Metair shows off new plug-in car, and battery, in South Africa

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• Translogic visits Solazyme, finds algae diesel works well in VW Jetta TDI, navy ships

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Translogic visits Solazyme, finds algae diesel works well in VW Jetta TDI, navy ships

By  Jon LeSage RSS feed

Posted Apr 5th 2013 2:02PM

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As we learned when we visited last fall, Solazyme is doing some interesting things in its South San Francisco lab. Now, our friends over at Translogic put together a video showing the algae-derived diesel being used in a Volkswagen Passat TDI – as well as getting burned by the US Navy.

Translogic's Bradley Hasemeyer interviewed Graham Ellis, vice president at Solazyme, to understand the process at work here. When making the algae-derived diesel (it's not right to call it biodiesel), they start from sugarcane and take in a couple million tons into the front end of their plant. That sugar is then processed through fermentation. The algae sits there and eats, growing big and fat, becoming little round oil balls. The lab workers dry and extract the oil, which is then turned into diesel. It's a drop-in replacement – which means it works like regular diesel – and Ellis calls it a "fantastic premium material." You can watch the video below.

Solzyme provided algae jet fuel to United Airlines for a flight between Houston and Chicago.

Solzyme provided algae jet fuel to United Airlines for a flight between Houston and Chicago. It worked very well, Ellis said. The Navy has sponsored the company to produce its first biofuels. It was also tested at the Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) Exercise last year, which is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. The Navy is going with a blend of 50/50 between Solazyme's fuel and regular fuels, but that number could go higher.

During a test drive, Hasemeyer heard more about what's been learned from the Volkswagen Passat TDI project. They've found it combusts much faster than running it on regular diesel and it produces less particulate matter, less soot and less C02.

Solazyme's primary plant in Peoria, IL, produces over 500,000 gallons of oil annually. The company also has a large plant in Brazil that's coming online soon. That plant will, conveniently located near sugarcane, will produce over 100,000 tons of oil a year.

Will algae-derived diesel take over the market? Ellis doesn't think so, saying the end result will likely be more of a "silver buckshot" than a silver bullet, meaning algae diesel could be one of a number of solutions.

 

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• GM 'thanked' by biodiesel groups for making the Cruze Diesel B20-ready

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GM 'thanked' by biodiesel groups for making the Cruze Diesel B20-ready

Related Gallery2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel: Chicago 2013

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted May 12th 2013 9:15AM

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As if one of the world's largest automakers needed additional advertisement, General Motors now is getting big-time support from biodiesel advocates for being the first US automaker to have made one of its light-duty models be able to run on diesel with a 20 percent biodiesel mix, i.e. B20. The National Biodiesel Board calls GM "proactive and progressive" for making its 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel B20-ready. Biodiesel Magazine even goes so far as to instruct its readers to "tell GM thanks."

Marking a long-awaited return to diesel powertrains for its cars, GM said last month that the Chevy Cruze Diesel would get an EPA-rated 46 miles per gallon highway, the best of "any non-hybrid passenger car in America." GM says the car will be able to go as far as 700 miles on a tank. Another way to look at that number is up to 140 biodiesel miles per tank.

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Metair shows off new plug-in car, and battery, in South Africa

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Metair shows off new plug-in car, and battery, in South Africa

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Mar 23rd 2013 4:42PM

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The car may look like a throwback, but the important bits are on the inside. South Africa-based Metair takes a retrofitted two-door hatchback and uses it to show off what the group says is the most advanced lead-acid battery around.

By US and Japanese standards, Metair went decidedly low-budget, spending the equivalent of about $6,500 in component costs and about $55,000 in total development costs for what it calls the Met-Elec-R60. The company isn't disclosing much on the vehicle's performance except, according to Engineering News, to clarify that the car's a plug-in with a small gas engine used as an on-board generator. As for Metair's battery, the Raylite Ultimate is the "most recyclable" of its kind, while being leak proof as well as a stronger charge than comparable lead-acid batteries.

Metair took the EV into public, even stopping by a Shell gas station to impress and confuse the workers there. Check out Metair's two-minute video of its extended-range plug-in below, and note that the charge cord is stored, coiled, in the car. This is unlike every other EV we can think of, and probably only works on one-off conversions like this. Oh, and based on the lean, we're pretty sure the batteries are stored in the rear.

Posted by simple things to build with wood on Thứ Sáu, 17 tháng 5, 2013 - Rating: 4.5

Title : Metair shows off new plug-in car, and battery, in South Africa
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