Janet Hsiung

The attention some of the electric automobile designs have attracted over the past few years has tended to take the focus away from bikes and motorcycles. But for every Volt or Tesla making a splash in the news, dozens of models of electricity powered two-wheelers have been selling by the thousands for years. In aggregate, millions of electricity powered bikes are already in use around the world. Should anyone doubt the electric scooter industry is alive and well, if not already gone through several cycles of maturity, go to Alibaba.com and search under "Electric Scooters." You will get links to an astonishing 6,903 products, ranging from Suzhou Rununion Motivity Co., Ltd., to Wuxi Beiyi Electric Bicycle Co., Ltd., to Taizhou Wangpai Automobile Industry Co., to Jiangsu Taler Science and Technology of Motor Vehicle Co., to Jiangsu Xinling Motorcycle Manufacturing Co. , and on, and on, and on, and...

Today the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), along with the Ethanol Promotion & Information Council (EPIC) presented a webinar that dealt with several of the key challenges facing ethanol retailers as they begin to offer increasing quantities of E85 (85% ethanol). Although the presentation was targeted at gasoline retailers, the information was of interest to anyone watching the emergence of ethanol in the U.S. as a significant transportation fuel. The presenter was Ron Lamberty, VP of Market Development for ACE, and himself an owner of gasoline retail establishments. Currently there are just over 1,500 retail refueling stations offering E85 ethanol (85% ethanol), not quite 1% of the 160,000 total stations throughout the U.S. About 70% of the retail...

Concentrated acid hydrolysis will transform virtually any cellulosic feed into fermentable sugars. BlueFire Ethanol, located in Irvine, California, has developed an advanced, proprietary version of this process which they believe could make them the first company to deploy a commercial scale cellulose to ethanol refinery that generates a return to its investors. The process relies on reusing more than 96% of the sulphuric acid that is used to initially break down the cellulose from the lignin, as well as using the lignin to provide up to 70% of the total plant's energy requirements. Although from the diagram (below) it doesn't appear BlueFire's process is simple, in reality it is one of...

With Tesla now shipping 10+ vehicles per week, and other automakers, small and large, increasingly announcing electric vehicle programs, what is the latest on the Chevy Volt? At this point, with about 110 weeks to go before the Volt is going to be in showrooms, are they on track? We got an update last week from GM spokesperson Rob Peterson, as well as access to photos of the final Volt exterior and interior design. Here's what we know: GM is currently testing two "mule" vehicles with prototype components in an old Malibu body. By the end of this year GM expects to have the next generation of test vehicles in service, using production intent propulsion and chassis components. There will be over...

When analysing the potential of biofuel, one of the prevailing questions is whether or not there is sufficient land on earth to deliver adequate food if substantial percentages of land are allocated to biofuel crops. In our report earlier this year "Cellulosic Ethanol" it is clear, in the U.S. at least, that while substantial quantities of ethanol per year may eventually be refined from municipal waste streams, crop residue, winter cover crops, and forest thinning, in order to completely replace petroleum-based transportation fuels, dedicated energy crops will also be necessary. So is there enough land? One of the key variables often overlooked when asking this question regards yield per acre - not only...

Yesterday Andrew Littlefair, President and CEO of Clean Energy Fuels, appeared on Jim Cramer's cable show "Mad Money," to talk about the future of natural gas in the United States. But there was nothing mad whatsoever about Littlefair's message, which is why Cramer welcomes him on his show anytime Littlefair has room in his schedule. Natural gas burns much cleaner than petroleum fuels, particularly when used for diesel applications. Not only can vehicles run on natural gas - note Autoblog's report today "Honda sells CNG home fueling device to Clean Energy Fuels" - but as Littlefair pointed out, natural gas can also fuel long haul trucks that currently rely on diesel fuel. So how much natural gas have we got? Can the U.S. become a natural gas fueled nation? Something happened between 2001, when, for example, California experienced spot shortages of natural gas, and today, where we have T. Boone Pickens touting wind farms and natural gas as the solution to U.S. energy challenges...

There are dozens of credible companies rolling out next generation cars. From the GM Volt, now barely two years away, to the start-up Tesla Roadster, the list of companies aspiring to deliver the next generation car is growing almost as fast as the denizens of newly minted green journalists rushing to cover their progress. But what about the components? Three interesting companies provide a encouraging glimpse into progress occurring upstream of the finished vehicle, all of them working on ways to dramatically improve the performance of the internal combustion engine. In Camarillo, California, Transonic Combustion is developing an engine that can allow "operating conventional reciprocating piston gasoline engines at...