If you wish that fuel cell technology was available to help you save money on your motoring costs then spare a thought for the poor old farmer, who is stuck with driving probably one of the most gas-guzzling vehicles in the world. So far, it seems the agricultural world has been left behind in the race to go green. It has been largely accepted that big multi-functional vehicles such as tractors are inevitably going to be thirsty-but at last there may be a solution.

Agricultural machinery firm, New Holland is set to unveil a first for the farming world- a fuel cell tractor. The new NH²  hydrogen tractor will make its public debut today at the  2010 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.

Based on the popular New Holland T6000 Series tractor, the  NH2 tractor uses fuel cells and a store of hydrogen to power all its functions. Compressed hydrogen taken from the storage tank and reacts in vehicle’s the fuel cell with oxygen, drawn from the air, to produce water and electricity. The electricity then drives the motors to power the tractor’s drivetrain and auxiliary systems.

The working prototype tractor produces 106 bhp and is able to perform all the tasks of a tractor while emitting nothing other than heat and water. It’s virtually silent too, so there will be nothing to disturb the peace of the countryside. Its manufacturer hopes that the model could help farmers become energy independent as they utilise solar, wind and other natural and renewable sources such as waste products to generate energy and store it in the form of hydrogen.

‘Farmers are in a unique position to benefit from hydrogen technology’, the firm said in a statement. ‘Apart from the environmental benefits, such a system would allow customers to become energy independent and improve their financial stability’ it said.

The vehicle is now being tested at an olive farm in Lebanon.

European demand for biofuels is leading to a ‘land grab’ in Africa, the latest research from Friends of the Earth suggests.

According to a new report from the charity, ‘Africa: Up For Grabs’, the amount of land being taken in African to produce biofuels for Northern countries is being underestimated and is currently out of control.

The research detailed in the report looks at eleven African countries and found that at least five million hectares of land-an area the size of Denmark-is being acquired by foreign companies to produce biofuels mainly for countries in the Northern hemisphere.

The practice – known as land grabbing – is increasing and is dominated by European and Chinese companies. However with official public information largely absent, current figures are likely to be only a snapshot and gross underestimates.
The new report reveals how local communities are having their land taken and there are few safeguards for local community land rights. Forests and natural vegetation are being cleared, and biofuels are competing with food crops for farmland.

A leaked World Bank report, published in the Financial Times back in July (see story), detailed a wider land grabbing problem and corroborates the pattern found by the charity. It stated that ‘consultations with local communities were often weak… Conflicts were common, usually over land rights’. The World Bank has so far refused to release these controversial findings publicly.

In Tanzania, Madagascar and Ghana there have been protests following land-grabs by foreign companies.

Even more land will be required for biofuels if the European Union is to meet its  targets to increase transport fuels from renewable sources, according to the research.

Adrian Bebb, food and agriculture campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said:
“Our research shows that Europe’s demand for biofuels is a major driver of land grabbing in Africa. Local communities are facing increasing hunger and food insecurity just so rich countries can fuel their cars. The EU must urgently scrap its biofuel policy. We must invest instead in environmentally friendly agriculture and decrease the energy we use for transport.”

A map showing the scale of the problems and a list of companies involved in growing biofuels in Africa can be found here: http://www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels/FoEE_Africa_up_for_grabs_2010-Map-Tables.pdf

Toll roads are not the solution to tackling a growing congestion problem, Campaign for Better Transport suggests today.

The assertion comes as the campaign group releases a report into the M6 Toll in the West Midlands, labelling the project a ‘costly failure’. According to the group, its latest report proves that such schemes are ineffective at tackling congestion and advises that the Government should not rely on tolls to solve transport problems.

Earlier this year, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond signalled an interest in using tolls to pay for future road building schemes, most of which are expected to be halted after the October spending review. However, this report shows the 27-mile toll motorway has failed to provide any significant congestion relief for the original M6 and the price, which has been increased significantly year on year, is bad value for drivers who use the toll.

Despite the toll now charging motorists £5 on weekdays, 2.5 times the initial cost, the report shows that operator Midland Expressway Ltd, a subsidiary of the international infrastructure group Macquarie, is losing tens of millions every year and has written down the value of the road to below its cost. Meanwhile, M6 congestion is now so bad that the Government is considering spending another £500m on it to deal with the problems the toll road was supposed to solve.

Richard George, Campaign for Better Transport’s Roads and Climate Campaigner, said: "The research shows that the toll road has failed to cut congestion on the original M6 and has made big losses for its operator. With Government coffers running empty, it is no surprise that politicians are looking at toll roads as a way to deliver funds for new road building projects. But our research shows that private toll roads such as the M6 Toll don’t help motorists or the surrounding area, and don’t make money for investors either.

"Instead, the Government needs to spend scarce public funds on maintaining the roads we have and giving people good alternatives to car use."

According to the report journey times on the M6 are only slightly better than before the toll opened. Outside of peak times, journeys on the M6 Toll are not much faster than on the M6, averaging a time savings of between 7 and 12 minutes in the Toll’s the opening year. Meanwhile the cost of the toll has risen sharply each January, well above inflation.

Tuesday 31 August 2010: The Green Piece Column.

It’s one of the most common concerns about the electrification of the automobile – no, not how long the range of these vehicles will last or how regularly batteries will need to be replaced; but just how safe are electric cars?

Electrical fires are notoriously dangerous, particularly for fire-fighters using water or other conductive agents. Over the years, electrical shocks have caused many deaths and though solutions have been found – fire-fighters generally use dry chemical powder extinguishers and carbon dioxide to put out electrical fires – there are fears that a surge in electrical vehicle numbers could exacerbate the problem.

However, General Motors attempted to address this issue with a nationwide electric vehicle training tour in the US.

Inspired by the Volt

A pre-production version of the Chevrolet Volt (to be known in the UK as the Vauxhall Ampera) was used as a teaching tool on the tour which included classroom training and a live extrication exercise in which fire-fighters practised door and roof removal.

As part of the exercise, fire-fighters inspected the instrument panel to ensure that the crashed Chevrolet Volt had been turned off. They were then able to stabilise the vehicle with a “chock and block” procedure before deflating the Volt’s tyres to ensure it remained stable during cutting and extrication. The 12V electrical system is then disabled by cutting the battery cables at designated cut points behind a trim panel towards the rear of the car.

The Volt does come with a removable high voltage service plug in the rear centre console which can be used to disable high voltage components. However, this is mainly designed for automotive technicians and could be difficult to access at the scene of an accident.

Steps towards safety

The good news for fire-fighters and the emergency services in general is that the issue of safety is being looked at very carefully by General Motors and other car manufacturers.

The Volt, for example, comes with an on-board safety system. This automatically unlocks its doors and activates emergency flashes while disabling the fuel pump when an airbag signal is detected.

The lithium-ion battery pack meanwhile is bolted to the underside of the vehicle floor from underneath. It has been subjected to an array of abuse tests including overcharge, discharge, vibration, excess heat and cold, short circuit, humidity, fire and more. GM actually recommends that a Volt battery fire can be fought with water rather than dry chemicals as the Volt battery has no explosion or electrocution hazard as the result of a collision. The high voltage system shuts down automatically as soon as airbags are deployed.

In the US, the Volt is also supported by OnStar safety. This means that first responders will be informed that the Volt features an electric powertrain before they arrive on the scene.

Thanks to the OnStar application, the vehicle’s position can be triangulated to determine if it has left the roadway and the advisers can sound the vehicle’s horn to help personnel locate the vehicle. OnStar has also developed an Impact Severity Predictor that evaluates the intensity and angle of impact and predicts the likelihood of injuries in the vehicle.

Potential problems

One area that did cause some issues for the fire-fighters during the challenge was the inability to cut through ultra high strength steel such as boron or martensite.

This structural steel was first used in Volvo vehicles in the late 1990s and has since become commonplace throughout the industry. It is seen as an important safety feature because it can enhance side impact protection and roof strength integrity.

Indeed more than 70 per cent of the Volt’s structural steel uses ultra high strength steel, including the floor which supports the battery pack. The problem of course is that cutting through this sort of material with an electric battery close by can be dangerous due to the sparking from the high-speed rotary cut-off saws, which present a fire hazard. Indeed the jaws of older hydraulic cutting tools can spread from excessive side loads when a cut is attempted. However, most extrication tools have been upgraded to deal with the new steels.

Our verdict on the safety of electric cars

It’s understandable that new car buyers would have their doubts about the safety of electric cars and the ability of first responders to deal with a crash scene and fire involving an electric powertrain.

However, as with any new technology it’s safe to assume that as electric cars become more commonplace, fire-fighters will be better equipped to deal with emergencies. Most importantly for early electric car buyers, manufacturers are taking the safety issue very seriously, and, just as General Motors is doing with the Volt, are implementing unique safety features that should make drivers just as comfortable in an electric powered car as they are in a regular vehicle.

With time it may even be the case that electric cars are safer than their petrol and diesel counterparts because the implementation of Smart Grid technology should increase vehicle communications making responses to accidents faster and more efficient. Yes there may be teething problems, but electric cars have come a long way and so has their commitment to safety.

Faye Sunderland

Foton Motor, of China, and Freescale Semiconductor have joined forces to create the Foton-Freescale Automotive Joint Lab with the aim of exploring joint development efforts in areas including electric and hybrid vehicles and relevant electronic control technology.

The Foton-Freescale Automotive Joint Lab is committed to co-developing silicon, software and system-level solutions for use in the next generation of Foton vehicles with future collaborations to look at powertrains, chassis and safety technologies.

Part of the collaboration will involve a wide range of microcontroller platforms, which will include Freescale’s 32bit Power Architecture MCUs, 16bit S12X and 8bit S08 devices along with analogue power management ICs and sensors.

According to Wu Xuebin, the Foton motor vice president and director of the Engineering Research Institute, automotive electronics technology has greatly enhanced the safety, emissions and economic performance of vehicles. Now Foton is committed to promoting energy and environmental technology in the industry and has provided continuous breakthroughs in new energy driven vehicles over recent years.

Reza Kazerounian, the senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Microcontroller Solutions Group, commented that through close collaboration the companies hope to drive breakthroughs in cost effective electronics, powertrains and hybrid electric vehicle solutions. It hopes to help Foton maintain its leadership in the area of commercial vehicles while also enhancing research and development in green cars.

With its Nissan LEAF electric car just around the corner, the Japanese manufacturer has made a bold prediction about vehicle sales this year.

Nissan has stated it expects auto sales to reach 70million units this year with China continuing to lead the new car market. China became Nissan’s second largest market last year.

Dr Andy Palmer, senior vice president and executive committee member of Nissan Motor Company, commented that sales of Nissan’s luxury brand Infiniti in China hit 5,113 units in the first half year – that’s more than double compared to a year earlier. Sales for the whole year could now exceed 10,000 units, second only to the US market.

In 2009, global auto sales only totalled 60.99million units according to the International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers with the global economic downturn partly to blame.

It’s considered to be the greenest car the company has ever produced (see article) and now Audi is expected to ramp up production of the new A1.

The vehicle, which is now on sale in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and will be on sale in most other European markets by mid-September, will see production increase by 20 per cent.

Audi had previously expected average production volumes of 100,000 A1 units a year. However, the vehicle will also be launched in the Asia-Pacific region and in South America in 2011 with a total of 50,000 additional units expected to roll off the production line in Brussels by the end of the year.

In addition, the Audi A1 has three engine options – the 1.2 TFSI; the 1.4 TFSI; and the 1.6 TDI. Each features direct injection, a start-stop system, turbocharging and a braking energy recovery system. It is the only vehicle in its segment with a start-stop system and automatic transmission.

Over half of adults think the current system of paying for road use should charge to a pay per mile system, the latest research from the Department for Transport (DfT) reveals.

The measure could prove an important tool in tackling the growing problem of congestion on UK roads. Over four in five adults thought that congestion was a serious problem in the country and nine in ten said that it was important for Government to tackle the issue.

The findings are released as part of a study of ‘public attitudes towards road congestion’ which is published by this week by the Government department.

Despite apparent opposition to the introduction road charging schemes, with plans to charge road users dropped by cities such as Manchester and Cambridge in the past year, over a quarter (26 per cent) think that if motorists paid for how often they use the road that would make the system fairer.

However, the results also showed that under a quarter thought that people driving on busy roads should pay more and a similar proportion said that people driving at busy times should pay more.

Three in ten adults thought that a new charging scheme based on times of travel and specific route taken would work in reducing congestion while over half said it would not.

Almost three in five of those who felt such a scheme wouldn’t work gave ‘people not being able to change their behaviour’ as a reason for this while a third said people wouldn’t want to change.

When asked whether they would be prepared to accept road pricing as long as there was no overall increase in the amount paid by motorists as a whole, 38 per cent agreed while 34 per cent disagreed.

The results of the study show that we are still a largely car dependent nation with 88 per cent of car drivers stating that they used their car at least twice a week with most of these saying they drove every day. Only 24 per cent of bus passengers reported that they travelled by bus with this frequency.

The ‘public attitudes towards road congestion’ study used a wide sample of UK citizens interviewed between November 2009 and February 2010.

Automotive association, the RAC is to hold a London to Brighton run in reverse to celebrate low-carbon and alternative fuel vehicles.

The challenge will take place a day before the association’s famous and long-established London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (LBVCR), the only difference in the two events will be the choice of cars, with one event focussing on old classics and the other in forward-thinking new vehicles and that the ‘Future Car Challenge’ will run from Brighton to London instead, taking the same route only reverse from the old veteran car.

Confirmed entries to the new ‘Brighton to London Future Car Challenge’ set to take place in November, include Mercedes-Benz, Ford Motor Company, Smart, Tata Motors, Tesla Motors and Vauxhall Motors UK. Transport for London has also entered as has Henry Lawson, a direct relative of Harry Lawson – a founding member of the 1896 Emancipation Run which demonstrated the capabilities of the first horseless carriages.

The Future Car Challenge is open to the latest electric, hybrid and low-emission passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and motorcycles. Around 50 entries are expected with Royal Automobile Club trophies awarded in different categories for vehicles judged to have made the least energy impact during the 60-mile run. Entries close on 30 September.

Ben Cussons, Chairman of The Royal Automobile Club Motoring Committee, says: "By organising the Brighton to London Future Car Challenge, The Royal Automobile Club is providing a platform for the public to see the potential of new-energy vehicles that will become a feature of our everyday lives in the not so distant future."
A recent report by The RAC Foundation, Driving Down Emissions, estimated the CO2 emissions reductions potential of hybrid vehicles was around 25 to 30 per cent while full electric battery operated vehicles offered the potential to cut 40 to 100 per cent of CO2 (depending on the carbon intensity of the electricity grid).

The 60 mile challenge takes place on Saturday 6 November, from Madeira Drive in Brighton with the formal finish at Pall Mall/St James’s Square.

Collecting electricity from the air could be the next solution to powering our homes and cars, according to scientists at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Researchers at the University of Campinas in Brazil reported to the gathered audience that they have solved a century old mystery of how moisture in the atmosphere becomes electrically charged, meaning that someday they may be able to capture and harness the electricity in the air before it becomes lightning. 

"Our research could pave the way for turning electricity from the atmosphere into an alternative energy source for the future," study leader Fernando Galembeck of the Brazilian university said, according to FirstScience.com.

"Just as solar energy could free some households from paying electric bills, this promising new energy source could have a similar effect," he added.

"If we know how electricity builds up and spreads in the atmosphere, we can also prevent death and damage caused by lightning strikes," Galembeck said.

Much as solar panels harvest solar energy, scientists now hope to develop a similar system which will allow them to pull electricity from the skies. Similar panels could be used on buildings to harness electricity in the atmosphere before it becomes lightning and is discharged back into the earth.

The research continues although it does have it sceptics, scientists have for centuries attempt to harness atmospheric energy, many with disastrous consequences. Galembeck acknowledges this, telling the BBC:"There have been many attempts to harness electricity from the atmosphere and most had bad endings."

However the researchers hope that  some day it will be possible to develop collectors to capture this hygroelectricity. Just as solar cells work best in sunny areas , hygroelectrical panels would work more efficiently in areas with high humidity, which may at last help the UK find some use for all its wet weather.