Biofuels

It's pretty difficult to feel sorry for oil companies. Why should we? They're in control of a resource we all depend upon, one way or another, and can essentially charge whatever they like for it. As a result, they make massive profits every year. Nobody pities the rich guy. But maybe we feel a...

The Environmental Protection Agency released its 2012 Renewable Fuel Standards on December 28, a month after they were due and with a drastically lower target for the amount of ethanol derived from non-corn sources than Congress originally called for four years ago. The new renewable fuel standards...

Combine a whole bunch of parts from motorcycles, go-karts, industrial machinery, and even generators, and what do you get? In John Petsche's case, he not only built a motorcycle that runs on store-bought vegetable oil, he managed to take home a world speed record for the 350cc Alternate Fuel class...

Bentley might be better known for its fast, powerful, luxury cars typically owned by celebrities, sports stars and business moguls -- but that doesn’t mean it can’t be environmentally responsible too. That’s the message being given by company CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer as the...

Tulane University researchers have discovered a strain of bacteria capable of producing butanol directly from cellulose, which could help pave the way towards using trash to produce biofuel.

In the middle of his much-publicized bus tour into the nation's agricultural heartland on Tuesday, President Obama announced a new initiative to kickstart the U.S. biofuel industry, which among other things would create more jobs for rural communities in the biofuel production chain. The...

The VLN is a race series held in Germany each year where the cars speed around the grueling Nurburgring-Nordschleife, a track often nicknamed the ‘Green Hell’ because it’s surrounded by pristine green hills but is also one of the toughest and most intensive of its kind anywhere in...

Biodiesel has gathered a cult following over many years, but outside of a few companies and co-ops, getting an assurance on consistency and quality--especially above b20 (20 percent biodiesel), or for a newer vehicle--can be an issue. Springboard Biodiesel has a solution, and could turn your...

Tirediesel? Don't laugh out loud; it could be coming to a biodiesel pump near you someday. And it could at lat be something to do with used tires. Except for sandals, playground equipment, and the like, there aren't many products that use them. In the past tires were hauled miles away from cities...

While ethanol in gasoline remains a point of contention among automakers, ethanol producers, and the Congressman who love them, renewable diesel fuel seems to be moving quietly forward. Late last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency certified an ultra-low-sulfur diesel blend containing...

Range Fuels, one of the more successful biofuel startups backed by Khosla Ventures, announced today that it has opened up its first commercial plant to make cellulosic methanol out of non-food feedstocks. Located in Georgia, the facility is expected to pump out 20 million gallons of ethanol and...

There seems to be no end to the number of organic materials that can be converted into usable biofuel to power a car. We’ve seen fuel derived from garbage before, a race car that ran on chocolate, and even a Volkswagen Beetle running on fuel generated from human waste, and now we have news of a...

Our article last week on Ford's doubling of its flex-fuel models included a mention that diesel models of the new 2011 Ford Super Duty pickup trucks will run on either pure diesel fuel or a mix of up to 20 percent biodiesel, known as B20. Reader Suzanne Johnson responded with the following...

Adding more ethanol to gasoline may help the U.S. meet a Congressional mandate to use more of the renewable fuel, but it could damage many of the cars now on the road, say automakers. Last year, U.S. vehicle manufacturers went public with their alarm that the EPA might increase the permissible...

It must be something in the water. Yesterday, we learned that every 2011 Buick Regal will offer flex-fuel capability as standard. Now it's Ford's turn; the company announced today that it will have doubled the number of flex-fuel models it builds by the end of the year, fulfilling a 2006 pledge...

Almost a year ago, we called Bentley's much-touted biofuels strategy "bogus," in an alliterative headline to a piece that was much forwarded around the green-car world. Now we've had a chat with the very reasonable and polite David Reuter, Bentley's head of PR and communications. We still think...

Who knew? Turns out even cartoon classic Betty Boop uses alternative fuels to power her roadster. In "Musical Mountaineers," a 1939 animated short (it totals 6:43), she runs out of gas while driving through hillbilly country, complete with misspelled signs warning of family feuds. Her first...

We don't hear so much about ethanol these days, now that gasoline is back down to $2.50 a gallon. But we still get e-mails, so here's a post to answer the question: What's going on with flex-fuel cars? Short answer: Manufacturers are slowly increasing the number of vehicles they build that can...

We've always been more than a little skeptical about Bentley's biofuel claims for its 2010 Continental Supersports hot rod. We think it's very, very unlikely that owners of a $267,000 near-supercar will seek out one of the few hundred E85 ethanol pumps in the country to cut their carbon emissions...

Your car already runs on (some) ethanol, although you may not know it. Much of the gas sold in the U.S. is now actually a blend: 90 percent gasoline, 10 percent ethanol. It's known as E10, for the percentage of the total derived from the corn-based biofuel. Since 1978, new cars have been able to...