User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Trucks World News
Google
 
Loading

Mar 19, 2012

AUTOS R & D * WORLDWIDE

* USA - Joint BioEnergy Institute team engineers E. coli to overproduce diesel-range methyl ketones
- Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered Escherichia coli bacteria to overproduce saturated and monounsaturated aliphatic methyl ketones in the C11 to C15 (diesel) range from glucose. In subsequent tests, these methyl ketones yielded high cetane numbers, making them promising candidates for the production of advanced biofuels or blendstocks. The team, led by Dr. Harry Beller, found that it was possible to increase the methyl ketone titer production of E. coli more than 4,500-fold relative to that of a fatty acid-overproducing E. coli strain by using a relatively small number of genetic modifications. Methyl ketone titers in the best producing strains were in the range of 380 mg/L... Read more

* Australia - CAP-XX Stop-Start Supercapacitor Module Enables Longer Battery Life, Smaller Batteries
- CAP-XX Limited, a leading developer of thin, prismatic supercapacitors (also known as ultracapacitors or EDLC), announced that it has developed a supercapacitor module which supplies the cranking current to start the engine in Stop-Start vehicles (also known as start-stop, idle-stop, or micro-hybrid vehicles), reducing wear on the battery and eliminating the need for larger, more expensive ones. Stop-Start technology, which turns the engine off when stopped in traffic and restarts it when the driver releases the brake or engages the gears, is gaining momentum worldwide as a means to save fuel and reduce emissions... Read more

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 9:04 AM  0 comments

Jan 27, 2012

VEHICLES R & D * USA

* N.Y. - Collision in the Making Between Self-Driving Cars and How the World Works

(Photo by Ramin Rahimian/The New York Times - An autonomous car at Google headquarters. Legal scholars and insurance companies, among others, see some hurdles ahead)
New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, by John Markoff -January 23, 2012: -- Even as Google tests its small fleet of self-driving vehicles on California highways, legal scholars and government officials are warning that society has only begun wrestling with the changes that would be required in a system created a century ago to meet the challenge of horseless carriage... As Google has demonstrated, computerized systems that replace human drivers are now largely workable and could greatly limit human error, which causes most of the 33,000 deaths and 1.2 million injuries that now occur each year on the nation’s roads... Such vehicles also hold the potential for greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions — and, more broadly, for restoring the United States’ primacy in the global automobile industry... But questions of legal liability, privacy and insurance regulation have yet to be addressed, and an array of speakers suggested that such challenges might pose far more problems than the technological ones...

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 8:03 PM  0 comments

Apr 26, 2009

Maintaining Trucks * Australia - New brake technology to cut operating costs

Melbourne,Victoria,AUST -ATN -20 April 2009: -- The cost of maintaining truck fleets may soon be slashed, with a Victorian company being awarded $64,000 to develop a device which reduces the wear in truck braking systems... Martin James will receive the grant under the Federal Government’s Commercialising Emerging Technologies (COMET) scheme to introduce its ‘torque diverter’ system nationwide... The system works by stabilising the brake calliper, thereby spreading the wear and tear more evenly on disc rotors and pads. Torque, or braking force, is also diverted to the axle... The invention is expected to allow operators to save the money spent on replacing truck brakes every year...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 12:14 PM  0 comments

Apr 18, 2008

RESEARCH * USA - Aerodynamic trailer cuts fuel and emissions by up to 15 percent

Creating an improved aerodynamic shape for truck trailers by mounting sideskirts can lead to a cut in fuel consumption and emissions of up to as much as 15%

Hickory,NC,USA -Huliq.com/Delft University of Technology -18 April 2008: -- ... Earlier promising predictions, based on mathematical models and wind tunnel tests by TU Delft, have been confirmed during road tests with an adapted trailer... The objective of PART, a partnership between TU Delft, TNT, Scania Beers BV, FOCWA Carrosseriebouw, Ephicas, Kees Mulder Carrosserieën, Van Eck Carrosseriebouw, Syntens, Squarell Technology, Emons Group and NEA transport research and training, is to develop and test aerodynamic applications for trailers. In contrast to research into the aerodynamic properties of trucks, comparable research into trailers is still relatively new. Applications such as the Ephicas sideskirts or boat tails could lead to reductions in air resistance of up to 30%, which translates into a reduction in fuel consumption and emissions of as much as 15%. Moreover, it contributes to increasing profits in the highly competitive world of road transport...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 11:44 AM  0 comments