alternative energy

Call it last week's most unexpected headline: the idea that a group of engineers in Britain had managed to create gasoline ("petrol") out of ... thin air? Indeed, it appears to be so--if you add energy (and sodium hydroxide). Here's how it works: The process starts by blowing atmospheric air into a...

Let's face it: political discourse in the U.S. isn't very pretty. It's generally a matter of two large parties -- each backed by an army of fundraisers, copywriters, and statisticians -- shouting at each other in front of sympathetic audiences. Over the past couple of decades, the situation seems...

Ethanol continues to be a political football, with the alcohol fuel coming under fire from the auto industry, environmental pressure groups, and others. The latest to line up against the corn-based fuel is a coalition of industrialized livestock and poultry producers that might collectively be...

You felt the earth shake a week ago today when the EPA formally approved the sale of E15 gasoline, right? Oh, you didn't? Not surprising, really. No gas station in the U.S. sells E15 today, and it looks like it may be a while before any given driver sees the stuff showing up as one of several...

Ethanol has been problematic for several years now. Promoted as a way for the U.S. to grow its own vehicle fuel, the alcohol was so popular several years ago that Congress passed a Federal Renewable Fuels Standard as part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. Now Hart Energy has issued...

Sapphire Energy, a company that creates algae-based fuel, just announced a whopping $144 million in funding. In recent years several startups have emerged to create fuel out of plant material, all hoping to lure people away from gasoline made from crude oil. Solazyme, Algae.tec, and Sapphire Energy...

Continuing his efforts to reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil, President Barack Obama yesterday proposed expanding tax credits now offered to buyers of plug-in cars to those who buy natural-gas vehicles as well. Given the ugly politics around electric cars and the presidential election season...

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...

Some proposed technological innovations seem so far out that they are easy to reject out of hand. But sometimes, a new idea has a kernel of plausibility. Such is the case with a new project to develop a thorium laser power generation system that its creator says could provide electricity for 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.

Forget hydrogen. You can mostly ignore natural gas. Even diesel may not grow much. The two fuels that will largely power us for the next 20, maybe 30, years are already here. They are gasoline (with some ethanol in it), and electricity. That's it. That's all she wrote. First, gasoline Those...

While the legal status of E15 gasoline is in doubt, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with plans for it to roll out before this summer's driving season. That means that drivers will have to pay attention to the labels on their gas pumps, making sure that E15 is only used for...

The latest episode in the long-running drama over whether U.S. drivers will be offered gasoline with more ethanol in it came very early Saturday morning. The House of Representatives adopted an amendment to a continuing resolution on Federal spending through September 30 that would bar the U.S...

It may not be the most practical of designs, but a German duo recently succeeded in crossing much of Australia in a wind-powered car. They set records for longest distance traveled in such a vehicle, as well as a 36-hour distance record and others. Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer both developed and...

We approach energy policy with care here, since GreenCarReports is largely about ... well, cars. But a recent article claims it could take just 40 years to convert the bulk of the world's global energy usage from fossil fuels to renewable energy, primarily wind and solar power. That's not only...

Many readers on this site are concerned with miles per gallon, or how much fuel their car uses. And while any site called Green Car Reports is bound to have an environmental tilt, most car buyers are far more concerned with saving money than saving the planet. Nonetheless, we're all about making...

We're suckers for new kinds of combustion engines. Ever since we first saw and wrote about the Cyclone external-combustion engine, we've been intrigued by it. Now we have an automotive angle: Suppose you could power a Chevy Volt-like range-extended electric car on nothing more than used motor oil...

Every major automaker selling cars in the U.S. has signed onto a lawsuit filed Monday aimed at halting the rollout of E15 gasoline, which has a higher proportion of ethanol (15 percent) than today's E10 gasoline. The companies cite fears that the greater concentration of ethanol will damage engines...

A new hydrogen refueling station supplied by the Danish company H2 Logic will be installed just outside Oslo, Norway in summer 2011 as part of Norway’s “hydrogen highway“. Together with another planned Oslo hydrogen station in 2011, this means Norway will have one of the...

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency approved raising the proportion of ethanol in pump gasoline from 10 percent (E10) to as much as 15 percent (E15). It would be the first increase in ethanol percentage since 1978, when the 10-percent blend was approved. Roughly 70 percent of U.S...