2020-10-28
Petrobras has concluded the test production of 40 million liters of diesel mixed with HVO from 2 million liters of soy. The regulation is still pending on ANP.
Once regulated, the HVO will compose part of the renewable mix at Diesel with the existing Biodiesel yielding better effects for engines and even less emissions. Today, the renewable content of the mix is 12% and it will reach 15% by 2023.
After selling 35 NG Trucks in Chile, Iveco announced the sale of 100 Stralis NP Cursor 13 NGs in Argentina for a supplier to O&G industry in the Southern country.
Source: Read The Article
PSR Analysis: The acceptance from customers helps to remove a barrier to NG sales, transforming this technology from a Trend to a reality. NG was formerly more deployed in Buses than in Trucks. With the experience of fleet owners, the technology will gain scale rapidly in South America countries and accelerate the volumes in South American markets. PSR
Fabio Ferraresi is Director Business Development South America for Power Systems Research
Scania, a Swedish truck manufacturer, is developing an 18-meter long solar cell-clad trailer that will be able to generate energy from devices along 140m2 of surface area on the sides and roof.
According to the truck manufacturer, the powered trailer will be able to generate fuel saving between 5% and 10% in northern Europe, and up to double that in sunny regions like Spain. The tests are also validating the use of the trailers as power stations to feed the main grid, once they have completed charging the batteries and the vehicle is stationary.
Source : Read The Article
During the past few years, many cities and states have committed to full adoption of their transit bus fleets to zero-emission vehicles. While the implementation dates vary, most are aiming to have the transition completed by 2040.
Since transit buses typically have pre-defined routs and access to recharging infrastructure, they are good candidates for adoption. It also helps that this segment is not-for-profit, and a short-term payback is not required. The significant barriers to adoption appear to have been overcome.
2020-09-28
Toyota, Honda and Shell announced a plan to expand their hydrogen refueling network in California.
Shell will install hydrogen refueling systems at 48 gas stations using a grant from California’s hydrogen refueling infrastructure support. The company will also upgrade two Shell hydrogen stations and add fuel dispensers to heavy-duty truck stations.
Additionally, Toyota and Honda have agreed to expand sales of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) in California to support the Shell hydrogen Stations. Toyota and Honda plan to expand sales of the Mirai and Clarity Fuel Cell, respectively.
2020-09-27
Zetta company has had to shift mass production of its Russian car “City Modul 1” until after 2020 because the Fund of Industry Development refused to provide credit of 99.9 million Rubles (about € 1.1 million).
According to the Fund opinion, the company has insufficient budget to start the production, even with the requested credit. “The company needs an investor, who will believe in market potential of the product, and will co-finance the project together with the fund. The fund is ready to consider application one more time as soon as such investor will be found,” the Fund said
“City Modul 1” would become first serial Russian electric car. Zetta plans to make the car on its own production site in Tolyatti; production capacity is 15,000 units per year.
Move is opposed by Russian KAMAZ which plans to make similar machines.
Market players have proposed canceling import taxes and utilization fees for commercial vehicles fueled by LNG until 2025. The target of the measure is the development of LNG-transport until the appearance of domestic analogs of such machinery.
The suggestion comes from foreign makers of LNG on-highway tractors and supported by Gazprom. Now, no imported vehicles are exempted from these taxes.
The import tax for on-highway tractors is 5% of their cost, and the utilization fee is 10 to 12K Euro. LNG tractor is more expensive than its diesel analog by about 35K Euro.
Chile has announced plans to produce US$ 30 billion in green Hydrogen for export by 2050. This involves using the mining industry equipment traditionally powered by diesel in fuel cell powered equipment to make the bridge for current state to future state.
Source: Financial Times Read The Article
PSR Analysis: There are several roadblocks as technology improvement needs, energy cost and investment source for the initiative. So far it sounds like a campaign promise rather than a robust initiative. However, the technology use is progressively closer to reality. PSR
Fabio Ferraresi is Director- Business Development South America, for Power Systems Research
There seems little doubt that electric powered boats will grow as the fast-improving technology trickles down from the automotive industry, which is driving battery technology, to the marine engine industry.
Today the electric boat has become a $4.5 billion global marine industry segment, and a report by IDTechEx shows that the market for hybrid and pure electric boats will rise significantly to over $20 billion worldwide by 2027.
Brushless permanent magnet electric motors and advances in lithium ion battery technology have allowed leaps to be made in the rush to marine electric. Lithium-ion batteries are half as heavy as lead-acid batteries and last three times as long, and advances in their effectiveness and stability have been significant.
Even though Tesla’s “Battery Day” was held Sept. 22, 2020, it didn’t produce the wildly exciting results that Elon Musk had promised would “blow your mind.”
During its event, Tesla unveiled plans to develop a “million mile” battery that could last an electric car’s entire lifetime on the road. It also outlined plans to dramatically reduce the cost of its battery cells and packs to $100 per kilowatt-hour, at which point experts believe electric cars will become comparable in price to combustion engine vehicles.
Bill Gates-backed QuantumScape, the first US battery company to go public in a decade, announced that it has overcome two major hurdles to create an all-metal lithium battery, which, if true, would allow electric vehicles to go up to 50% further on a single charge. Those hurdles were metallic lithium’s propensity to explode when it comes into contact with liquid and its needle structure that has historically punctured plastic separators between electrodes and caused shorts.
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