An affiliate of the largest U.S. independent propane gas-distribution company is working with an Indiana-based propane delivery company at increasing the number of propane-powered vehicles in that state by both helping increase the number of public and private fueling stations and facilitating the conversion of conventional gas cars to propane. ———- Click on graphic, right, to see how Alliance AutoGas works. ———- Alliance AutoGas and Donahue Gas, along with automotive-conversion company Productive Concepts, will look to work with fleet owners such as municipalities, utility companies and taxicab companies at converting groups of vehicles and installing private propane stations, according to Alliance AutoGas spokesman Corey Munoz. In addition to the conversions, which cost about $5,300 per vehicle, Alliance AutoGas will look to add an unspecified number of public propane filling stations throughout Indiana. The state,

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Alliance AutoGas Follows Ohio Propane Conversion Effort With Indiana Plan

A team of Tennessee researchers is trying to use algae to produce hydrogen that could be used as automotive fuel. Despite its energy potential, hydrogen has not taken off as an alternative fuel source because of the expensive, high-energy and sometimes climate-changing processes required to produce it. The Tennessee team – led by professor Barry Bruce of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville — wants to use photosynthesis as a clean, efficient and sustainable source of hydrogen. “We're looking for solutions that already exist in nature,” Bruce said. “We're trying to peel back some of the barriers and make them work in the near future.” The team's research, published in last week's issue

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Tennessee Researchers Investigate Potential of Producing Hydrogen From Algae

As we've previously reported, the U.S. military is buying advanced biofuels for testing in jet aircraft.

In an article published today , Biofuels Digest takes a look at the creative financing sources being used to fund biofuel research and development today. ———- Right, mining for coal in Wyoming. ———- It notes, for example, that many strategies have been mooted, but one perennial is still popular: Have the cheapest way to make a load of sugar. Simple sugars are the new gold, Biofuels Digest points out. If you can make it fast enough and cheap enough, “customers and their own financing backers will beat a path to your door.” Sometimes, though, you can just be the biggest, baddest sugar project in a local market, even if your technology is not quite ready for the 22nd century. The article goes on to describe a Philippine project that went down just such a road, obtaining $30 million in equity from the Japanese firm Itochu and others. But nothing is getting funded in bioenergy this year quite as fast and furiously as algae-related ventures. These young companies, the “baby bloomers” as Biofuels Digest calls them, have been landing scads of venture capital and public funding, leaving their brethren in advanced bioenergy scratching their heads in wonder, disbelief, and occasionally a bit of spite. The publication describes how a government-funded project in Arizona landed $70.5 million based on stimulating green jobs in a depressed region, and as a carbon strategy. Not to mention the promise of fuel, and biochar…

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Publication Looks at Who’s Getting Biofuels Funds Now, and How

Eight U.S. airlines will use up to 1.5 million gallons a year of synthetic diesel made from plant waste starting in 2012, the fuel's manufacturer announced today. Rentech Inc.'s fuel will be used for ground-service transportation at Los Angeles International Airport and be made primarily from urban woody green waste such as yard clippings, the company said. Using the renewable fuel will be American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and UPS Airlines. Rentech plans to produce the fuel at a new plant in Rialto, California, which is slated to open in 2012. The Air Transport Association of America, the domestic industry trade group that joined Rentech in announcing the deal, called the purchasing agreement the first of its kind and said it could signal an industrywide move toward using lower-carbon fuels. “This transaction promises to be the first of many such green-fuel purchase agreements by the commercial aviation industry,” said Glenn Tilton, ATA's chairman. Likewise, Rentech heralded the agreement as a sign of things to come. “We expect this agreement to serve as a model for future supply relationships at other airports and for other fuels, including Rentech's synthetic jet fuel, which was recently approved for commercial airline use,” said D. Hunt Ramsbottom, Rentech's president and CEO.

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Rentech to Supply Synthetic Diesel to Airlines’ Ground Vehicles at LAX

Recent technological advances might put fuel from forest waste, cornstalks, algae and other biomass into commercial production within just a few years, a National Science Foundation program director said in a paper published today. John Regalbuto, a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and director of the NSF catalysis and biocatalysis program, wrote in Science (subscription required) that biomass-derived fuels are not far from being part of the energy mix as a replacement for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. “If recent technological innovations result in competitive production costs, hydrocarbons rather than ethanol will likely be the dominant biofuel,” Regalbuto wrote. Hydrocarbon fuels can be directly produced …

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Expert: Hydrocarbon Biofuels’ Promise Tops That of Ethanol and Gasoline

A Texas company is one of several firms reportedly developing a second-generation biofuel that will be compatible with the country's existing oil infrastructure. The firm, Terrabon, is working on a biofuel it calls “green gasoline,” the Houston Chronicle reported last week. Unlike existing ethanol derived from food stock, the fuel would be nearly identical in structure to gasoline and could be made with nearly any organic material, from sewer sludge to cornstalks. Scientists at Texas A&M University developed the acid fermentation process, called MixAlco , that Terrabon is now testing. By the end of the summer, Terrabon plans to produce 300 gallons of the green gasoline a day. Unlike ethanol, Terrabon's fuel and others like

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Texas Firm Developing ‘Green Gasoline’ Derived From Most Organic Materials

At the heart of the 2010 MDI AIRPod is a piston engine that runs on compressed air. ———- The MDI AIRPod air car can motor along at 30 mph, fueled entirely by compressed air. ———- The engine is “fueled” by a system of high-pressure air tanks constructed of lightweight carbon-fiber that, when the first production models are built by year's end, will operate at substantially less than the 10,000-psi rating of hydrogen tanks used in fuel-cell vehicles. Green Car Advisor's Nick Kurczewski flew to Nice, France, recently to discover if Luxembourg-based Motor Development International might be developing a zero-emissions car capable of changing the world as we know it. You'll no doubt recall the First Ride piece Nick did for us last December, when he was the first North American journalist to be treated to a ride in one of the low-speed city cars. Now we're glad to report that Nick got a chance to actually road test the bubblelike vehicle ,

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Edmunds Exclusive Test Drive: MDI’s 2010 AIRPod Car Not Just a Lot of Hot Air

After signing off from the Tonight Show last week, Jay Leno figured he would have a weekend of doing nothing but playing with his cars. Which of course made this past weekend no different than any other weekend for Jay. This time, as our Straightline sister site reports, he pulled out one of his more interesting and rare toys: the EcoJet turbine-powered concept ( pictured ). You might remember the EcoJet concept from the 2006 SEMA show. It uses a 650-horsepower Honeywell turbine for power and runs on biodiesel — lots and lots of biodiesel. Underneath, there's an all-aluminum Corvette Z06 chassis, while the body of the EcoJet is made entirely of carbon fiber and kevlar. In other words, this sucker was expensive. We'll hand it to Jay, though, he said back then that he would drive it on public roads, and Monday he delivered on that promise. And say what you will about the design, when this thing pulled into the parking lot with its turbine wailing, all the open-piped Cobras on

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Leno’s Ride Gets All the Looks as He Shows Up to Local Cruise in EcoJet Concept