says Johnathan Goodwin, with a low whistle. "This thing is gonna be even cooler than I thought." We're hunched on the floor of Goodwin's gleaming workshop in Wichita, Kansas, surrounded by the shards of a wooden packing crate. Inside the wreckage sits his latest toy--a 1985-issue turbine engine originally designed for the military. It can spin at a blistering 60,000 rpm and...

The result Had we relied on the onboard computers, the Prius would have won by a landslide, as by the end of the trip they read 57mpg and 42mpg for the Prius and Jeep respectively. However, to get the real figure, we calculated consumption based on how much fuel each car had used over the 160 miles. The result was astonishing: both cars had used nearly identical amounts of fuel. The Jeep had averaged 38.9 mpg - only 3.1 mpg less than its computer had recorded. However, the computer of the Prius appeared to be telling whoppers: it actually achieved...

For hundreds of California school districts already facing profound budget problems, the proposed diesel-soot regulations from the Air Resources Board couldn’t come at a worse time: The ARB is pondering a new rule that would require schools to buy new buses—they average about $150,000 each--or retrofit older ones at $20,000 or more per vehicle. The strapped districts also are crying foul over what they see as a betrayal by the ARB. The original diesel rule excluded school buses; the latest version of the rule includes them. The ARB, conducting hearings around the state, is expected to make a final decision...

FRANKFORT — Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, said a coal-to-diesel facility under consideration for construction near Paducah could “change the whole picture of energy in the United States.” Bunning, during a conference call Tuesday with Kentucky reporters, said he’d known about tentative plans for such a plant “for a long time and I’ve kept my mouth shut.” The Paducah Sun’s Bill Bartleman recently reported that a consortium of five major companies is looking at constructing a $3.5 billion facility near Paducah, which could convert coal to diesel fuel. Bunning said if the facility clears permitting hurdles, he will push federal legislation...

This time, a high mile per gallon number was recorded in Europe and not with a Peugeot. A group of German motor journalists managed to get 3.2 l/100 km (73 mpg U.S.) in a Skoda Fabia TDI Greenline. The car had a 1.4 TDI (diesel) engine good for 80 HP. The thirty-six journalists (we're guessing not all of them at the same time) drove the Czech subcompact for 124 km (about 80 miles), using normal highways between Austria and Germany and never going below 60 km/h (40 mph). The only "trick" they used was maintaining as constant a speed as...

WACO, Texas — There's a reason David Cole's diesel pickup truck smells like fried chicken. It's fueled by the glistening, golden waste oil of a restaurant fry pit. Every two or three weeks, Cole visits a North Waco chicken joint and empties out a 50-gallon oil barrel. He takes the free fuel home and filters it through a homemade system of pipes and barrels. Then he pumps it into a tank in the bed of his 1995 Ford F-350. The four-door truck, which can switch easily from diesel to cooking oil, is the only vehicle for his family of four....

(The high price of fuel has boating enthusiasts spending more time anchored and less time with the motor running) Down on the boat docks, fishermen and weekend sailors are getting keeled by high fuel prices. Marina gas generally sells at about 50 cents a gallon more than auto fuel. By the peak of the power-boating season, in July, boaters could pay nearly $5 for a gallon of fuel that in some cases lasts only a few miles. Even now, a few hours of fishing on Lake Michigan costs George Artka several hundred dollars in fuel. He keeps his 39-foot power...

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s petition to Congress demanding the removal of government obstacles to increasing our energy supplies is gathering momentum by the minute, while the Democrats’ do-nothing Congress wants to raise fuel prices. Actually, labeling Congress a bunch of “do-nothings” is almost right, but not quite. They’re doing their best to create more obstacles to growing our energy supply. And while the price of energy is already unreasonably high, they’re working hard on a liberal agenda that will raise the prices consumers pay for gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas and home heating oil. With the summer upon us (and...

With a $10-million seed grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) will collaborate with AFRL to construct and operate the country’s first federal research facility designed to create jet fuel from coal and biomass in a program aimed at creating a viable alternative to petroleum-based fuel. The award will also fund research into coal- and biomass-derived fuel technologies for greater fuel efficiency and reduced environmental impact. It will be the first such research facility in the United States, and it will be available for use by any research team in the country....

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, responded on Tuesday to growing public anger over surging oil prices by proposing to use windfall tax receipts generated by higher energy prices to subsidise the worst-hit people. As in other countries, high oil prices are a hot political issue in France as household budgets and businesses have been squeezed. On Tuesday, French fishermen, protesting against fuel prices, temporarily halted Channel ferries from Dunkirk and blockaded an oil depot near Marseilles. Lorry drivers in Britain also blocked motorways around London demanding a fuel tax rebate from the government. In a radio interview, Mr Sarkozy proposed that...

What started as a student research project at Augsburg College may become a major change in the biodiesel industry. A team of scientists and engineers have turned a tool for purifying and separating chemicals into a six-second process for turning the poorest quality vegetable oil into biodiesel. The first commercial-scale plant using the process should come on line this year.

Mississippi State University, for the second consecutive year, earned top honors in the GM and US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Challenge X student engineering competition. Over the past nine months, the 2008 Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainability competition challenged 17 university teams from the US and Canada to re-engineer a Chevrolet Equinox that employs advanced powertrain technologies. The Mississippi State team designed a through-the-road parallel hybrid electric vehicle powered by a 1.9L GM direct injection turbo diesel engine fueled by biodiesel (B20). It used a GM F40 6-speed manual transmission and a Johnson Controls 300V NiMH battery pack in conjunction...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Oil prices rose above $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday in Asia as supply concerns mounted and the dollar weakened. Light, sweet crude for July delivery swept to a trading record of $130.47 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange after closing at $128.98 in the floor session. It later retreated to $130.36 a barrel, up $1.38. The June contract, which expired Tuesday, settled overnight at $129.07 a barrel. The dollar had become less of a factor as attention turned to supply and demand concerns, but that seems to have...

If you think gas is expensive, be thankful you're not a trucker. Filling up their 18-wheel, 80,000-pound leviathans can cost more than $1,300 these days. Because of short supply, the price of diesel has gone up more than twice as much as gasoline in the last year, reaching a U.S. all-time high this week of an average of $4.33 a gallon. With little hope of a near-term decline -- oil futures rose $2.17 to settle at a record $126.29 a barrel Friday -- the run-up is causing panic and prompting radical cultural and technological shifts in the struggling trucking industry....

While Hyundai offers a front wheel drive minivan in the U.S. market called the Entourage, it's only available with the Korean manufacturer's 3.8L gas V-6. It gets an EPA overall rating of 18mpg, which is competitive in its segment here in North America but no great shakes overall. Overseas, Hyundai has just released a new eight-seat rear wheel drive full-sized van called the i800. The i800 gets motivation from a 2.5L four cylinder diesel engine with common rail injection. The diesel generates 170hp and 289lb-ft of torque which won't get any enthusiasts excited in this application (what enthusiast would...

The California Air Resources Board has revised a draft regulation that will require retrofits and engine replacements for the estimated privately owned 300,000 diesel trucks and buses on California roadways beginning in 2012. The proposed regulation now calls for truckers to retrofit pre-2007 model year trucks with soot filters and then requires a gradual modernization of trucks beginning in 2012, so that ultimately all trucks are the cleanest, 2010 or newer models. Staff re-worked an earlier version of the draft regulation, presented in January, to eliminate the need for truckers to replace two trucks in a nine-year span, instead relying...

At a press conference today, leaders from farm and ethanol groups pointed to skyrocketing oil prices, hedge fund commodity speculators, growing worldwide demand for grain and severe droughts as the major factors underlying rising food prices. They also pointed to the expansion of biofuels as preventing even higher oil prices. The groups cited Merrill Lynch analyst Francisco Blanch’s estimate that oil and gasoline prices would be about 15% higher, or $4.14 a gallon at today’s prices, if biofuel producers weren't increasing their output.

BMW’s 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel (earlier post) was named Best New Engine of the Year 2008 at the tenth annual International Engine of the Year Awards at Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany (6-8 May). The top six contenders in this category included two twin-turbos (one gasoline, one diesel), a V10 with 580bhp, the world’s first diesel boxer engine (from Subaru), and a fresh version of Volkswagen’s TSI. BMW’s 3-liter Twin Turbo gasoline engine was named International Engine of the Year 2008, as it was last year. (Earlier post.) The judges of the awards noted that the back-to-back win also confirms turbocharging...

In a bid to boost sales of its fuel thirsty trucks and SUVs, Chrysler LLC rolled out a new type of incentive late Monday, May 5: Chrysler will cap the price of gasoline at $2.99 per gallon for three years on most of its models. The program is available to buyers starting Wednesday, May 7. It is scheduled to expire June 2. Details of the program, such as which models would be eligible and how much gasoline could be purchased--were sketchy. Customers enrolled in the program will pay the pump price the day they refuel. Chrysler and its partner on...

SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil futures rose to an all-time high near $121 a barrel Tuesday in Asia, fueled by worries about threats to supply and a weakening of the U.S. dollar. The surge in oil prices was also fueled by hopes that the U.S. economy will be spared a sharp downturn after the release of data Monday showing an unexpected expansion in the U.S. service sector in April, analysts said. Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose to a record $120.93 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday. The contract later retreated to...

US Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the American Energy Production Act of 2008 (S.2958) to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas and to fund the development of oil shale and coal-to-liquids technology. Eighteen other senators co-sponsored. Included in the bill is language for a coal-derived fuels mandate. The bill would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as well as the Atlantic and Pacific regions of the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration and production; and lift the one-year moratorium on developing oil shale in Colorado, Wyoming...

The addition of Al or Al2O3 nanoparticles increases the probability of ignition. Adding aluminum and aluminum oxide nanoparticles to diesel can improve the fuel’s ignition properties, according to a new study published online in the journal Nano Letters. Arizona State University mechanical engineer Patrick E. Phelan and colleagues varied both particle size (15 and 50 nm) as well as the volume fraction (0%, 0.1%, and 0.5%) of aluminum (Al) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles at several temperatures within the range 688 °C up to 768 °C. In a series of hot plate studies, they found that in all cases...

Continental has introduced a new piezo injector with direct drive and closed-loop needle control, enabling engine developers to further reduce consumption and emissions. The new injector offers further potential savings by simplifying other emissions-related components such as sensors and control algorithms, according to Continental. “Even vehicles in higher weight categories will now meet the Euro 6 emissions standard without nitrogen oxides aftertreatment,” said Wendelin Klügl, Senior Vice President, Powertrain System & Technology at the 29th International Vienna Motor Symposium. A piezo injector uses a piezo actuator, consisting of a stack of more than 300 wafer-thin ceramic platelets, to control the...

Back in the mid 1970's, BMW exploded into the Midship Engine realm with a sexy little car called the M1. It has since been laid to rest and been reflected upon with sadness and envy. Jump to 2008, and BMW has released a concept design that they are dubbing the "M1 Homage." First off, BMW has made it very clear that this is a "concept design" and there are no "official" plans for production. However, keep in mind that there have also been rumors circulating that BMW was going to make a return to the Midship engine genre of...

Iowa With the rapid expansion of ethanol and biodiesel production in Iowa, there are questions about possible uses for what remains after these alternative fuels leave the plant. So far, the use of ethanol by-products in animal feed has received most of the attention. But researchers at Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Services also are studying a biodiesel by-product in swine and poultry feed. Biodiesel often is made from soybean or vegetable oil, with crude glycerin the resulting by-product. This compound, which currently is used in such things as hand lotions, cosmetics and shampoo,...

Truckers squeezed by price of fuel Sherri Lane of Beebe lost her private business because of a downturn in the economy fueled by an upturn in diesel prices. The 18-wheeler driver was an independent trucker with her husband until recently, but now has been forced to hire on as one of many drivers for a large fleet, giving her budget headaches over to a corporation. “Fuel prices are just ridiculous,” Lane said, declining to name the company for which she now drives tankers trucks to wellsites for the natural gas industry. “People holler about how they have to put $40-50...