Adam's Green Blog!!

Another week at Rose-Hulman means another awesome Green technology update coming your way!

GM has completed the sale of the Hummer brand to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery company. Tengzhong will hold an 80% stake, with a private investor controlling the leftover 20%. Prior to the sale, Tengzhong had announced that they are investigating biofuels, hybrids, and fully electric versions of the Hummer. With Hummer, now being a Chinese brand, it will be interesting to see the direction in which Tengzhong decides to take that brand.

Everyone has heard some of the claims made by Chevrolet with regards to their revolutionary new Volt model. Now, additional questions of the Volts reliability have arisen and some have been answered. This week in an article from Green Blog, they documented a trip in which the Volt was tested on Pikes Peak. The results are mostly in GM's favor and are encouraging that the Volt is indeed a viable green solution. The lead calibration engineer for the Volt, John Blanchard, has posted several of his thoughts to his online blog. According to Blanchard, the Volt summitted Pikes Peak faster than expected and did a good job of replenishing the battery when traveling downhill. One concern may be how the Volt handles its uphill travel. A sustained uphill run like this, means that the car could lose a significant amount of performance or draw the battery way down. Keep in mind that the Volt is still in its prototype stages.

Last week, a group of leading engineers and scientists met in California to develop a new battery pack for electric cars. This event, which was sponsored by IBM and its Big Green Innovations program, has challenged engineers to create a power pack capable of propelling a vehicle for up to 500 miles. IBM believes that lithium-air technology could be the answer. By using lithium anodes electrochemically coupled to atmospheric O₂. These batteries are thought to be ideal due to their high energy density, which is close to ten times the energy density of today's lithium ion batteries. If all goes well, these batteries could be commercially available in two years.

I would encourage everyone to read this article to get an idea of some of the neater analysis techniques that go into green engineering.

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/10/06/ford-files-125-patents-on-3-5l-v6-ecoboost-mostly-for-controls/

New research out of Brigham Young has hinted at the possibility of a fuel cell powered by sugar. Researchers have created a catalyst which breaks glucose molecules in such a way that releases electrons and generates electricity. This new process has a 29 percent conversion rate from glucose to electricity. This could potentially be good enough to power an entire on road vehicle!

Thanks for checking out my article, and as always I encourage you to take some time and familiarize yourself with some new green happenings! This green blog is an excellent resource.

http://www.autoblog.com/