Volvo announced October 5 that it is bringing diesel-electric hybrid buses to Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, following the launch earlier this year of serial production of such hybrids and sales of some 150 diesel hybrid buses in Europe.

Peugeot officials put Malika Menard, Miss France 2010, into their newly unveiled diesel “3008 HYbrid4” car at the Paris Auto Show October 4 – adding glitz to low-carbon environmental correctness.

California-based compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel supplier Clean Energy announced on October 5 that it has signed a deal with U.S. diesel truckstop chain Pilot/Flying J, enabling installation of CNG/LNG fueling stations.

The Port of San Francisco announced October 6 that it’s now the first in California (and the fourth port in the world) to hook up a cruise ship to onshore electricity (“cold ironing”), enabling shut-down of the ship’s diesel engines and the resulting air pollution while at berth.

Navistar announced October 4 that it has shipped more than 7,000 trucks and buses meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2010 emissions limits since start of full production in June 2010.

Malaysia Plantations and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok announced October 4 that a proposed scheme to force the blending of biodiesel into petroleum diesel won’t take effect before June 2011, four years after the original plan.

Linde announced October 6 that it has begun to supply hydrogen via a new, US$50-million, 14-mile pipeline to Shell’s Deer Park, Texas, refinery.

U.S.-based Headwaters and Finland-based Neste Oil announced October 6 that the Headwaters “HCAT” liquid precursor catalyst improved resid hydrocracking conversion to diesel and gasoline in tests at Neste’s Porvoo refinery.

California-based Solazyme announced October 7 that it has signed a “phase 3” research and development (R&D) agreement for algae-based diesel fuel technology with Ecopetrol, the mostly state-owned oil company of Colombia.

Nevada-based Advanced Refining Concepts (ARC) announced October 8 that it won its first U.S. patent for the “GDiesel” process that turns natural gas into diesel fuel – but without conventional (and relatively expensive) methane reforming followed by Fischer-Tropsch diesel synthesis.

Foster Wheeler late last month reported what they term as “encouraging” results of tests involving processing PetroAlgae biomass in an oil refinery delayed coking unit.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth on September 30 released a report warning policymakers of the “dangers of misguided attempts by the biotechnology industry to apply synthetic biology to the climate crisis, including the production of synthetic biofuels.”

While coal-to-liquids (CTL) takes a rap from environmentalists on lifecycle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, at least the tank-to-wheel CO2is lower than conventional petroleum diesel.

Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) prices in key spot and futures markets mostly flattened late last week (compared to the prior week), as the markets had mostly priced-in the effects of French refinery strikes.

Distillate prices mostly stayed flat last week compared to the prior week.