The first trial that was a pilot was run through this month and it was successful. Seeing this the first phase of this project is going to have 60 Think City Eco friendly cars. These cars will be available to the tourist for hire for Euros 45 only per day. These are going to be stationed outside tourists hotels, and resorts. This will be marketed online by Alpmobil the company so that tourists can book these cars before they arrive at the Alps.

There are several battery charging stopovers located all over the city so as to make it convenient for the tourists to go on to recharge them. This is an extremely fun and affordable way to travel around the Alps and at the same time ensures that you are able to use renewable electric source which is powered by hydroelectricity. If you are concerned about the planet then you will love this most unique and innovative of ways to travel around. This car, rightly called the City can travel as fast as up to 70 miles per hour. Once you have recharged it you will be able to travel 100 miles before you need to recharge it once more.

AFEX pretreatment process utilizes ammonia to make the separation of cellulose and hemicellulose in plants 75% more efficient. The cellulose in plants, once extracted and broken down into sugars, can be transformed into biofuel.

When a cellulosic material is treated with AFEX, it doesn’t need any washing or detoxification. This allows ethanol to be produced from cellulose without added supplements or procedures to aid the fermentation.

The AFEX process is functioning under moderately mild condition. The biomass is heated at 100 degrees Centigrade with concentrated ammonia. Brisk pressure release aids the process. As a result, 99% of the ammonia is retrieved and recycled. This process decrystallizes cellulose, depolymerizes hemicellulose and remove lignin from it. AFEX decreases breaking down of the sugar in the biomass.

A pilot plant could be the next phase of the project, said Dale. MBI International is their prospective company to be partners with. MBI is subsidiary of the MSU Foundation, in partnership with companies and universities. They are planning to make AFEX technology match with the needs of companies for alternative fuels.

Prof. Dale’s research is supported by Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and MSU Research Foundation.

The track is located at the Michigan Hall at the lower level of the Cobo Center. Around 12 vehicles are available for journalists during the press preview and the public during regular exhibition day.

According to organizers the annual car show is the perfect venue to display the future and developments in the auto industry. Aside from consumers about 6000 journalists from all over the globe attend the event.

A lot of electric, hybrid, and concept cars will be in the block with the new releases of the major car makers. Displaying the next generation mode of transportation, that is being more conscious about the environment and efficient, is the focus of most players of the auto industry. According to organizers, this just shows that the auto industry is heading the right direction amid the global financial crisis.

The vehicles on display are proof that the car makers are exerting effort and money with their research and development programs.

The EcoExperience will allow the press and public ride the vehicles from Mitsubishi, Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Corporation.

The test drive is strictly limited to speeds of 10 miles per hour. Crash barriers are also in place around the forest like track.

The space available for the green car experience may also be due to the withdrawal of major car industry players like Mitsubish, Ferrari, Nissan, and several others who intend to cost cut or allocate the budget for other essential company expenditures.

It is hence not a surprise that most car manufacturers from all parts of the globe are going in for fuel cells driven cars. It is the car of the future and one day all cars around the world will be driven by such cars. The drivers of such cars are a happy lot too and they know how they are helping to protect the ecology of the plant by helping to nullify the emission of CO2 gases that are polluting the environment of the plant earth.

The care that run on fuel cells are powered by hydrogen and release water vapor instead of CO2 gases and thus do not harm the environment at all. Each car that is converted to run on fuel cells, using special conversion kits are breathing back life for the earth and it is vital that more and more people convert their cars to run on this fuel.

It is a bleak scene where all cars will come to a standstill and there will be no cars running. Not just that, there will be many current generating power plants that are dependant on natural oil, and they too will be forced to shut down, leading to a blackout in most parts of the world. This can be prevented by the increase in number of cars that run on alternative car fuels.

They will give breathing space to the oilrigs so that they do not have to produce oil at their peak oil producing capacities. It is high time that most of us started supporting cars that run on alterative fuels since that seems to be the only way that we can prevent a disaster in out planet. The less natural fuels use the less the oil manufacturing rigs will have to produce oil at their peak oil capacities and the more time will it give to the producers of the alternative cars to carry out their research and development.

A sharp looking automobile resembling something from futuristic movies, the car is powered on solar energy and is making its way throughout various countries around the globe offering information on the effects of fossil fuels. With the emission of CO2 abnormally accelerated by the world’s reliance on crude oil, natural gas, coal and the destruction of forests, we are reaching crisis proportions. It is now necessary to develop alternative fuels for vehicles either by creating another form of gasoline such as pure ethanol or by other means entirely including wind, solar and electric energy.

And as cute as the Solartaxi might be, it is no slouch when it comes to performance. At fifty-five miles per hour, admittedly it will not win any speed races, but it will certainly make it around town in a zippy manner. Considering first version electric cars could only travel twenty-five miles per hour, the Solartaxi is fast. Advancements in battery longevity are a benefit, too, as the ZEBRA high-energy battery is made from salt, ceramics and nickel as opposed to lead acid.

Hats off to the Solartaxi team as it takes great determination to change the world one step at a time!

Apparently Shell launched an advertising campaign whereby they claimed “the challenge of the 21st century is to meet the growing need for energy in ways that are not only profitable but sustainable”. The full page ad was promoting Shell’s exploration in Canada’s tar sands and production of synthetic oil as well as their plans to build the US’ largest oil refinery in Texas.

The World Wildlife Federation felt that the statement was a misuse of the word sustainable and deemed that Shell was misleading the public with the ad, obviously to protect the potential profits from the projects. Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority agreed noting that Canada’s National Energy Board had previously indicated some concern over the use of tar sand oil. The Authority further disbelieved Shell’s contention that the refinery in the US would lower emissions.

Shell countered by saying that sustainable meant long-term jobs and stability to the economy but the Authority opinion was that the public does not refer to the word sustainable energy in regards to helping economic woes. As a result, Shell was forced to pull the ad campaign much to the delight of green organizations. Not so much interested in winning the complaint per se, but rather feeling that the government backed the underdog against bad business practices.