Recently Qantas announced that it would fly from Australia to the US using a brand new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner powered by a mix of aviation fuel and biofuel. Others like Richard Branson’s Virgin Group have already done this, however for Qantas it is demonstrating a new locally sourced fuel. Qantas will use a mix that contains 30% biofuel derived from mustard seeds which they … [Read more...]
Californian Legislation Affects All Motorists
Several of my articles have discussed that fact that a single entity can influence changes in car design or fuel usage. California is one such entity. Over 50 years ago the State of California started to push for emission controls that would affect the whole car industry. California has the biggest population of any State in the USA and is the third biggest by land mass. … [Read more...]
Corporate Average Fuel Economy Goals
This is going to be an abridged view of the policy known as CAFE. It is abridged simply because like many Government sourced policies, it can twist and turn based on where the votes are - and get changed through its life! The policy was born out of the 1973 Fuel Crisis when OPEC (the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) announced an embargo on countries who … [Read more...]
Algae – The Natural Biofuel
Over the last year or so I have spoken about different types of bio-fuels and their sources. The most commonly discussed in the media has been ethanol from corn because of the dilemma of using lots of water to turn a food source into a fuel to power vehicles. Like range anxiety in an electric car, the media and others were concerned about running out of one of the resources … [Read more...]
Governments Have Spasms in Their Knees
It seems that Governments need to visit their doctors - they have spasms in their joints that are causing knee jerk reactions! One of them is the politically correct “decision" to ban all cars using petrol or diesel and to only allow cars fitted with electric motors to be sold or operated in their regions. Remember, it was the same Governments that heavily promoted diesel as … [Read more...]
