TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY

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Comment by Kat on February 23, 2009 at 5:39am

TODAY...The nation's most important leaders in energy reform are gathering with T. Boone Pickens at the National Clean Energy Project Summit to tackle the critical issues of ushering in a new era of renewable energy and ending our dependence on foreign oil. This event will feature a lot of people who know what they are talking about when it comes to energy policy - including John Podesta from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, U.S. Senator Harry Reid, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Climate Czar Carol Browner, Owens-Corning CEO Michael Thaman, American Electric Power President & CEO Mike Morris, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode, Riverkeeper Alliance Chief Prosecuting Attorney Robert Kennedy, Jr. and many others.

Watch the live roundtable discussion on Monday, Feb. 23, at 10:15 a.m. ES

Comment by Jessee McBroom on December 31, 2008 at 9:22am

Hello all. Jessee McBroom here. I personally am of the opinion that we should be striving to achieve unlimited range EVs and Internal Combustion automobiles as well as sustainable reaction types of energy production methods with respect to industry. For my ideas about how to go about this; visit my page and follow the link provided to my web site. Then take a look at my entry in the NASA Tech Briefs' Create The Future Design Contest. You may find it amusing to say the least.

Comment by Kat on December 30, 2008 at 4:16am

Please go to http://change.gov/openforquestions sign-in or sign-up for an account at Change.gov and ask the administration what they plan to do with regard to energy independence and the Pickens Plan.

Comment by Jessee McBroom on December 17, 2008 at 9:31am

Hello all. My name is Jessee McBroom. I invite you all to visit my page; look over my profile blogs and discussions. I also advise you in all sincerity to look over my entry in the NASA Tech Briefs' Create The Future Design Contest. You will find a web address for that near the bottom of the comments posted on my page. Sincerely: Jessee McBroom

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Comment by David Onstenk on October 12, 2008 at 10:16am

Hello all,

I am a mechanical engineer working on high-pressure compound engines with a energy systems professor at CSU Sacramento. We have completed a very detailed analysis for commercial natural gas HP compound engines. Our results show that we can double the efficiency at 30% load and increase it by 60% at full throttle. These technologies will allow commercial natural gas/flex-fuel engines to surpass the efficiency of the best turbocompound diesels for the first time. Applications are expected to range from 3/4 ton vehicles and up in the transportation sector and between 100-10,000 kW in the distributed generation sector. Most commercial applications are expected to have payback periods from 12-30 months.

Our first stage of develpment leveraging existing diesel long-blocks is commercially viable within 5 years and would offer an estimated 50-75% gain over existing naturally aspirated NG engines. If these technologies are combined with increased NG production and the Pickens Plan, we believe it would be reasonable to cut oil imports by 70% in ten years.

These technologies are applicable for ethanol applications as well, and would provide a large economic incentive for accelerating the development of cellulosic technologies.

I would like to get the word up the ladder to Mr. Pickens if possible. These technologies have been reviewed by engineering professors at three public universities in northern California and are the real deal. The potential economic benefit to the U.S. is measured in the trillions of dollars over the next twenty years. Individual operators and businesses could see there fuel expense cut by over 50% versus diesel.

We hope to get an audience with either the appropriate executives at Cummins, CAT or Detroit Diesel, or with investors that are able to invest in true seed-stage development. Either way, we expect that this information could only help Mr. Pickens message. The biggest push-back from industry for his plan is that current NG engines suffer a large efficiency loss when compared to diesel.

We can reverse that equation...

Best wishes,

David Onstenk

Lead Investigator
Mechanical Engineering
CSU Sacramento

Comment by David Cawlfield on September 29, 2008 at 3:01pm

I'd like to know if anyone has had any experience with truck fleets running on compressed natural gas. The only experience I could find in this regard was on bus fleets. I'd like to investigate this possibility for my company which delivers chemicals by truck. Since the trailers are single-purpose equipment, all routes out and back end up at our site, so a single NG fueling station at each plant would work well for us. If it could reduce our fuel costs, this would be interesting to us, but I've got a lot of concerns to address.

Comment by Thomas on September 16, 2008 at 1:28pm

Emails sent to California Senators and Congressmen

America has an abundance of natural resources,RIGHT NOW, that can and will put Americans back to work- not out of work. H.R.6566 will not lower the price of Oil back to around $50 a barrel. It's called The Law of Supply and Demand. I urge you to open up all of our resources owned BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. No more blame games,in fighting, greed, power struggles, or dictatorship type controls.





The Daily Fact Sheet

Here are 10 ways that the Democrats’ “no energy” bill fails the American people at a time when real leadership on this issue is needed most:
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up 80 percent of American energy on the Outer Continental Shelf
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up more than 1 trillion barrels of oil from oil shale in the Inter-Mountain West.
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up more than 10 billion barrels of oil on Alaska’s remote North Slope – an area where energy production and wildlife have been safely coexisting for decades.
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill blocks more nuclear power production – clean, efficient, and less costly production that nations such as France have been safely using for years while the United States continues to fall behind.
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill does nothing to construct new clean coal energy production facilities – facilities that are a win-win, with benefits both to consumers and for the environment.
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill raises taxes – a new burden for overstressed consumers already paying high prices at the pump and preparing to pay higher home heating costs this winter.
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently prevents federal agencies from using unconventional and alternative sources of fuel at exactly the time when Congress should be encouraging the use of these fuels.
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill increases electricity costs on families, seniors, and small businesses by creating a new, heavy-handed electricity mandate.
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill includes plans for exactly zero new refineries to be built on American soil. Is this the way to show our competitors around the globe that we are finally serious about achieving energy independence?
The Democrats’ “no energy” bill defies the will of a solid majority of Americans who support the House GOP’s “all of the above” plan to increase American energy production, promote the use of alternative and renewable fuels, and encourage more conservation and efficiency

Comment by Daryl Oster on July 17, 2008 at 4:49pm

ETT offers the potential to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels for transportation – using wind energy generated by your wind farms, hydro-electric, and photovoltaic. Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT)™ is patented transportation technology requiring 1/50th of the energy of trains, cars or planes; it is cleaner, lower cost, safer, faster, and electric.

ETT Technology
Earth orbits at 67,000 mph without friction. ETT works like “Space Travel on Earth” ™. With ETT, air is permanently removed from 2 tubes (one for each direction) along a travel route. Since there is no air in ETT tubes, the passenger capsules are pressurized (like a 6 person biz jet cabin), and travel in the tubes on nearly frictionless maglev; so travel takes place without air friction or rolling resistance.
Airlocks allow access without letting air in the tube. Linear electric motors accelerate the capsules (preferably with renewable energy). During most of the trip, the capsules coast through the vacuum using no power. When the capsules brake, linear generators recover most of the acceleration electricity.
Depending on distance, ETT speed can be up to 350 mph for in state trips, to 4,000 mph for international travel that will take you from D.C. across the Bering Strait to Beijing in 2 hours at 1/10th the cost of airfare.
ETT is networked as are freeways. ETT capsules (hauling people or a pallet of cargo) are automatically routed non-stop between “off-line” network terminals that are disbursed according to demand (like freeway off-ramps are).
ETT capsules weigh only 400 lbs yet haul 800lbs of people or cargo as the typical SUV; so a twentieth as much guideway material is required to support ETT capsules than to support 200ton trains. This reduction in materials, and use of present automated pipeline production equipment drops cost to less than a tenth the cost of High Speed Rail, and less than 1/4th the cost of a freeway. Because of automated passive switching, a single ETT tube can exceed 80 lanes of capacity, further reducing cost.

Private Model
The ETT Patent is assigned to et3.com Inc. (et3 stands for Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies), an open consortium. An inclusive license agreement offers any entity incentives to participate in the plan to implement ETT using their “off-the-shelf” assets (materials, parts, technologies, skills, labor, and production capacities). Collectively companies have already spent billions developing ETT; although most are not aware of it yet; for instance, hundreds of companies worldwide make and install pipelines (tubes), vacuum pumps, and the electronics to operate them. Everything exists to start building ETT now. ETT is being implemented in China, and Korea.

We believe ETT will help achieve the goals and ideals of the Pickens Plan.

Best regards,

Daryl Oster
(c) 2008 all rights reserved. ETT, et3, MoPod, "space travel on earth"
e-tube, e-tubes, and the logos thereof are trademarks and service marks
of et3.com Inc. For licensing information contact: POB 1423, Crystal
River FL 34423-1423 Verizon cell(352)257-1310 et3@et3.com www.et3.com

Comment by David Smith on July 16, 2008 at 10:02am

The problem at present is that the rules in place are designed for fleet operations where grants are available to local and state governments to help with the sky-high costs.
The OBDII (1996: The OBD-II specification is made mandatory for all cars sold in the United States) rule can be modified so a conversion system can use a separate emission alarm system. This would reduce the cost of each engine certification. A standardized system that can be used across all gasoline engines would allow millions of vehicles into the conversion stream.
Even CARB is seeking relief from this onerous rule so the state can certify autos for the private motorist at a reasonable cost.
Here is an excerpt from the NATURAL GAS VEHICLE RESEARCH ROADMAP undertaken for CARB in California.
There needs to be a national focus on after-market conversions—it would be nice for $ to go towards developing more conversions for more platforms.
Conversions are available domestically, however they must be certified for use by EPA and ARB in California—the latter, a reportedly challenging process that must be undertaken for each engine/vehicle model combination. In addition to uncertainty of market demand, different safety and emissions certification standards, along with different incentives and mandates, serve as barriers to foreign light-duty NGV models in the US.

http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/natural_gas_laws_federal.html

Aftermarket Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) Conversions
Conventional original equipment manufacturer vehicles altered to operate on propane, natural gas, methane gas, ethanol, or electricity are classified as aftermarket AFV conversions. All vehicle conversions, except those that are completed for a vehicle to run on electricity, must meet current applicable U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. For more information about vehicle conversion certification requirements, see the Alternative Fuels & Advanced Vehicles Data Center's Conversions Web site. (Reference 40 CFR 85)


Search Database:
Code of Federal Regulations (current data)
For: "40CFR85"
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/multidb.cgi
SEE ATTACHED FOR ENTIRE TEXT
(c) Aftermarket conversion system means any combination of hardware, including but not limited to fuel storage and fuel metering hardware, which is installed on a light-duty vehicle, light-duty truck, heavy-duty vehicle, or heavy-duty engine with the effect of allowing the vehicle or engine to operate
on a fuel other than the fuel which the vehicle or engine was originally certified to use. Components which do not affect the emissions performance of the converted vehicle or engine, as determined by the Administrator, are not included for the purposes of this subpart.

§ 85.2207 On-board diagnostics test
standards.
(a) [Reserved]
(b) A vehicle shall fail the on-board diagnostics test if it is a 1996 or newer vehicle and the vehicle connector is missing, has been tampered with, or is otherwise inoperable.
(c) A vehicle shall fail the on-board diagnostics test if the malfunction indicator light is commanded to be illuminated and it is not visually illuminated according to visual inspection.
(d) A vehicle shall fail the on-board diagnostics test if the malfunction indicator light is commanded to be illuminated for one or more OBD diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs), as defined by SAE J2012. The procedure shall be done in accordance with SAE J2012 Diagnostic Trouble Code Definitions, (MAR92). This incorporation by reference was approved by the Director of the Federal Register in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. Copies of SAE J2012 may be obtained from the Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096–0001.

Also see - § 85.2222 On-board diagnostic test procedures.

The development of a stand alone On Board Diagnostic (OBD) that works across all engine types could eliminate the certification requirement on the conversion kit and place the emphasis on the diagnostic system. This would allow millions of vehicles to qualify for conversions overnight.

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