Natural Gas – Clean Future Fuel or Wolf in Green Clothing?

Natural gas has been in the spotlight lately as the clean fuel of the future, but what do we know about this clean gas? We already use it in our home furnaces, water heaters, stoves, fireplaces, even some cars (CNG); but it is now becoming the energy of choice to produce our electricity. While it is a cleaner burning alternative …

Electric Car Showdown – Chevy Volt vs. Nissan Leaf

It’s so exciting to have affordable full electric highway legal cars back on the market! Brings me back to the mid 90’s all over again. This time we have some choices with Chevrolet launching the Volt right around the same time the Nissan brings out the Leaf. While they are both electric cars, they are targeting very different markets with …

Ford Focus Global Drive

In an effort to promote the Ford Focus, the Ford Motor Company is promoting a competition called Global Drive. While I am optimistic of future electric cars such as the Chevy Volt, I myself am a fan of this small, fuel efficient car until we reach that place. Ford is interested in making contact with individuals passionate about environmental causes, …

Platinum For Fuel Cells Gets Cheaper

The DOE laboratory I work for recently published some promising results of one of our fuel cell experiments. Researchers with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Houston recently found a way to get platinum to be more conductive. It doesn’t sound like much, but this is big for fuel cell technology. Anders Nilsson, one …

Beer Powered Cars, Ethanol Fuel from Beer Waste – I’ll Drink to That!

Sierra Nevada Brewery did something pretty green and innovative recently- they are converting their waste products into fuel for their automotive fleets. They are using the EFuel100 MicroFueler home ethanol maker along with the bottom of the barrel brewery waste of yeast and sugar to create Ethanol (E85) fuel. It’s starting out as a pilot program for just their own …