Department Of Energy

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu has been a strong proponent of using more ethanol in the American fuel supply for a long time. His department announced today that it is spending about $80 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to fund advanced biofuels research for things like renewable gasoline/diesel and ethanol blends fueling infrastructure. Most of the money is goin

Aptera 2e final design rendering - Click above to enlarge

Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is not getting his way in Washington. Recently (and, at this point, still allegedly) he said that he "would put every cent into electric cars." The Senate, though, has other plans and has now restored almost all of the hydrogen funding money that the DOE Sebastian Blanco

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has a penchant for making some straightforward statements about energy policy. He's said that electric vehicles are inevitable, for example, and that all American cars should be E85-capable. Recently, he apparently said that "if it were up to me, I would put every c

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has a penchant for making some straightforward statements about energy policy. He's said that electric vehicles are inevitable, for example, and that all American cars should be E85-capable. Recently, he apparently said that "if it were up to me, I would put every c

When last we left the company behind the inflatable car concept, we were questioning whether or not they are full of hot air. Now, with the recent loan refusal from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program (ATVMP), it appears we aren't alone in our skepticism. XP Vehicles received the bad news the other night and are, as one might expect from a team that ha

It goes without saying that we're down with battery recycling, but what about battery factory recycling? Sounds like a pretty good idea to us and, more importantly, it sounds like a good idea to Planar Energy Devices who have plans to do just that. The Orlando-based company is hoping to grab a tranche of the stimulus package pie and recycle a lithium ion battery factory vacated by Domenick Yoney

Click above for high-res image gallery of the 2011 Chevy Volt

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The U.S. Department of Energy has dug into its coffers once again for alternative energy research, this time putting up to $385 million forward to fund six cellulosic ethanol over the next four years. DOE Secretary Samuel W. Bodman made the announcement, going on to say that when fully operational, the six biorefineries will produce more than 130 million gallons / 492 million litres of ethanol per year. The funding is part of President Bush's Twenty in Ten Initiative which aims to reduce America

About 40 years ago, Iowa State Chemistry professor John Verkade based his doctoral dissertation on a chemical compound, and only realized a few years ago that it may very well hold the key to breaking down the cellulose that forms the structure of a plant's cell walls.

There are over 300,000 flex-fuel cars in California, yet just one E85 fueling station. Doesn't make much sense, does it? Moving to address the imbalance, the Department of Energy has granted funding to a group that includes CALSTART, GM, Pacific Ethanol and United Oil among others to begin the construction of an ethanol infrastructure in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, while speaking to the Council on Competitiveness and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Energy Department Secretary Samuel Bodman announced that $100 million has been awarded to 25 fuel cell research and development projects. Bodman said, "We expect hydrogen to play an integral role in our energy portfolio and we are eager to see hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road in the near future."

News and developments on Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) technology doesn't seem to pop up very often, so you can imagine that our ears perk up every time we come across something new no matter how small. On Wednesday, technology development firm TIAX announced that it was awarded a $400,000 contract by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop sensor technology that will help to control

Here's a lesson in legislation over-estimating reality. In 1992, Congress passed an aggressive energy bill requiring that 30 percent of the fuel powering U.S. cars come from sources other than gasoline. Sounds great, but the problem is that we're no where near meeting that deadline. Due to a recent environmental group lawsuit, the Department of Energy was required to develop a revised goal. Last Tuesday, the DOE proposed that goal be pushed back 20 years and be set at 2030.

The U.S. Congress will be seeing a bill this week that, if adopted, would allow automakers the ability to obtain $20 billion in federally backed loan guarantees. The bill is open to any auto manufacturer including foreign-based Toyota and Honda, but it's clearly targeted at the domestics. As the credit ratings of the Big 3 continue to drop, this bill could potentially save them hundreds of millio

AutoWeek reports that in an attempt to silence ethanol critics the Department of Energy (DOE) points to a study done by Argonne National Laboratory and officially stated that ethanol yields more energy than is used to produce it. More specifically, the study calculates that it takes 740,000 British thermal units (BTU) of fossil energy to make and deliver 1,000,000 BTUs of cornstarch ethanol.