The Green Car Innovation Fund summarised

On Friday the 6th of February 2009 I attended a one of the Green Car Innovation Fund (GCIF) consultation sessions being held around Australia. My motivation for attending was primarily to find out how the Fund was going to work and to try to get an idea of the impact of the fund on the [...]

Koreans patent seaweed to ethanol

The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology has filed an International patent application for a method of producing biofuel using sea algae. This is the first time I’ve attempted to read a patent and I’ve got to tell you that most of it makes no sense whatsoever. However, some of it is in plain English. Abstract [...]

Australian Conference on Life Cycle Assessment

Thanks to Tom Worthington at Net Traveller for the following: The Sixth Australian Conference on Life Cycle Assessment is in Melbourne from 16 to 19 February 2009. Life cycle assessment (LCA), assesses the environmental impacts of products and services. Unfortunately many people will not find out about this worthwhile event, due to the poor web [...]

Reading: Fuel for thought

While digging around the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) web site I discovered Fuel for thought, a publication by the Future Fuels Forum 2007. This June 2008 publication informs us how the Future Fuels Forum thinks transport fuels will pan out in our future with modelling from now to 2050.  It is an [...]

Keep your old car or buy a new more efficient model?

On the Scientific American web site a reader asked a question that has been in the back of my mind for quite a while: Is it better to drive an older, well-maintained car that gets about 25 miles per gallon or to buy a new car that gets about 35 miles per gallon? The response [...]

Victorian Transport Plan released

The Victorian Department of Transport released the Victorian Transport Plan (VTP) earlier this month. Not having a great understanding of Melbourne and Victoria make it hard to assess the VTP but at least Victoria has a plan. The proof will be in the execution. Highlights include: Up to 70 new trains and 100km of new [...]

CSIRO investigates energy efficiencies for Australian grain growers

CSIRO scientists have been investigating potential opportunities in energy efficiency, regional biodiesel self sufficiency and bioenergy production for Australian grain growers. The research is explained in an article entitled Bioenergy opportunities for grain growers in the December issue of Farming Ahead magazine. The article explains that there is potential for Australian grain farms to improve [...]

Can Holden really bring second generation E85 to Australia?

Holden (General Motors) has gained a lot of press coverage from the fact that they are going to introduce locally-built cars that are capable of running on E85 by 2010. The press release was picked up by most major news providers so it was virtually impossible to miss. Just in case you did miss it, [...]

MTECH Fuelsaver removed from sale in Western Australia

Imagine my surprise when I found this gem in amongst all the spam a few minutes ago! Western Australians who have bought the Moletech Mtech Fuel Saver have been advised by Consumer Protection in Western Australia to return to the place of purchase to get a full refund for both the cost of the product [...]

Envirofuel experiences the MTECH Fuelsaver – Part 6

Well, after using quite a few tank fulls of fuel on the commute to and from work I’m a bit disappointed. I’m consistently getting 320km from 19L of fuel. By my calculations that is 5.9L/100km. I said at the beginning of this that I was getting anywhere between 5.7 and 6.0L/100km. Either my original calculations were optimistic or I’m getting no advantage from the Fuelsaver.