In what could be a significant breakthrough, Honda believes it has developed a process that can extract rare earth metals for used parts: and ensure that these precious materials (pictured) can be recycled.

The Japanese carmaker teamed up with Japan Metals & Chemicals Company to establish the process in mass production at a recycling plant. It is hoped that it will begin to extract rare earth metals from nickel-metal hydride batteries from Honda hybrid vehicles as early as this month.

According to Honda, the process will be a world first as part of a mass production recycling plant. The purity of the recycled rare earth metals is expected to be as high as those that are newly mined.

Previously, Honda had been using a heat treatment on nickel-metal hydride batteries while also recycling the nickel as a raw material of stainless steel. However, the new process will allow for extraction of potentially more than 80 per cent of rare earth metals and is expected to be expanded in the future to a variety of additional used parts.

With European emission standards looming, it seems a shift from petrol to diesel engines could be the key to climate mitigation efforts.

That’s the verdict of research published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. It suggests that passenger transport affects the environment through a number of areas – including long-term effects like CO2; and short-term effects such as black carbon. Diesel cars generally emit less CO2 than petrol cars – however, previous studies show more prolonged warming due to diesel cars.

However, this study shows a difference that can primarily be explained by factors such as: underlying emissions; BC efficacy; atmospheric chemistry processes; and carbon cycle model.

It suggests that a climate mitigation policy focusing on CO2 emissions supports an increase in diesel cars as passenger cars equipped with diesel engines typically emit around 15 per cent less CO2 per kilometre than vehicles with petrol engines with a similar output. Indeed since the UK started taxing vehicles according to CO2 emissions, the share of registered new diesel cars has increased from 26 per cent in 2002 to 38 per cent in 2005.

However, the report states it is not clear whether the shift is effective as a climate mitigation measure because of the number of non-CO2 components that are emitted together. Many have indirect climate effects due to chemical reactions.

So to analyse whether this policy would be effective the researchers used a climate and carbon cycle model as well as aggregated parametrisations of atmospheric chemistry processes.

It found that the newer emission standards generally lead to a smaller net warming; long-term warming from diesel engines is smaller relative to that from petrol engines for any emission standard because only CO2 counts in the long run; and the initial temperature response is drastically different between early Euro 3 and Euro 4 emission standards and the Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards.

Regulations have been proposed by the Government of Canada that would put fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emission standards for medium- and heavy duty vehicles in line with those in the USA.

Proposals would cut emissions from on-road heavy duty vehicles and engines, such as large pick-up trucks and short/long-haul tractors; as well as garbage and cement trucks, buses and more; for the 2014 model year and beyond.

According to estimates, if the proposals are implemented, greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 heavy duty vehicles would be reduced by 23 per cent compared to those sold in 2010. It will also allow the Government of Canada to bring its emission standards and test procedures in line with those in the United States.

The announcement has received support from the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association (CVMA); Ford; Chrysler; General Motors; and Navistar.

According to the CVMA (logo, pictured), an aligned approach is the most effective way of reducing new heavy duty vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. The move is an important part of the Government of Canada’s overall climate strategy – which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent in 2020 compared to 2005 levels.

New fuel economy rules for car makers in the US will price many ordinary Americans out of the market for a new car, the country’s National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) warns today.

New CAFE standards proposed for 2017 to 2025 build on previous economy rules introduced by the Obama Administration. Under the new standards, cars and trucks will have to achieve a fleet average of 40.1mpg by model year 2021 and 49.6mpg by 2025. Greenhouse gas standards would require 163g/mile of CO2 in model year 2025.

Current rules require a 35.5mpg fleet average by 2016 and an average CO2 level of 250g/mile. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the two standards together will cut greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in half and nearly double the fuel economy of models compared to year 2010 vehicles.

But according to a new report from NADA, the economy rules will push up the price of new cars, potentially pricing more than seven million car buyers out of the new car market by 2025. According to estimates from EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the 2025 CAFE rules will rise the average price of passenger cars and light trucks by nearly $3,000.

Estimates by the NADA published in its ‘The Effect of Proposed MY 2017-2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards on the New Vehicle Market Population’ report suggests that many lower income consumers, such as college students and working families, will not qualify for financing to cover this additional cost.

The study is based on an evaluation of a consumer expenditures report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. NADA analysed the financial profiles and purchasing behaviour of a large sample of US consumers to calculate debt-to-income ratio for households to work out if they could afford the additional cost of a new vehicle.

Doug Greenhaus, NADA’s chief regulatory counsel for environment, health and safety, says the government needs to better understand the impact of the proposed fuel economy rules on consumers, before increasing the economy standards: “Disregarding vehicle affordability will undermine the environmental and national security benefits the administration is seeking,” Greenhaus said. “The proposed MY 2017-2025 fuel economy rules should be delayed until there is a more accurate picture of how prospective buyers likely will react.”

If Europe is to meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals for 2050, then it is going to have to make a series of policy interventions.

That’s the verdict of a new study by the University of Cambridge (logo, pictured), Stanford University and MIT.

It reports that even if widespread adoption of the most promising technologies of all transport modes occurs, it may still not be enough – due to the limitations in biofuel production capacity and the lack of technologies able to drastically cut the levels of CO2 emissions from aviation and heavy trucks.

In a paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the team outlined three potential trends: baseline, in which past trends continue; challenging, in which there is rapid transportation demand and emissions growth; and favourable, which assumes slow transportation growth and emissions growth.

With no new policies in place it found that: emission trajectories vary by mode and geographical scope but will increase in nearly all cases; the largest increase comes from intercontinental aviation emissions; the adoption of new technologies is small because of research and development limitations; in the “challenging” scenario, intercontinental transport emissions could more than double by 2050; while in the favourable scenario, CO2 emissions decrease by about 10 per cent compared to 2010 levels.

Overall, an emissions decrease of 60 per cent or greater is achievable in 2050 only for direct intra-EU27 transport CO2 emissions in the baseline and favourable scenarios, it concludes – and is never possible in the challenging scenario.

As such it suggests that policy intervention is needed with many critical technologies needing EU-wide research and development investments to be produced at a commercial scale.

The world is getting serious about smart grid technology – and this will be reflected in its spending over the next few years.

According to a new report from IDC Energy (logo, pictured), smart grid spending will increase 17.4 per cent globally from 2010-2015: with overall spending set to reach close to $46.4billion in 2015.

The report, entitled Worldwide Utility Smart Grid Spending Forecast 2010-2015, looks at 14 different smart grid project types and identifies the investment priorities in different regions. It looks at different technology types: such as hardware, software and services; utility ownership; and whether or not the utilities are electric only or both electric and gas.

It highlights that the Asia-Pacific region will experience the most growth – with a five-year CAGR of 33.7 per cent; while in North America, it is widely deployed advanced metering infrastructure and smart meter investment that will lead to high demand by 2014.

In Europe, the 20-20-20 goals (20 per cent increase in energy efficiency; with a 20 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions; and 20 per cent renewable generation sources) that will spur demand later in the forecast period.

Natural gas cars have often been seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to petrol and diesel powered vehicles. However, that may all be about to change.

That’s because a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure, prompted by a shift to natural gas vehicles, could lead to greater radiative forcing of the climate – i.e. an increase global warming.

However, according to the authors, natural gas vehicles could still have benefits… if the well-to-wheels leakage is capped at a level 45-70 per cent below existing estimates. Indeed using natural gas instead of coal for electric power plants can reduce radiative forcing immediately: and reducing losses from production and transportation could provide even greater benefits.

According to the authors, recent scientific literature has caused confusion about natural gas. On one hand it is promoted because it has lower carbon per unit energy than coal and oil: but on the other hand with methane a prime constituent, it is potentially a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

It concludes that the climactic effect of replacing fossil fuels with natural gas vehicles will vary depending on the fuel being replaced and the sector – i.e. electricity generation of transportation.

In general, it is felt that reductions in methane leakage are needed if climate benefits are to be maximised – current leakage rates are higher than previously thought. However, significant progress is possible especially with the benefits of capturing and selling lost natural gas and the availability of technologies.

The UK is getting serious about carbon capture and storage – with the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (logo, pictured) to pour £1billion into direct grant support for capital funding.

Carbon capture and storage allows carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere to be caught and permanently stored underground. Now the UK is looking to reduce the costs and risks associated with carbon capture and storage so it can be cost competitive; while also putting in place the market frameworks needed for it to be deployed in the private sector; and removing the key barriers to its implementation.

The goal of the commercialisation programme is to build carbon capture and storage equipped fossil fuel power stations in the early 2020s without the need for capital subsidies from the Government. It is believed that if carbon capture and storage is to be deployed in the 2020s then final investment decisions will be needed to be made in the early part of that decade.

Now this new programme puts the emphasis on industry to bring forward carbon capture solutions.

To qualify for the competition, projects must include a power plant and capture facility located in Great Britain and a storage site off-shore; must be operational by 2016-2020; and may be full-chain or part-chain.

In addition, the DECC also published the first ever UK carbon capture and storage roadmap that sets out the steps the Government is taking to be an industry leader. You can view the roadmap here.

Amid the frantic rush to fill up our petrol tanks in recent weeks, many of us have overlooked one of the best ways to boost our fuel economy: eco-driving.

According to a Public Transit Fuel Efficiency Study from SmartDrive Systems (logo, pictured), fuel consumption could be reduced by as much as 18.7 per cent among transit fleets based on utilising eco-driving best practices.

Among the techniques the report highlights are: smooth acceleration and deceleration; avoiding harsh turns; reducing idling; decelerating into the turn; and maintaining a constant vehicle speed.

It evaluated hundreds of transit buses and drivers in several US locations to determine the impact of training and instant vehicle feedback on fuel economy. During the study it picked up on several inefficient driving manoeuvres including: hard accelerations; hard braking; and hard turns.

Post training performance however, showed substantial reductions in these manoeuvres and within one month, the top 25 per cent of drivers improved their fuel economy by 25 per cent.

The company has now issued a short eco driving video to assist with public transit training.

By the time any new nuclear plant could be built in the UK (estimated to be 2020 or later), the market for its electricity would be disappearing, according to new research.

While the debate over the role nuclear power should play in energy generation, both here in the UK and elsewhere (most notably Japan in recent months following the Fukushima disaster, see story), a new report from Energy Fair suggests that even accounting for rising energy demand in coming years, the consumer demand for clean renewables will push aside nuclear.

Labelling the nuclear market a ‘high risk gamble, ‘the new report entitled ‘The financial risks of investing in new nuclear power plants’ identifies five main areas of risk for anyone considering investing in nuclear; market risk, cost risk, subsidy risk, political risk and construction risk.

The tumbling cost of photovoltaics (PV) and the falling costs of other renewables, the likely completion of the European internal market for electricity and the strengthening of the European transmission grid all mean that consumers will be empowered to generate much of their own electricity or to buy it from anywhere in Europe, bypassing UK nuclear stations.

Explosive growth of PV is likely to take much of the profitable peak-time market for electricity. And there will be stiff competition to fill in the gaps left by PV, from a range of other sources, many of which are better suited to the gap-filling roll than is nuclear power, the research suggests. 

There is good evidence that, contrary to the often-repeated claim that nuclear power is cheap, it is one of the most expensive ways of generating electricity. The inflation-adjusted cost of building new nuclear power stations has been on a rising trend for many years, and will be boosted by the introduction of new safety measures after the Fukushima disaster. Meanwhile, the cost of most renewable sources of power is falling.

Although nuclear power is a long-established industry which should be commercially viable without support, it depends heavily on subsidies. This is a clear breach of the principle of fair competition. At any stage, some or all of the subsidies may be withdrawn, either via complaints to the European Commission, or via the European Court of Justice, or via decisions made by politicians. The group of scientists behind Energy Fair has already submitted a complaint to the Directorate General for Competition of the EC about subsidies for nuclear power.