Palm | Kelapa Sawit

A small French company Moteur Development International produced an air-powered car which will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks. These tanks are built into the chassis and are filled with air from a compressor in only 3 minutes - quicker than a battery car. These air compressors can be installed at each gas station.

When the car reaches 35 miles per hour its internal air compressor will start working to add more speed. The motor for compressor will run on small amount of fuel (eco-friendly or fossil fuel).
The driver would be able to choose between fossil or biofuels.
The designers say that on long journeys the air car will do about 120 m.p.g. And in town, it will be even cheaper.
One tank of gas will be enough to travel from Los Angeles to New York.
Of course, it sounds great - to have such a little fuel expense for your car.

And it is only a matter of time when first cars will be available for sale for about $5,000 to $15,000 which is an important consideration during our volatile gas prices.

These cars will also be good for the environment - they will produce almost zero emissions.

Air cars are designed to be much more lighter than conventional cars which will make them fuel efficient and help them go faster for longer periods of time.

You can watch very interesting YouTube movie about the air-powered car.



Guy Negre, an engineer and inventor of the first compressed-air engine has been working on it for the last decade. Still, the problem is in finding individual entrepreneurs to set up factories and to find investors to produce more air-powered cars. With just a few alterations, inventor Negre claims a hybrid version of his new engine could even be used to power aircraft.

To read more about air-powered cars go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/14/air-powered-car-hybrid-france.

-Peter Y.

I received an email from a friend a few days ago. He knew about the EcoMerge blog and our class project, Farewell2Fuel.com and thought that I would appreciate this:

The Smorvette!


The Smorsche!

The Smerrari!

The Smambourghini!

And last but not least... The Smustang!

Obviously, this mass email has been going around for a while... and is a spoof on the Smart Car.
But I walked away kind of hoping for car companies to come out with some totally rad versions of the Smart Car. Personally, I would have so much fun with a Smorsche!

If we could make fuel economy cars cool... it would be a whole lot more appealing to the young hip crowd. I'm sure the people who created these images were doing it for a good laugh, but they might just be onto something!

Would you be interested in a Smorts car?

Surface transportation consumes a vast quantity of fuel and accounts for about a third of the US carbon emissions. In addition to the use of more fuel-efficient vehicles and carbon-neutral alternative fuels, fuel consumption and carbon emissions can be lowered through a variety of strategies that reduce congestion, smooth traffic flow, and reduce excessive vehicle speeds. Eco-driving is one such strategy. It typically consists of changing a person's driving behavior by providing general static advice to the driver such as: not accelerating too quickly, reducing overall speed within reason, not carrying excess cargo, etc. Dynamic eco-driving is a strategy where advice is given in real-time to drivers in changing traffic conditions within the vehicle’s vicinity. This dynamic strategy takes advantage of real-time traffic sensing and telematics, allowing for a traffic management system to monitor traffic speed, density, and flow, and then communicates advice in real-time back to the drivers. By providing dynamic advice to drivers, approximately 10-20% in fuel savings and lower carbon emissions are possible without a significant increase in travel time. Based on simulations, it was found that in general, higher percentage reductions in fuel consumption and emission occur during severe compared to less congested scenarios. Real-world experiments have also been carried out, showing similar reductions but to a slightly smaller degree. More information.

In the current climate of rising fuel costs and tight margins, any strategies for reducing fuel consumption must be a key priority for all logistics operators. By linking driving behavior with positive environmental outcomes, the opportunity exists to significantly reduce fuel consumption and costs.

The key benefits of the Eco-Drive™ program include:

Cost Savings - Reducing fuel consumption through behavioural change can cut your fuel bill by up to 20% - that’s hard to ignore

Reduce GHG Emissions - Mitigating carbon pollution by enhancing the behaviour of drivers will cut dangerous emissions

Compliance with Legislation – NGERS legislation institutes a legal imperative to cut emissions – Eco-Drive™ represents an opportunity for a low cost, practical and fast achievement in emissions reduction

Engaging Staff - The program helps drivers and other staff feel part of the climate change solution, not part of the problem - boosting morale leads to longer term commitment

posted by: Mathilde Goldschmidt

The Story



As we all know there is a serious effort by many drivers on the road today to increase the average MPG of their existing vehicle. Many drivers are attempting to do this out of "eco-guilt", the guilt that they feel as a result of driving their car, while others do it as a means to save money. Either way the desire is there and for the sake of economics we'll call this desire "demand", which can be defined, "as the willingness and ability of a consumer to purchase a given product in a given frame of time.."



Now lets look at this same situation from another point of view. Capitalism can be defined as, "an economic and social system in which most trade and industry are privately controlled for profit rather than by the state." Since we live in a capitalistic society we can assume that there is someone out there somewhere who will attempt to take advantage of this opportunity to make money. As we have done above, we will call this “supply” for economics' sake.

Finally, elasticity, "refers to how supply and demand respond to various factors, including price as well as other stochastic principles". Applying this definition to our scenario, we can interpret the word stochastic to represent the unpredictable behavior of the consumer.

Economic Consequences

So, as the demand increases market rules suggest that the supply will also adjust to meet that demand. However, the suppliers are at an advantage because the false sense of urgency created by the media has simulated a highly inelastic environment. The media have compounded the publics need to feel as though they are doing their part to save the environment. Additionally, the economic strife that we have run headlong into over the last 18 months has caused people to go to ridiculous lengths to save money. This is often times taken to the extreme level of spending exceeding saving for the purpose of saving.

The arising problem lies amongst the individuals and companies that are entering into this newly developing market, of modifying existing vehicles to improve the gas mileage, for the sake of earning a profit at any expense. As you scour the web for ideas and gadgets that may help you in your adventure to reduce the MPG of your vehicle you may notice many “Miracle” gadgets or ideas that promise outlandish results. However, many of these gadgets and ideas are not as miraculous as they claim. In fact, many of them have no benefit what so ever.

Buyer Beware

If you go to the links that I will post below you will learn of just a few sources that have given a dose of reality to the preposterous claims of some of these ideas. Unfortunately, despite the public information that these products don't work, many of them are still on the market and the companies still continue to sell their products despite understanding that they are for the most part worthless.

Therefore, I propose that before any of us go out on a limb to purchase some kind of gadget or try some kind of crazy sounding idea to reduce our average MPG, that we should do some substantial research and understand what we are getting into.

Links:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/1802932.html

and

http://www.fuelsaving.info/debunk.htm

I have always considered the Miles Per Gallon estimates a more marketing the actual fact. A look at these estimates through the lens of green washing we can see that they are somewhat misleading. First we should determine what ratings are, the EPA Fuel Economy Ratings are actually provided by the manufactures to the EPA. The ratings are calculated through controlled conditions in a laboratory environment. It is also interesting to note that auto manufactures do not necessarily need to test the car you drive. They often, according to the EPA, only are required to test a represented sample and that is often a production prototype. It is also interesting side note that especially large vehicles (built by the big 3) are exempt from the law that requires testing. Again, according to the EPA any vehicle over 8500 gross vehicle weight fits these categories, which as luck would have it, are the worst polluters.
I have also found some discussion that the very way we look a mileage is made to confuse consumers and hide how much fuel we use. Richard Larrick and Jack Soll of Duke University conducted a study that showed that people have trouble understanding the current MPG ratings. They recommend expressing fuel effency as gallons per mile rather than miles per gallon. There suggustion is that “18 mpg becomes 5.5 gallons per 100 miles, and 28 mpg is 3.6 gallons per 100 miles -- an $8 difference today.” This would put fuel economy in more real terms that average consumers could understand.
You can see their article and a helpful chart here:
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/06/19/gallons.mile.would.help.car.shoppers.make.better.decisions

EPA fuel economy website.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/which_tested.shtml

Visit our site:

http://sites.google.com/site/ecomerge2008/

This web page is excellent as it contains several different ways we can all save gasoline. It's amazing how simple ideas can go a long way toward saving fuel. Many of these tips are new to me and they really make sense. For example, tip #9 tells readers that "traveling at fast rates in low gears can consume up to 45% more fuel than needed." Sometimes we don't realize that simple behaviors we think are of no consequence can be adding to environmental degradation. At the bottom of this article there are "Related Articles" that are definitely worth reading and include even more ways of saving gas, while also saving a little money in the process.
Check it out!! http://www.howtoadvice.com/SavingGas

Visit our website:

http://sites.google.com/site/ecomerge2008/

Often it seems that the opposite sides of the global warming argument must be mutually exclusive. However everyone likes to save money; furthermore, if it just so happens that small changes in lifestyle, behavior, etc. fatten our bank accounts while helping to save the environment, we can all relish the win-win.
By now everyone knows that the combustion of gasoline produces carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The U.S. Department of Energy’s website www.fueleconomy.gov has a multitude of information about how to save money and potentially help the environment simultaneously through practical transportation practices.
The link: www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/savemoney.shtml through this website demonstrates the monetary savings induced by fuel efficiency with an interactive fuel savings calculator. It is a great way to compare the amount of money that may be spent by vehicles with differing miles per gallon ratings or just to get an idea of your current vehicle’s fuel costs.
Not sure you alone can make a difference to the environment through gasoline conservation and fuel efficiency? www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/contentIncludes/co2_inc.htm explains how a gallon of gas can produce 20 pounds of carbon dioxide!

Visit our website:

http://sites.google.com/site/ecomerge2008/