Posts tagged Shell at AutoblogGreen

Posts with tag Shell

Choren industries opens BTL plant in Freiberg

Posted Apr 18th 2008 7:02PM by Xavier Navarro
Filed under: Biodiesel, Emerging Technologies, DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen, Germany

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has inaugurated the "first refinery of second generation" biofuels in Freiberg. The plant, owned by Choren, which partners with car companies VW and Daimler and the Shell oil company, produces BTL (biomass-to-liquid) fuel from any kind of biomass, such as wood chips, straw, weeds or leftover milk rejected by the agrofood industry.

The plans is to have the plant produce 18 million liters of Choren's Carbo-V (a type of biodiesel). Choren's Carbo-V is obtained through a sophisticated 3-step process (gasification, gas treatment and hydrocracking) which transforms any kind of biomass into a biodiesel-like fuel ready to be used in diesel vehicles without further modification. If successful, Choren will spend 1 billion euros in a bigger plant to produce 200,000 million liters of BTL fuel per year.

[Source: Econoticias]

2008 Shell Eco-marathon coming in April; will anyone best 1902 mpg?

Posted Feb 29th 2008 11:19AM by Sebastian Blanco
Filed under: Etc., MPG, Green Daily

Last year, Cal Poly (ok, ok, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo) won the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas with an astounding 1,902.7 mpg score. For 2008, 34 teams will compete at the California Speedway event in April. Last week, Shell-Pennzoil driver Kevin Harvick was at the speedway with some of those winning Cal Poly students to talk about defending their title. The picture above shows Harvick and the students checking out last year's winning vehicle. We don't have too long to wait to see who - if anyone - will beat last year's record. The 2008 Eco-Marathon takes place April 10-13.

UPDATE: Harvick's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post. Thanks to jzj.

[Source: Shell]

Shell Oil sets European, U.K. annual corporate profit record: $27.6 billion

Posted Feb 1st 2008 12:01PM by Lascelles Linton
Filed under: Etc., Green Daily

Royal Dutch Shell made $27.6 billion in 2007, a European and U.K. annual corporate profit record. Sound familiar? It should. Exxon Mobil was breaking records a year ago when they reported $39.5 billion profit. Everything is not great at Shell because profits for the last few months were actually a little less than expected.

It all has to do with margins. You see, Shell is not discovering as much or refining as much oil as they did even just one year ago. Feel sorry for them? Me neither. Gas prices will probably hit $3.50 a gallon before June. Who knows where it might go after that?

So, you better go green or your green will go.

Related:

[Source: Telegraph, Herald]

Shell Oil to grow biofuels from marine algae

Posted Dec 12th 2007 5:24PM by Lascelles Linton
Filed under: Biodiesel, Emerging Technologies, Vegetable Oil, Carbon Offset, Carbon Capture, Pacific Region

Shell Oil formed a joint venture with HR Biopetroleum called Cellana and they plan to produce biofuels from marine algae. Shell, which owns a majority stake in the venture, will start production of a demonstration facility on the Kona coast of Hawai'i Island immediately. The production volume for the facility, which is on a site leased from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), will be small but the main goal is to research which natural microalgae species produce the highest yields biofuels. Scientists from Hawai'i, Mississippi and Canada are a part of the project that will also explore the potential of algae to capture CO₂ from power plants. Graeme Sweeney, Shell Executive Vice President Future Fuels and CO₂, says:

Algae have great potential as a sustainable feedstock for production of diesel-type fuels with a very small CO₂ footprint. ... This demonstration will be an important test of the technology and, critically, of commercial viability.

Sweeney denies this is all a publicity stunt but they are smart to invest in biofuels from marine algae. The economic viability of the process has to be proven but algae is the most promising non-food source of biofuels, providing 15 times the yield of rape seed, and using the ocean would mean farmland that could grow food would not be a part of the biofuel equation. It's really too bad Shell is a giant oil company. I wonder if anyone will ever take news like this from oil companies seriously?

Related:

[Source: Guardian]

Pump prices down, but so is consumer confidence

Posted Jun 12th 2007 9:34AM by Shane Addie
Filed under: Etc.

An article in from Automotive News tells us... what we already know. Even though gas prices have declined since their almost record-breaking highs on Memorial Day, consumer confidence is at a low. What is interesting about the article is that it points out that not only is our confidence in oil down, but that lack of confidence extends to other parts of our consumerism.

Case in point, many retailers including Wal-Mart <gasp> have reported disappointing sales figures for last month. This indicates that because of all the uncertainty the average consumer is coping with in our economy, they are conserving their spending, and thereby not stimulating the already-ill economy. Even the housing market is unstable now, according to the article.

AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report gathers data from about 85,000 gas stations across the U.S. and posts its findings on www.fuelgaugereport.com. According to the site, as of June 8th, the highest reported price for gas was found at Beaver Island, Michigan, where drivers were Shell-ing out $4.51/gallon. On the other side of the spectrum, Lancaster, Pennsylvania reported $2.53/gallon. I just paid $3.54 in the Chicago suburbs, so I don't want any of our Lancasterite readers complaining.

[Source: GasPriceWatch.com via Automotive News]

Defense Department Awards Synfuel Contract

Posted Jun 8th 2007 6:04PM by Shane Addie
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen, Transportation Alternatives, Carbon Offset

Jets are awesome. But face it - they're not environment-friendly (unless they're blowing up gas-guzzling tanks, Hummers or Ford Expeditions). Another baby step was taken today to falsify that statement. The Defense Energy Support Center just "awarded" a contract (boy, they're pretty high and mighty) to Shell Oil Products to produce and deliver 315,000 gallons of synthetic jet fuel to the Air Force and a NASA location to evaluate the Fischer-Topsch fuel.

The Fischer-Topsch jet fuel is made by combining carbon monoxide with hydrogen to form a hydrocarbon that can replace conventional aircraft fuel, eliminating the need for foreign oil. The Air Force will be doing extensive compatibility, reliability and cold-weather testing with the hope that they can certify their entire fleet to run on it by 2010, and have at least half of its fuel come from domestic sources. They get the first aforementioned batch in August, with more to be produced in the next three years.

Someday soon our Air Force pilots will have a clear conscience knowing that they're saving the whales and trees they're breaking the sound barrier over.

[Source: Defense Logistics Agency]

Biomass-to-liquids synthetic SunDiesel to launch in Europe this year

Posted Mar 4th 2007 2:27PM by Dane Muldoon
Filed under: Biodiesel, Emerging Technologies, Ethanol, Manufacturing/Plants, Coal to Liquid

A new synthetic diesel fuel produced using a Fischer-Tropsch process based biomass-to-liquids (BTL) technology, and developed by Shell and Choren Industries, will be launched in Europe later this year.

Utilising waste plant material like wood chips and straw instead of food crops like soybean and rapeseed, 15,000 tonnes per year of the SunDiesel fuel will be produced at a pilot plant in eastern Germany. A much larger 200,000 tonnes per year BTL plant is to begin construction next year to quickly ramp up supply.

According to Choren, SunDiesel;

has a high cetane number and therefore much better ignition performance than conventional diesel fuel,
has no aromatics or sulfur and significantly reduces pollutants from exhaust emissions,
can be used without any adjustment to existing infrastructure or engine systems,
is largely CO₂-neutral.

Shell has also just announced a construction of a cellulosic ethanol plant in Idaho with help from a $80 million U.S. federal grant which will run on plant waste and straw.

Analysis: Shell is already the world's biggest biofuel distributor and appears to be moving aggressively to retain their crown. BTL is a very exciting technology and will play a huge role over the next twenty years once the price comes down enough to compete with petroleum fuels.

Related:

[Source: The Australian]

Shell Oil president calls for action against global warming

Posted Sep 8th 2006 3:42PM by Derrick Y. Noh
Filed under: Legislation and Policy

The AP reported today that Shell Oil Company president John Hofmeister publicly denounced U.S. leaders for not piecing together a strategy to combat global warming. He believes the debate over the science of climate change is over and says, "It's a waste of time to debate it. Policymakers have a responsibility to address it. The nation needs public policy. We'll adjust."

He projects that conventional oil and gas resources won't sustain the nation's energy needs and that the future will include fuel from oil shale, gasified coal, biofuels, wind, the sun, hydrogen and conservation.

As we all know, the Bush administration and most Republican politicians have resisted mandatory emissions limits curbing greenhouse gases, but the Democrats are going to feel a bit uneasy at Hofmeister's statements, too. He actually went so far as to suggest that the American government act now and use policy to keep gas prices high to force market and behavioral changes facilitating the growth of a "culture of conservation."

Democrat or Republican, I'm not sure how many publicly elected officials would be willing to advocate a reduction or removal of federal subsidies on petroleum or any other type of legislation that would keep gas prices high.

Hofmeister didn't overlook the American public either as he posited the nation as living in a culture of excess in relation to the rest of the world. He said that the U.S. represents 8 percent of the global population using 25 percent of the earth's energy supply which is not a "sustainable formula," noting that the rest of the world wants its "fair share."

There'll be a lot of speculation as to whether this was a genuine call for action, or a carefully crafted marketing ploy. I'm not certain it matters. The president of the 3rd largest oil company in the world just made a firm public statement advocating policy change that would lead to greater investment in the research and development of renewable energy.

Related:

Massachusetts v. EPA: The Monkey Trial of the century

[Source: Associated Press via MSNBC]

European Shell Eco-Marathon contestant hits 6785 mpg

Posted May 24th 2006 8:13AM by Sebastian Blanco
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Ethanol

The vehicles in this year's European Shell Eco-Marathon are not exactly the cars you'd want to go on a road trip in, but they can go amazing distances on very little fuel. Engineering students from the Lucee La Joliverie School in France entered this year's top mileage-getter. Their ethanol-powered sleek racer was able to go the equivalent of 6785 miles per gallon.

Even with almost seven thousand miles per gallon, this year's top contestant didn't come close to beating the all-time Shell Eco-Marathon record of 10,705 miles per gallon. It's quite an impressive collection of vehicles that CNET has photos of, and if you go click through the images, keep an eye out for the condom car.

[Source: CNET]

Diesel blends emission test report issued by Shell and Germany's UFOP

Posted May 11th 2006 1:07PM by Sebastian Blanco
Filed under: Biodiesel, Diesel, Emerging Technologies

Shell and Germany's UFOP (Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants) just released a study comparing the exhaust gas and particle emissions of fossil diesels with B5 and B20 biodiesel fuels. The five fuel blends tested were

-Diesel Fuel (DF)
-Shell Middle Distillate with lubrication additives, (Gas to Liquid Fuel, or GTL)
-Premium Diesel Fuel (PDF), which was a biodiesel blend of 20 percent Rapeseed Oil Methyl Ester (RME) with 20 percent GTL and 60 percent DF
-Pure RME
-A blend of 5 percent biodiesel and 95 percent GTL (B5GTL).

The findings show that GTL had lower emissions that DF, and the biodiesels had lower hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and particle mass emissions. You can read the entire 43-page, chart-filled PDF here. The tests were conducted on a truck engine that meets Euro 3 standards and was also testing what might happen with changes in diesel engine technology. Another reason for the study was to determine the possible characteristics of a biomass to liquid fuel prototype fuel.

[Source: UFOP via Dieselnet]

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AutoblogGreen

Choren industries opens BTL plant in Freiberg

2008 Shell Eco-marathon coming in April; will anyone best 1902 mpg?

Shell Oil sets European, U.K. annual corporate profit record: $27.6 billion

Shell Oil to grow biofuels from marine algae

Pump prices down, but so is consumer confidence

Defense Department Awards Synfuel Contract

Biomass-to-liquids synthetic SunDiesel to launch in Europe this year

Shell Oil president calls for action against global warming

European Shell Eco-Marathon contestant hits 6785 mpg

Diesel blends emission test report issued by Shell and Germany's UFOP

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