Scientists are developing a way to use nature’s own power stations, mitochondria, to convert organic matter into energy.

According to the BBC, scientists at St Louis University in Missouri, US have developed a prototype cell, similar to the ones our own bodies,  which can convert almost anything into energy. Suggested fuels which the cells could use include vegetable oil and even energy drinks to power electrical devices.

The work is very much the developmental stages and potential uses for the technology could take decades to develop. However the project so far, led by Dr Shelley Minteer, demonstrates how we can mimic some of natures processes for energy production.

The ‘biofuel cells’ work like fuel cells, breaking down molecules to unleashes electrons which can become electricity.

Until now, Dr Minteer and her colleagues have focused their research on the use of enzymes, which are expert at breaking down particular ‘fuel’ molecules such as methanol or glucose. But the new research focuses on mitochondria which consist of a whole ensemble of enzymes working together to convert a range of ‘fuel’ molecules into energy.

"In order to be able to completely consume a fuel… you need a whole series of enzymes, anywhere from three, for something simple, to 22 for something like glucose, and you need to get these enzymes to work together," Dr Minteer told BBC News. "The mitochondria channel the fuel from enzyme one directly to enzyme two and so on; they do this metabolism far more efficiently than we do by putting a soup of enzymes down on the electrode."

A demonstration device which has been described at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in the US, has so far only been used with simple fuels made of a single type of molecule, as the enzyme approaches have required until now. But future efforts will aim to make the cells work with more familiar sources of energy.

"Mitochondria can break down a wide variety of fuels," Dr Minteer said.

"That means it can handle fuel mixtures that you might see in, say, an energy drink or a protein shake."

Plamen Atanassov, director of the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies at the University of New Mexico said the technique of using the cells could one day have a wide range of uses, adding: "It ultimately may lead to the introduction of a whole new domain of fuels that we would never otherwise be able to tap."

The switchable battery electric vehicle taxi pilot in Tokyo, Japan, has been extended by Better Place and will now be in operation through to the end of the year.

The company hopes that by extending the trial it will be able further evaluate and optimise the design and integration of the components of the system, which include the battery switch station, battery performance and charging as well as the electric vehicle taxis themselves.

Run by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, the existing trial began on April 26 and focuses on the feasibility of battery switch as a means for taxis to have an instant zero emission range extension.

Now the programme extension has been approved by the Ministry’s Agency for Resources and Energy with operations to be temporarily suspended until September 1 so the onboard vehicle data can be analysed.

According to Kiyotaka Fujii, the president of Better Place Japan, at this point there has been little information about how the electric vehicle battery will perform in real world taxi conditions. However, the trial has provided critical insights into battery performance in a switch model and switch station performance for the toughest customers.

Some of the initial data revealed by the trial showed that the taxis have driven an average of 40,311km; drivers have been through the switch station 2,122 times; and average switch time is 59.1 seconds. 

It is still hoped that the switch station itself will be launched next year in Israel and Denmark.

A variable displacement oil pump that features in the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze is able to deliver the precise amount of oil needed during all driving conditions meaning the engine can work less and save fuel.

The oil pump is a standard feature of the Cruze’s 1.4l Ecotec turbocharged engine. It reduces displacement during the engine warm up process and also during high speed conditions with the volume of oil from the pump varying along with the revs per minute by changing the displacement through a pivoting control chamber mechanism.

According to Mike Katerberg, the assistant chief engineer for the 1.4l Cruze engine, it is by lowering the volume of oil that the engine is able to reduce energy. He described it as a simple, durable and maintenance free design that has been used in the company’s transmissions for years and is also employed in its hybrid vehicles.

The 1.4l Ecotec turbo is standard on Eco, LT and LTZ models and helps the Cruze achieve an expected segment leading 40mpg.

In addition, the vehicle benefits from a front grill where an automatic air shutter system allows the car to change shape and cut through the air more smoothly. It uses sensors to feel and sense wind and temperature conditions and when the shutters are closed at high speeds, wind drag is reduced.

The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is on the lookout for computer aided design tools that could help boost electric vehicle batteries.

The NREL has made $2.5million available over a 12month period for a total of $7.5million over 36 months in an effort to find design tools that would shorten the prototyping and manufacturing cycles and optimise batteries to assist with performance, safety, longevity and costs. It plans to award up to five cost-sharing sub-contracts.

Noting that one of the major barriers to mass adoption of electric vehicles is their affordability, the NREL has pinpointed the high cost and limited performance and life of batteries, particularly those using lithium-ion. It believes the battery industry is currently dependent on expensive and time consuming processes and a cycle of “design, build, test, break” with sophisticated design tools not widely available.

That has prompted an activity called Computer Aided Engineering for Electric Drive Vehicle Batteries that aims to introduce battery simulation and modelling design tools to the development of batteries during their early stages and help reduce the steps in the design, build, test, break process.

Any firm awarded a sub contract will be asked to develop multi-physics simulation models that can capture realistic three-dimensional geometries and configurations of cell level and pack level of batteries or other energy storage devices. It will also need to address the electrochemical, mechanical, chemical, electrical, thermal and/or structural physics in cells and battery packs. The hope is that suites of software tools will be developed to enable car and battery manufacturers and other end users to simulate battery packs and accelerate development of energy storage systems that meet electric vehicle requirements.

An electric race car may have just set a new land speed record if its average speed of 307 mph is verified by the governing body of motorsports.

The Buckeye Bullet, developed and raced by a team of students from Ohio State University, achieved the impressive speed while attempting to break the record of the fastest electric car on the planet.

In their final attempt, the team has unofficially smashed the old record for an electric car set at 246mph, busting the car’s clutch in the process. According to the team, which raced the Bullet across Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, ‘too much torque from our motor ripped apart the half inch steel teeth that keep the motor connected to the gearbox’. Nonetheless the team appear to have smashed the eleven-year record.

The Buckeye Bullet uses close to 1,600 lithium-ion batteries to power it to super speeds. Now the team will wait for official accredited of their record from the FIA, but "Now its time to pack up our pits and head back to Ohio!" the team wrote on its blog (http://blog.buckeyebullet.com/)

Fiat has added to its environmental accolades with a new award announced for its eco:Drive fuel-saving technology.

The drive system – this time in eco:Drive Fleet form scooped the Green Development prize in the BusinessCar Techies 2010, announced yesterday by BusinessCar magazine.

The judging panel’s attention was particularly drawn to eco:Drive Fleet’s potential fuel savings of up to 15 per cent, its CO₂ emissions reductions, and the fact that mileage data can be measured for all fleet vehicles and displayed by vehicle or driver, either individually or collectively.

Launched in March this year, eco:Drive Fleet works through the Blue&Me information system, developed by Fiat and Microsoft, and found in all new Fiat vehicles. Plugging a USB stick into the Blue&Me port lets the system record information about the fleet vehicle user’s driving style, offering suggestions on how to improve efficiency further by reappraising methods.

“Fiat’s eco:Drive Fleet system really impressed the judges, with the system’s ability to make a real difference to fuel use, and therefore a business’s running costs, key to its victory,” says Paul Barker, BusinessCar Editor.

“The clever use of technology – with drivers or companies able to download the data direct from the car – is exactly the sort of application that the BusinessCar Techies seeks to reward, ” he added.

Toyota is seeking to achieve cumulative sales of five million hybrid vehicles in the early part of this decade, according to Reuters. The Japanese carmaker told the news agency that it has so far sold more than 2.68 million hybrids since it globally launched its first model.

That first model, the Prius, remains a global phenomenon and was  alone responsible for 500,000 vehicle sales by April 2006.

Currently Toyota produces nine hybrid passenger vehicle models and three hybrid commercial vehicle models sold in Japan. While outside Japan, eight hybrid passenger vehicle models are sold in approximately 80 countries and regions, with cumulative overseas sales having topped 1.68 million units. 

To help it achieve its target five million target, the carmaker intends to roll out hybrid technology across its range of established passenger car, starting first with the Auris, which gained a hybrid variant, called the Auris HSD, earlier this year.

Under a new five year environmental plan published yesterday (August 25), the carmaker pledges that by 2015, it will improve average fuel efficiency–in all regions–by 25 per cent compared to that of 2005. 

As of July 31, 2010, the carmaker calculates that Toyota hybrid vehicles, since 1997, have led to approximately 4 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions in Japan, and approximately 15 million fewer tons globally, than would have been emitted by gasoline-powered vehicles of similar size and driving performance.

Though the Paris Motor Show is just around the corner, the Moscow International Auto Show is already under way and boasts a few debutants of its own.

At the top of the list is a new sub compact family saloon concept RB from the Hyundai Motor Company.

The vehicle will be powered by a modern Gamma, 1.6l or 1.4l DOHC in-line four cylinder petrol engine and will feature multiport fuel injection with continuously variable valve timing.

As the old Alpha engine has been replaced with Gamma, the saloon car offers more power and torque and yet also boasts best in-class fuel economy. The power and torque of the 1.6l Gamma are 124ps and 156Nm respectively; while the 1.4 Gamma will produce power at 107ps and torque of 135Nm.

Production of the vehicle will begin at Hyundai’s first full-cycle plant in Saint Petersburg, Russia in January, 2011. The vehicle will then join the line-up in spring.

The city of Portland in Oregon will soon reap the rewards of a new collaboration between one of its leading utilities and the Ford Motor Company.

The car manufacturer has teamed up with Portland General Electric to prepare the city for the operation of electric vehicles. The two companies will work together to share information on charge needs and requirements in an effort to ensure that the electrical grid can support the demand for electric vehicles.

In addition, the firms will work alongside state and local governments in an effort to support charging station permitting, electric vehicle incentives and future legislation or regulations.

Portland General Electric is already working with state and local government as well as higher education and businesses in the area to expand electric vehicle infrastructure. Earlier this month, it opened the nation’s first quick charge station at its World Trade Centre headquarters which complements the 20 charging stations up and running across its operating areas.

Now Ford will draw on its partnership with Portland State University to further its studies into urban mobility and sustainable design. The manufacturer plans to introduce the Transit Connect Electric later this year, followed by a Ford Focus Electric in 2011; and in 2012, a new generation of lithium-ion battery powered hybrids and a plug-in hybrid.

Earlier this week we looked at China’s increasing impact in the green car sector in our Green Piece Column – however, its role in a number of transport related sectors should not be overlooked.

For example, according to statistics released by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, petrol and diesel exports from the country increased by nearly 68 per cent and 22 per cent respectively during the first half of 2010 compared to the same period last year.

An oil analyst at the sci99.com website commented that in recent years, China’s refining capacity had been concentrated while the growth of demand slowed and the excess refining capacity directly led to strong growth in oil exports.

Now the plan of the National Development and Reform Commission is to have 20 10million ton level crude oil processing bases that will account for 65 per cent of national processing capacity. The average production of these enterprises will be 5.7million tons a year. China also hopes to have 10 oil refining bases including four bases with a capacity of more than 30million tons a year; as well as six bases with a capacity of more than 20million tons a year.