EnviroHop - A Greener Commuting News and Information Portal.

CO2 emissions from the US transport sector, 1990-2008. Data: EPA. Click to enlarge. The draft report of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s annual Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2008 shows that in 2008, overall greenhouse gas... Mike Millikin

Azure Dynamics Corporation announced that AT&T has agreed to purchase two of the first Ford Transit Connect Electric vans. (Azure, which provides and integrates the electric powertrain into the Transit glider provided by Ford, is responsible for the sales of... Mike Millikin

Glycos Biotechnologies, Inc., an emerging biochemical company pioneering metabolic engineering and microbiology innovations to produce sustainable biochemicals (earlier post), has successfully produced lactic acid and advanced ethanol in a commercial-size facility capable of producing up to 150,000 liters (approx. 40,000... Mike Millikin

Daimler has sold all of its 5.34% of the ordinary shares of Indian automotive company Tata Motors to various groups of investors through the capital market. Tata Motors’ share price has risen significantly, especially last year, so Daimler will receive... Mike Millikin

A joint demonstration testing agreement (JDTA) between the microchannel reactor specialists, Velocys, Inc., the US subsidiary of Oxford Catalysts; offshore facility developers, MODEC; the global engineering firm Toyo Engineering; and the Brazilian State oil company Petrobras (earlier post) will result... Mike Millikin

The 1.6L EcoBoost gasoline engine. Click to enlarge. Ford is infusing its European product range with new generations of more efficient gasoline and diesel engines, led by the introduction of two 4-cylinder Ford EcoBoost gasoline units. Developed by Ford engineers... Mike Millikin

The Boeing Company has begun to build Phantom Eye—its first unmanned, liquid-hydrogen powered, high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) demonstrator aircraft. The essence of Phantom Eye is its propulsion system. After five years of technology development, we are now deploying rapid prototyping to... Mike Millikin

Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has developed a new graphene material for storing hydrogen at room temperature. The novel form of engineered graphene has exhibited a hydrogen... Mike Millikin

People’s Daily. Coal output from China’s Shanxi Province, the country’s largest coal producer, is expected to rise up by up to 30% in 2010 from 2009 levels, according to Zhang Baoshun, the Party secretary of the province. The province has... Mike Millikin

The BMW Group today issued a statement in response to published reports that have incorrectly stated that the size of the fleet of BMW ActiveEs (earlier post) that will be deployed during the BMW Group’s second-phase field trial in the... Mike Millikin

NASA announced its founding partnership of “Launch”, an initiative to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to sustainability challenges through a series of forums. The first forum, Launch: Water, will take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida from... Mike Millikin

Ballard Power Systems has $6.2 million in project funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) under contract over a four year period to advance fuel cell commercialization. Ballard Material Products, a US subsidiary of Ballard Power Systems, was awarded... Mike Millikin

The US Department of Energy has selected two teams—one led by Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co. and one led by San Diego-based General Atomics—for the award of approximately $40 million in total for conceptual design and planning work for the Next... Mike Millikin

CO2 emissions from transportation sector by scenario in the study. The dashed blue line is 2005 emissions; the scale on the right shows the percent of 2005 level. Source: Morrow et al. Click to enlarge. A new study from the... Mike Millikin

China Daily. Encouraged by promised favorable central government policies for hybrid or electric-powered vehicles, Beijing’s municipal commission of reform and development, the city’s economic planner, hopes that about 15,000 electric-powered vehicles will be operating in the capital city this year.... Mike Millikin

According to a new Accenture study of 1,800 consumers in Germany, France, Italy, Canada and the US, while interest in hybrid and electric vehicles may be growing, consumers do not see fuel savings as the only purchasing factor and are... Mike Millikin

EDAG’s Light Car - Open Source at the Geneva Motor Show. Click to enlarge. Global engineering services provider EDAG showcased its latest technical advances in the development of its concept car, the “Light Car - Open Source”, at this year’s... Mike Millikin

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been using Pi Shurlok’s OpenECU M460 and G850 control modules for the past year to support technology development programs in the areas of Advanced Engine Control and Hybrid Vehicle Powertrain Control. As... Mike Millikin

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has signed a Final Cooperative Agreement regarding development and supply of the new-generation electric vehicle (EV) i-MiEV with PSA Peugeot Citroën (PSA). MMC and PSA originally signed a Framework Agreement in September 2009. Following the Framework... Mike Millikin

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes coated with a 7nm annular shell of cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine (TNA) were used to demonstrate the thermopower waves. The TNA shows up as a bright coating compared to the nanotubes. Source: Choi et al. Click to enlarge. A team... Mike Millikin