- Regulation & Legislation
- UNEP: Limiting Global Warming to 2oC ‘Feasible;’ Low-Carbon Fuels Needed
- Heinz Endowments Gives US$1 Million for Diesel-Emissions Cleanup
- Electrification of Transport: Key to Slashing GHG 80% by 2050
- Technology
- UOP, Gevo Team Up on Bio-Based Jet Fuel from Isobutanol
- AliphaJet Touts Catalytic-Decarboxylation Route for Biojet Fuel, Honeywell Deal
- Siemens Launches ‘Most Efficient’ Diesel-Electric Propulsion for Offshore Vessels
- TRI’s Biomass-to-Liquids Scheme Wins U.S. DOE Validation
- NETL Touts New Catalyst for Reforming Diesel to Synthesis Gas
- Mitsubishi Licenses Marine-Diesel Turbo Technology to STX Metal
- Vermont School Drops Oil for Biomass-Gasification Heat
- Distillate Markets
- World’s Diesel Engine Makers Push for Global Diesel Fuels Harmonization
- DNV: Thousands of Ships to Choose LNG Fuel, Avoid MGO/MDO/HFO
- Interferry: Scrubbing Only Possible on 40% of Ships; Pricey MGO for the Rest
- Total, Amyris Ink JV on Renewable Diesel Scheme
- Pakistan Developing Fischer-Tropsch CTL Scheme
- ‘CyclOx’ Proposed as ‘Green’ Diesel Blendstock
- Market Report: ULSD Spot, Futures Prices Mixed
- Distillate Watch
- Transport News
- BMW Inks Deal to Supply Toyota with Diesel Engines for EU Car Market
- Volvo Launches Lower-CO2, Automatic-Transmission Diesel Cars in EU
- Honda Unveils New 1.6-Liter Diesel Engine for EU
- Houston, Shreveport Get U.S. EPA Grants for Marine, Locomotive Diesel Cleanups
- Cat Unveils MaK LNG/Diesel/Fuel Oil Marine Engine; 2014 Debut
- Wärtsilä Completes First-Ever HFO-to-LNG Conversion on Ocean Ship
- Maruti Suzuki Inks Deal for 100,000 Diesel Engines from Fiat
- MAN Selling Ferrostaal to MPC Group at Loss
Regulation & Legislation
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UNEP: Limiting Global Warming to 2oC ‘Feasible;’ Low-Carbon Fuels Needed
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on November 23 unveiled a new report finding that it’s “feasible” for world industries, consumers and governments to limit global temperature rise to 2oC in order to avoid potentially catastrophic consequences for life on earth.
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Heinz Endowments Gives US$1 Million for Diesel-Emissions Cleanup
Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments announced November 30 that it is granting nearly US$1 million to the “Clean Diesel Construction Equipment Retrofit Fund” run by the Allegheny County Pennsylvania Health Department.
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Electrification of Transport: Key to Slashing GHG 80% by 2050
A new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and California-based consultants Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) finds that electrification of the vehicle fleet and other sectors is the only way that California can hope to meet its goal of slashing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions 80% by 2050.
Technology
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UOP, Gevo Team Up on Bio-Based Jet Fuel from Isobutanol
UOP announced December 1 that it won a US$1.1-million contract from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to “develop and demonstrate technology that will produce renewable jet fuel from alcohols found in natural feedstocks.”
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AliphaJet Touts Catalytic-Decarboxylation Route for Biojet Fuel, Honeywell Deal
California-based AliphaJet on November 30 touted its catalytic decarboxylation route to producing bio-jet fuel, arguing that its scheme enables relatively small-scale biofuel production – closer to feedstock sources – by avoiding the relatively high cost and large scale of hydrogen plants for vegetable oils/fats hydrotreating at oil refineries.
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Siemens Launches ‘Most Efficient’ Diesel-Electric Propulsion for Offshore Vessels
Siemens announced November 30 the debut of what it termed as the “most efficient” diesel-electric propulsion system for offshore vessels.
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TRI’s Biomass-to-Liquids Scheme Wins U.S. DOE Validation
Baltimore-based ThermoChem Recovery International (TRI) just won “validation” from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a biomass-to-liquids (BTL) technology chain that includes TRI’s proprietary biomass-gasification system, followed by TRI’s own aqueous syngas-cleanup technology step, and finally Fischer-Tropsch fuels (FT) conversion – the latter tapping Oklahoma-based Emerging Fuels Technology (EFT) FT cobalt-catalyst technology.
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NETL Touts New Catalyst for Reforming Diesel to Synthesis Gas
The U.S. Department of Energy-funded National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced in the November 2011 edition of LabNotes that its researchers have developed a new scheme for improving the performance of a reformer that can produce hydrogen from diesel fuel.
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Mitsubishi Licenses Marine-Diesel Turbo Technology to STX Metal
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced November 29 that it signed a deal to license production and market of its “MET Turbocharger” supercharger for marine diesel engines to Korea-based STX Metal.
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Vermont School Drops Oil for Biomass-Gasification Heat
The Essex County, Vermont school district has switched from oil-fired heat to biomass gasification-based heating in a US$5-million project that is expected to pay for itself in lower fuel costs.
Feature
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Clean-Diesels Can Beat PHEVs on GHG Reduction - Bosch Analysis
Emerging technologies will allow diesels to beat gasoline plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) on well-to-wheel greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, according to a new Bosch analysis.
Transport News
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BMW Inks Deal to Supply Toyota with Diesel Engines for EU Car Market
BMW announced December 1 that it cut a deal to supply 1.6- and 2.0-liter diesel engines to Toyota for the European market starting in 2014.
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Volvo Launches Lower-CO2, Automatic-Transmission Diesel Cars in EU
Volvo Cars on December 1 announced the launch of “DRIVe” automatic transmission diesels that match the fuel economy of its manual-shift diesel cars.
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Honda Unveils New 1.6-Liter Diesel Engine for EU
At the Tokyo Motor Show, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito announced November 30 that the company has designed a new 1.6-liter diesel engine for the European market, initially for the “Civic,” for launch in late 2012.
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Houston, Shreveport Get U.S. EPA Grants for Marine, Locomotive Diesel Cleanups
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on November 29 announced a series of grants totaling US$3.1 million from the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) program for marine and locomotive diesel-emission cleanups in Houston and in Shreveport, La.
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Cat Unveils MaK LNG/Diesel/Fuel Oil Marine Engine; 2014 Debut
Caterpillar Marine Power Systems announced November 28 the development of the MaK “M46DF” marine engine capable of running on liquefied natural gas (LNG), marine diesel oil (MDO) or conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO).
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Wärtsilä Completes First-Ever HFO-to-LNG Conversion on Ocean Ship
Wärtsilä announced November 23 that it completed its first-ever conversion of a ship from conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) for diesel motive power to liquefied natural gas (LNG) power.
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Maruti Suzuki Inks Deal for 100,000 Diesel Engines from Fiat
Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car maker, announced November 29 a deal to buy up to 100,000 diesel engines per year from Fiat.
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MAN Selling Ferrostaal to MPC Group at Loss
Diesel engine, vehicle and engineering group MAN announced November 28 that it signed a deal whereby Germany-based shipping, ship-building and trading company MPC Group will acquire 100% of the shares of industrial plant development engineer, Ferrostaal.
Distillate Markets
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World’s Diesel Engine Makers Push for Global Diesel Fuels Harmonization
The leaders of European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the U.S.-based Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA), and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) on November 29 announced a push for global harmonization of diesel fuels, emissions standards and energy-efficiency standards.
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DNV: Thousands of Ships to Choose LNG Fuel, Avoid MGO/MDO/HFO
Norway-based ship engineering risk-management analyst DNV (Det Norske Veritas) now predicts that 500 ships using liquefied natural gas (LNG) for propulsion fuel will be on order globally by 2015 and “several thousand” by 2020.
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Interferry: Scrubbing Only Possible on 40% of Ships; Pricey MGO for the Rest
Global shipping association Interferry announced November 28 that a new study shows only 40% of ships affected by Emissions Control Area (ECA) legislation in 2015 are capable of installing stack emissions scrubbing as an alternative to switching to 0.1% sulfur marine gasoil (MGO) or marine diesel oil (MDO) in place of heavy, high-sulfur fuel oil (HFO).
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Total, Amyris Ink JV on Renewable Diesel Scheme
French oil major Total and California-based biofuels technology developer Amyris announced November 30 that they signed a deal to expand their current research and development (R&D) partnership and form a joint venture to develop and commercialize renewable fuels and products, starting with bio-based diesel fuel.
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Pakistan Developing Fischer-Tropsch CTL Scheme
The government of Pakistan is planning to combine the development of coal gasification with Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) of syngas to make diesel fuel.
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‘CyclOx’ Proposed as ‘Green’ Diesel Blendstock
Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/E) in the Netherlands are developing a scheme to produce bio-based cyclic oxygenates (“CyclOx”) as a “green” blendstock for diesel fuel.
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Market Report: ULSD Spot, Futures Prices Mixed
Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) spot and futures prices in major markets mostly were flat or up slightly in major global markets last week.
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Distillate Watch
