The Energy Blog

Experimental Chrysler 300 Delivers 41 mpg

Warren Brown / The Washington Post in the Detroit News  - Brown averaged 41 miles per gallon on the highway driving the CRD 325 miles, at speeds ranging from 60 to 70 miles per hour. The full-size 2007 Chrysler 300 V-6 CRD sedan is equipped with a three-liter, 215-horsepower, direct-injection diesel engine developed by the Robert Bosch GmbH. The 300 V-6 CRD runs only on ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel--diesel with sulfur at 15 parts per million. At this writing, the car remains experimental -- a test bed for Bosch and DaimlerChrysler to demonstrate the efficiency and feasibility of advanced diesel technology in a U.S. market that has long frowned on things diesel.

ULSD Readily Available

From Autopia in Wired Blogs: The early returns are that fuel refiners and distributors are complying with the law and making the new Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel readily available at the pump. According to an EPA survey, about 85 percent of highway diesel filling stations offer ULSD, exceeding the mandate of 80 percent.

Are "Cean Diesels" Ready to Join Good Hybrids as a Clean Vehicle Option?

Patricia Monahan, Senior Vehicles Analyst for UCS writing in the HybridBlog says: Honda, Mercedes-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and VW are all planning on selling diesel cars, touting their 20 to 30 percent superior fuel economy over comparable gasoline models. ... A gallon of diesel fuel takes more oil to produce and it produces more greenhouse gases than a gallon of reformulated gasoline (with ethanol). This means you should cut the diesel fuel economy by as much as 15% when comparing it to a gasoline model. ... Diesel cars don't have sophisticated pollution monitors-—like gasoline vehicles do— to catch systems when they fail.  So long-term use and emissions impact is still very much up in the air. In all, there are reasons to be both excited, and wary, about the new diesel cars we'll soon be seeing on the market.

I wonder what the comparison is on biodiesel. With very limited supplies of biodiesel, the use of biodiesel is likely to be limited to areas of the U.S. where there are biodiesel supplies.  Until or unless FT diesel becomes available drivers in the U.S. are largely forced to use petroleum diesel.

Patricia Monahan, Senior Vehicles Analyst for UCS writing in the HybridBlog says: Honda, Mercedes-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and VW are all planning on selling diesel cars, touting their 20 to 30 percent superior fuel economy over comparable gasoline models. ... A gallon of diesel fuel takes more oil to produce and it produces more greenhouse gases than a gallon of reformulated gasoline (with ethanol). This means you should cut the diesel fuel economy by as much as 15% when comparing it to a gasoline model. ... Diesel cars don't have sophisticated pollution monitors-—like gasoline vehicles do— to catch systems when they fail.  So long-term use and emissions impact is still very much up in the air. In all, there are reasons to be both excited, and wary, about the new diesel cars we'll soon be seeing on the market.

I wonder what the comparison is on biodiesel. With very limited supplies of biodiesel, the use of biodiesel is likely to be limited to areas of the U.S. where there are biodiesel supplies.  Until or unless FT diesel becomes available drivers in the U.S. are largely forced to use petroleum diesel.

Diesel Jeep Sales Higher Than Expected

This announcement by DaimlerChrysler indicates that there is a untapped market for diesel powered vehicles in the US.  It sounds like an opportunity that more car makers should follow now that sulfur requirements for diesel have been reduced to a very low level which will eliminate the black smoke and odor often associated with diesel.

Sales of the Jeep® Liberty CRD diesel, which comes pre-filled with 5 percent biodiesel (B5), are about to surpass the 10,000 mark. That’s double the number expected when Chrysler Group first launched the diesel model in early 2005.

Technorati tags: vehicles, diesel, energy, technology

Proven Technology for the Next 20 Years

With oil probably peaking in less than 20 years, if not five years, the more I think we need an alternative to the emphasis being placed on the hydrogen economy.  Demonstrated and emerging technology as listed below likely to be the dominant technologies in the next thirty years.  None of these technologies alone can get us there but together but in some combination they make sense.

• The hybrid is here and can be ramped up as fast as anything.
• Diesel technology can be used now, and should be, as lower sulfur fuels are brought to market in 2005-2006. They will reduce the environmental impact of diesels significantly.  What we need is more models to choose from as there are very few.
• Electric cars and plug-in hybrids for commuting and shopping will be more attractive, with greater range, as gasoline prices go up and battery technology gets better as it is starting to.
• Unconventional oil is already starting to ramp up and will continue as oil companies cannot meet the demand.
• Ethanol production is already significant with 3.4 billion gallons produced in the US in 2004.
• Production costs for biodiesel can be reduced by using newer technologies.
• The Fischer-Tropsh process can be used to produce both ethanol and diesel in larger quantities, at lower cost, than current biofuel producers.  It can handle a much wider variety of feedstocks, like switchgrass, corn stover, wood chips, willows and poplars which are less costly.
• Coal liquefaction is a proven technology and could supply all of our needs, but not in the required time period.
• We can increase our electrical production from renewables like wind and solar systems.
• More rapid development of unconventional oil in Canada and Venezula.