With all the attention being paid to alternative fuels, it is not surprising that Big Oil should launch a PR counteroffensive. The American Petroleum Institute (API), advertising itself as "the People of America's Oil and Natural Gas Industry," is running a new TV ad, Delivering America's Energy Security, which can be viewed at their website at energytomorrow.com. Their contention is that there is still so much oil under America that we can achieve energy independence without getting off oil for a long time. According to API, there are "112 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil beneath U.S. federal lands and coastal waters. That's enough oil to fuel 60 million cars for 60 years." Unfortunately, we already seem to have about 250,000,000 passenger vehicles in the U.S. And perhaps we don't have 60 years to reverse the effects of 100 years of gasoline-powered internal combustion.

[Source: American Petroleum Institute]

Motorcycle, scooter and moped manufacturers in India are worried. Since Tata announced their ultra-cheap Nano, the two-wheeled industry is abuzz with worry that the populace will quickly abandon their old single-track vehicles for the safety and convenience of a four-wheeler if the price points get too close. This is a rational concern, and it is exactly why Tata's created the Nano in the first place.

In an effort to persuade buyers to stick with their bikes, the major manufacturers in India, including Bajaj, Honda and Kinetic, are all working on natural gas options for their various offerings. According to this article, each of these companies has contacted Energtek, a leader in absorbed natural gas (ANG) technology for help in implementing the conversion process. The advantages to using the ANG lie primarily with price, however there are also eco-benefits to be had, as natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil-fuels. We have to wonder, though, what would stop companies like Tata from using similar technology in their low-priced automobiles.

Related:

• VIDEO: Live reveal of the $2,500 Tata Nano
• Here's the $2,500 Tata Nano, the Indian peoples car

[Source: Red Orbit]

Stockholm is making a clear step towards the widespread use of CNG (compressed natural gas) in vehicles. The City Councillor for the Environment, Ulla Hamilton, is promoting a policy that will increase the use of CNG vehicles, with biomethane as a primary source for that gas. Gas obtained from fossil sources will only be used in case demand surpasses supply.

Local gas supplier, AGA, is setting up new gas storage facilities and a distribution network because Sweden does not have an existing grid, a move that will eliminate the need for delivery trucks. The grid will be operational by the end of 2009, which will allow houses to have home refueling station and gas(oline) stations to have CNG "pumps" as well.

To support these and other intiatives (local fleets running on CNG, for instance), the city will build a biogas production facility in Käppalaverket (a nearby town). The gas will be obtained from sewage sludge to which the city is going to add restaurant and large kitchens' waste to increase production.

Related:

• Mercedes launches B class running on CNG
• Sixt now rents natural gas powered cars in Germany
• Edmunds Inside Line has a Civic GX in their long-term fleet

[Source: NGV]

Above is another video from my trip to AltWheels Boston 2007. The video is a look at the Phill home refueling station, topping off a Honda Civic GNG (Compressed Natural Gas) car. Natural gas cars are actually the cleanest cars you can buy today, even cleaner than hybrids, but they just don't get the credit they deserve. The reason for the lack of recognition for CNG is they have major problems: natural gas is not available everywhere, for example, and CNG cars cost an extra $7,000 (that's without tax rebates) compared with a normal gas car. If the gas prices keep going up and battery technology promises never pan out though, CNG cars just might have to play a bigger role than many expect.

Related:

• IRS approves Honda hybrid and natural gas vehicles for tax credits
• LA Auto Show: Honda Civic GX quick test drive
• Consumer Reports weighs in on Honda's CNG-powered Civic
• Honda starts selling natural gas Civic in New York state
• Civic GX that runs on natural gas available this fall

If you live in LA, look out for the new bus on the orange line. It's the longest bus in California. The MetroLiner is 65 feet long, five feet longer than normal buses are allowed to be by law. It had to get a pass as a prototype to drive on California roads. The extra 5 feet allows another 20 passengers to fit in the bus bringing the capacity to 100 people. The bus runs on clean natural gas.

Other countries have longer buses than America. The Metro Liner is an accordion style with just one bend but there are buses with two bends. Those buses can be 88 feet long with a capacity of 300 people. America is far behind in the battle for the longest bus in the world. We need to change the laws. Why stop at 88 feet? Why not a 100 feet bus? 110 feet? We can do it! Below the fold is video of a shorter, accordion MetroLiner.

[Source: LA Times]

The more that you read our site, the more interesting things you'll find that are being used to make biofuels around the world. It's time to add to the list, this time with government seized alcohol. In what sounds like a huge waste of good booze, the confiscated alcohol used to be pored out down the drain. Now, it is being mixed with water and trucked to Swedish Biogas in Linköping, where it is mixed with animal remains from slaughterhouses and human waste. Yummy! The waste "is heated and put into anaerobic digesters. The organic materials are broken down, producing the biogas." Also produced are environmentally-friendly fertilizers for farming. The biogas is used like natural gas, and there is even a train which runs on the fuel. Unfortunately, because Sweden does not have much existing infrastructure for natural gas distribution, additional cost is racked up by transportation costs. Still, it is good that Sweden, which has some of the highest alcohol prices in Europe, has come up with a way to use their confiscated alcohol instead of letting it go to waste.

[Source: National Geographic]

We don't get any VW Caddy's here in the U.S., and definately none powered by natural gas. But, they do sell them in other parts of the world. Speaking of other parts of the world and the VW Caddy (excellent segue, right) it took Rainer Zietlow and its team only 142 days while driving 45,000 kilometers using only natural gas to travel over 5 continents in their VW Caddy EcoFuel. The journey ended on April 13th in Leipzig, Germany. This is a rather impressive feat, even more so considering that the crew made absolutely no stop for damage repair, according to this google-translated version of the original posting on Autobilde.de. I'd like to thank Christian from Germancarblog for sharing this story with us!

[Source: Autobild.de via Germancarblog.com]

Great, just what I need! One more thing to be worried about covering... my dog's gaseous emissions. Yeah, I realized that they had odor issues every once in a while, especially when I share my food with them, but I didn't realize that all their methane production could be covered with credits! I guess you learn something new every day... Notice too that I put this one under "Natural Gas". Ha Ha!!!

By the way, this is serious - as in, you can buy these credits from "Easy Being Green". But, really this is mostly fun and games. According to this article, "Company spokesperson Murray Hogarth concedes that the "flatulence cards" fall on the "gimmicky" side of the company's otherwise serious product line, which is designed to help consumers and small businesses address greenhouse gas emissions."

Here is my suggestion: worry about our cars first, then if we need something else to worry about ... we can come back to this one! Actually, we should be more worried about all the dairy cows.

[Source: National Geographic]

The merits of ethanol can be debated all day, with opposing viewpoints ranging from "at least it's better than dino-juice" to "it's barely better than hydrogen" to "it's our only viable option". While the truth probably lies somewhere in between the extremes, most agree that corn is not the best source for a starting biomass. But, if corn is not good enough for ethanol, how about we save the corncobs for "sponges" that can store 180 times their own volume of natural gas or methane gas and at one seventh the pressure of conventional natural gas tanks?

One exciting prospect of this technology is that the tanks made from corncobs bricks could be shaped into a flat "gas tank" style, eliminating the bulky storage tanks currently in use for natural gas storage. The current testbed is a pickup used by the Kansas City Office of Environmental Quality. This holds hope for a biomethane powered automobile. Will we ever be running our cars on cow manure?

[Source: The Sietch Blog via Hugg]

Long Beach and Los Angeles provide the primary points of entry for all the cheap Chinese products Wal-Mart (and just about every other retailer in America) shoppers can't seem to do without. They are the largest container ports in America and there are huge fleets of trucks to move all the containers in and out of the ports. Traditionally, they were transported by thousands of diesel trucks, with an estimated 22,000 trips a day moving containers between the ports and warehouses for distribution around the country.

The two ports are now teaming up to request quotes for a liquefied natural gas truck program. Natural gas-powered trucks would have eighty to ninety percent less particulate and NOx emissions than the current diesel trucks. The two ports and the South Coast Air Quality Management board have committed $22 million dollars to assist operators with replacing trucks from before 1989 with new LNG powered trucks. This is particularly important since container traffic through the two ports is expected to double by 2020, meaning even more truck traffic through the gates.

Related:

• Pacific Gas and Electric Company sets up natural gas trucks at the Port of Oakland

[Source: GreenCarCongress]

Truth be told, there was not much new in the way of green technology at the Chicago Auto Show this year. Most of the vehicles that are of interest to our readers have been covered in depth here in our Detroit Auto Show coverage and L.A. Auto Show coverage.

However, I was undeterred, and went around the show looking for signs of greenery. I made a gallery of my findings. I also went through the Toyota Mobile Hybrid Experience trailer where I learned how to reduce my carbon footprint. At the end, I chose where they were to plant me a new tree. I hope you enjoy the pictures in the gallery. Goodbye, Chicago! I hardly knew ye.

Canadian company Westpoint Innovations has been awarded almost AUD$1.4 million (US$1.075 million) by the Australian Government under their Alternative Fuels Conversion Programme (AFCP) to evaluate liquid petroleum gas (LPG, also known as LNG) as a heavy-duty highway truck fuel in Australia. The AFCP is an Australian government project designed to assist operators and manufacturers of heavy commercial vehicles and buses to convert to Natural Gas (NG) or LPG, as well as assisting manufacturers in the development and testing of engine technologies that can demonstrate greenhouse gas benefits and maintain air quality emissions performance.

Three leading Australian truck fleet owners will acquire four new Kenworth trucks powered by 2008 model Cummins 15-litre engines incorporating Westport's LPG fuel technology as part of the project to evaluate a range of criteria including performance, economy, emissions and noise.

Westport believes that their LPG technology matched with the cheaper price of LPG fuel in Australia and the huge distances traveled could deliver annual fuel savings to the fleet owners of over AUD$132,000 (US$102,000). Beyond economic benefits, LPG also offers lower nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2, compared to diesel fuel. Greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by as much as 15 - 20 percent over diesel fuel for trucks operating 400,000 km / 248,000 miles per year.

Analysis: $100,000 is a lot of money in anyone's language, especially per truck per year! If LPG can deliver massive fuel savings while simultaneously improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, everyone wins.

Related:

• Prometheus Energy starts production of LNG from landfill
• Diesel displacement technology operates engines on CNG, LNG and diesel

[Source: Today's Trucking]

I arranged to drive the Honda Civic GX in an extended test after the holidays, but I wanted to offer a capsule review following a short 5-minute drive during the LA Auto Show. I'm a fan of natural gas as a fuel and have been interested in the practical week-to-week possibilities of a CNG-powered car since Honda started promoting Phill, the home-based refueling station.

Cost and convenience aside, my first impression of the GX is the lack of snap in the throttle. There is a reduction of power when using natural gas in the 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine. The GX is rated at 113 horsepower while a gas-powered model pumps out 140 horsepower. The GX is also heavier, so the car seems lazy or sluggish at times.

But the real values in the GX are fuel costs and peace of mind knowing you're driving perhaps the cleanest production internal combustion engine available. I'll need more seat time in the GX and then some time with a calculator, but in a future report you can expect a full breakdown of the numbers and driving impressions.

The Orange County Transportation Authority is buying 531 new natural gas powered engines from Cummins Westport Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia. They're going to use them in a combination of new buses and retro-fits to existing buses. The engines incorporate stoichiometric combustion and exhaust gas recirculation allowing for the use of a catalytic converter to clean up the emissions. In order for a catalytic converter to work properly and reliably, the exhaust mixture must be kept at a certain level corresponding to optimal air/fuel mix. That's why modern engines use oxygen sensors that feed into the air/fuel mixture calculation. OCTA currently operates over 500 buses along with commuter rail as well as other responsibilities. The new engines have 250-320hp and thirty percent better low end torque than current engines.

[Source: Westport Cummins via GreenCarCongress]

Honda has been selling natural gas powered Civics In California since 1998. Now for the first time the cars are available outside of the sunshine state. This will be the only dedicated natural gas powered car offered for sale in the United States. The Civic GX has an 8 gallon gas equivalent fuel tank with natural gas pressurized to 3600 psi. It's rated at the equivalent of 28/39 mpg. The engine is a 1.8L four banger rated at 113 hp and is mated to a 5-speed automatic.

Thanks to the near zero emissions, the Civic is eligible for a $4,000 federal tax credit and an extra $1,000 in tax credits if you buy a "Phill". Phill is a home refueling station for natural gas vehicles. Since many homes already have natural gas coming in, adding a mechanism to allow an owner to fill their car from the gas supply they already have makes perfect sense and very convenient. The combination of home refueling, a clean burning car and good fuel efficiency is definitely very appealing. The only apparent drawback is the limited 200 mile range. If you don't do much long distance driving this could definitely be good option, at least if you live in California or one of the nineteen Honda dealers in New York state that will be selling the car.

[Source: Honda]