Survey Says

A recent survey by IBM’s Institute for Business Value asked 1,716 U.S. drivers what would motivate them to switch from using a gasoline, diesel or hybrid vehicle to an electric-only vehicle. They also asked 123 auto industry executives to rate the importance consumers place on each choice.

The results are summarized as follows:

	Drivers	Executives
Innovative pricing models or lower price overall	71%	81%
Extended reach or range of the vehicles	64%	63%
Convenience of usage or services	63%	60%
Availability of charging infrastructure	62%	65%
Significantly higher oil prices	51%	76%
Green image or sustainability concerns	48%	33%
Government incentives or regulations	41%	73%
Traffic congestion	26%	11%

Although it’s surprising that, for the most part, consumers and auto execs are on the same page, what’s more surprising is that fewer than half the drivers were motivated by greenness and sustainability.

Isn’t that the whole point of electric-only vehicles? No emissions? Cleaner air? Other than that, what is the attraction to vehicles that are more expensive than their conventional counterparts, have smaller ranges and need expensive home renovations to convert garages and carports into recharging stations?

For one thing, operating costs are lower because electric vehicles are mechanically simpler and electricity is cheaper and more efficient that gasoline, but op costs weren’t even mentioned in the survey results. Hopefully, all the respondents were motivated by environmental concerns, but only 48 per cent said so.

Government Renews Promise on Renewable Fuel

Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent announced today that the Canadian Government is moving ahead with the requirement for an average two per cent renewable content in diesel fuel and heating oil.

This announcement was further to one made September 10, 2010 when Jim Prentice, environment minister at the time, publicized the requirement for five per cent renewable content in gasoline, which came into effect December 15, 2010. At that time Minister Prentice advised “Canada will implement a requirement for two per cent renewable content in diesel fuel and heating oil, subject to successful demonstration of technical feasibility under the range of Canadian conditions, which would be put in place by an amendment to the Renewable Fuels Regulations.”

Today, Minister Kent advised that “After positive results, we are moving forward with this requirement which will result in further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately in cleaner air for all Canadians.”

A report on the Technical Feasibility of Integrating an Annual Average 2% Renewable Diesel in the Canadian Distillate Pool by 2011 was issued by Natural Resources Canada in October 2010.

Reducing emissions in the transportation sector is a key component in the Government’s plan to achieve Canada’s target of reducing total greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. In addition to the Renewable Fuels Regulations, the Government has also finalized regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles and is working to do the same for heavy-duty vehicles.

As well as reducing emissions, the new regulations help Canada’s farmers. According to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz “The new renewable fuel content in biodiesel and heating oil will give our farmers another market for their crops and demonstrates how agriculture can contribute to reducing Canada’s environmental footprint.”

Injecting Gas, Cash and Controversy

Fuel injection’s a great way to improve the efficiency of an engine, but a cash injection’s nothing to sneeze at either. UBC researcher Steven Rogak is going to be getting the latter to do the former, with a five-year, $499,824 grant from  the federal government in support of his natural-gas-injected-engine research.

The project’s goal is to develop a fuel injector that will make natural gas engines competitive with equivalent diesel engines. And while natural gas is currently a relatively niche fuel — the Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance (CNGVA) says that Canada has only 12,000 natural-gas-powered vehicles — that might not always be the case.

Canada’s transportation industry currently accounts for the largest share of our CO2 emissions — more than 35 per cent — and natural gas emits less carbon than oil. According to the CNGVA (1.1 MB PDF), for example, a comparable diesel-powered heavy-duty truck would save 23 per cent in GHG emissions, while rail transport could save 19 per cent. And supply is no issue, even if the supply has issues.

Unconventional reserves are now being accessed across the country, with shale, natural gas from coal and tight sands constituting a potential boom in production. However, drawing all that extra natural gas from unconventional isn’t a done deal yet. In Quebec, for example, which currently has no natural gas production infrastructure, Questerre Energy and Talisman Energy recently pushed back the start of test wells by six months because of public opposition based on another kind of injection — fracking. In freeing trapped gas with chemically infused water, the industry is confronting fears of contamination and the use of our limited water reserves. Federally, the government says that shale gas rules are still a work in progress, but it’s certain that these issues will continue to inform any future discussion on unconventional natural gas, even if it’s destined for our engines.

Transitioning to transit

More Canadians are taking transit. How many more? According to the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), about 14 per cent more. Over the five years from 2004 to 2008, the number of regular service rides increased to 1.83 billion per year from 1.6 billion. That’s about five million Canadians per day riding transit. The increase from 2007 to 2008 alone was 63.8 million rides. That’s about 175,000 Canadians per day.

Now, the cynics will say this increase has been fuelled by the cost of downtown parking in Canada’s major cities, or even a lack of downtown parking in Canada’s major cities.

But we like to think it’s about concern for the environment. One bus full of people is the equivalent of taking 45 cars off the road. Consider this – if your round-trip commute is 32 kilometres, and you decide to take the bus every day and leave your car at home, you’d reduce of CO₂ emissions by 2.8 tonnes per year. This means the 45 cars replaced by a bus would represent a reduction of about 126 tonnes. And that’s only 45 cars.

But wait, there’s more

Today’s transit technology is a lot cleaner than the smoke-belching buses of yesteryear. According to the CUTA, clean diesel technology, a combination of more efficient fuel injection, particulate filters and catalytic converters used in conjunction with ultra low-sulphur diesel fuel, has reduced exhaust particulate matter 90 per cent since 1993. Ultra low sulphur diesel fuel has less than 15 parts per million sulphur.

Another innovation is biodiesel, fuel produced from oilseeds, vegetables or animal fat. It’s not really a new concept. Rudolf Diesel had vegetable oil in mind as a fuel when he invented the diesel engine in the 1890s. But for most of the engine’s history, it’s been run on petroleum-based fuels. Biodiesel can be blended with conventional diesel without major modifications. Common blends are B5 (five per cent biodiesel and 95 per cent conventional diesel) an B20 (20 per cent biodiesel and 80 per cent conventional diesel). Saskatoon Transit reported a 7.2 per cent reduction in GHGs using B5 with a canola-based biodiesel additive.

Perhaps the biggest boost to clean transit is the hybrid bus. Like hybrid cars, hybrid buses have two power sources: an internal combustion engine (usually diesel) and an electric motor that runs off batteries recharged by the diesel engine and regenerative braking. The electric motor gets the bus moving, and once underway, the diesel engine kicks in. At top speed, only the diesel provides power. The advantages of hybrid buses include about 30 per cent less fuel consumption and correspondingly fewer emissions.

Bus fleets in most major Canadian cities are a mix of clean diesel, biodiesel and hybrid buses and any remaining conventional gasoline or diesel buses are being replaced with their cleaner cousins.

So for a two-pronged assault on emissions, leave the car at home and take the bus.

Powering Canadian communities

More than 80 per cent of Canadians live in urban centres, a number that’s been steadily increasing since records began in 1851. That leaves most of our attention focused on cities, especially when it comes to energy. Where the people live, the energy will follow.

But in a public environment where we’re increasingly concerned about the costs of our power, both financial and environmental, we can’t forget about our rural communities either. Fortunately, local governments and the communities themselves are already paying attention.

At 3.3 inhabitants per square kilometre, in a total area of almost 10 million square kilometres, Canada is one of the least densely populated places on Earth. That leaves us trying to stretch 160,000 kilometres of high voltage lines between our power plants and our major urban centres, an enormous grid that still isn’t large enough to reach our most remote communities. Whether these communities are isolated by distance, a harsh climate, unyielding geography or (usually) some combination of the three, the result is that they have to generate their own power. And, as it happens, generating your own power tends to be a fairly dirty business.

Diesel generators have been the go-to solution for small communities’ power needs for years — they provide a dependable source of power and can be built on a relatively small scale, or they can purchased and imported. But while these generators allow remote communities to stay powered without staying connected to the grid, they’re also using fuel whose carbon emissions are under increasing scrutiny.

In Northwest Territories, for example, the territory’s 43,000 citizens (spread across almost 1.2 million square kilometres) get most of their power from 25 diesel generating facilities dotted in communities. But under Northwest Territories’ energy strategy, Community Energy Plans would be implemented across the territory by 2011, encouraging a more sustainable approach to each community’s power generation.

One of the most practical methods of improving remote communities’ energy use has been cogeneration. By harnessing the heat that is generally lost in facilities only designed to generate electricity, cogeneration plants are able to provide both heat and electricity, requiring between 10 and 30 per cent less fuel.

Given that communities in northern climates also rely on carbon-intensive heating oil for their heating, it’s not hard to see why cogeneration plants would reduce both the financial and environmental costs of energy. And it isn’t only northern communities changing the way they use energy.

BC’s Bioenergy Network, for example, has already begun awarding contracts for wood waste cogeneration plants under their BC Bioenergy Strategy. And the Ontario Government, like many other provincial governments, is encouraging agricultural operations to consider wind and other alternative sources of generation.

And communities are still actively seeking out new opportunities to generate their own power in more cost-effective and environmentally responsible ways.

From April 21 to 22, the Town of Cochrane, Ontario (population: less than 6,000) will be hosting its Energize Your Community Conference, a showcase for communities hoping to encourage green community energy initiatives. Featuring talks from organizations like Nipissing University’s Biomass Innovation Centre and the Ontario Power Authority, the conference bills itself as a chance for like-minded communities to network and learn. Its scale is appropriately modest, but if you’re a community interested in joining the conversation on changing energy use in Canada’s, go ahead and drop them a line holly.touchette@town.cochrane.on.ca. After all, in a country where only 20 per cent live outside of cities, communities need to stick together.

What’s the greenest vehicle in Canada?

According to Natural Resources Canada’s fuel consumption ratings for the 2010 model year, of the 1,024 cars listed, it’s the Toyota Prius (not withstanding a recent recall of 2004-2009 Prius models and 2010 Prius models). Prius has held that position since 2007.

The Prius emits 1,748 kilograms of CO₂ per year and consumes 760 litres of gasoline in doing so. The second-greenest car is the hybrid version of the Honda Civic, with emissions of 2,070 kilograms of CO₂ per year and consumption of 900 litres of regular gasoline. Rounding out the top three is the Honda Insight with emissions of 2,162 kilograms of CO₂ per year and consumption of 940 litres of regular gasoline. The Insight was the greenest car from 2000 to 2006.

Of course your results may vary, depending on how you drive and where you drive. These estimates assume an annual driving distance of 20,000 kilometres, 55 per cent of which are city driving and 45 per cent highway driving.

As one would expect, nine of the top ten green vehicles are cars. Only the Ford Escape is a special purpose vehicle (the new name for an SUV). Of the top ten vehicles, eight are hybrids. Only two, the Toyota Yaris ( ranked 10th) and Smart Fortwo (ranked 5th), are powered by conventional gasoline internal combustion engines. No diesel-powered vehicles made it to the top ten. In fact the diesels with the lowest CO₂emissions are the Audi A3 TDI, Volkswagen Golf TDI Clean Diesel and the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Clean Diesel, all of which tied for 38^th place with emissions of 3,132 kilograms of CO₂ per year and consumption of 1,160 litres of diesel fuel. These cars were considered the greenest in 1999, prior to the introduction of hybrid technology.

Car	Class	Power	Emissions (kg/CO2/year)	Consumption (L/y)	Base Price ($Cdn)
Toyota Prius	Mid-size	Hybrid	1,748	760	27,800
Honda Civic	Subcompact	Hybrid	2,070	900	27,350
Honda Insight	Compact	Hybrid	2,162	940	23,900
Ford Fusion	Mid-size	Hybrid	2,300	1,000	21,499
Smart Fortwo	Two-seater	Conventional	2,484	1,080	14,990
Lexus HS250h	Compact	Hybrid	2,622	1,140	39,900
Toyota Camry	Mid-size	Hybrid	2,622	1,140	24,900
Nissan Altima	Mid-size	Hybrid	2,668	1,160	33,398
Ford Escape	Special Purpose	Hybrid	2,806	1,220	24,499
Toyota Yaris	Subcompact	Conventional	2,852	1,240	14,750
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So, we’ve covered green. What about affordable? Well, the reason these vehicles produce fewer emissions is that they consume less fuel. So there is a savings in operating costs. As well, there can be a savings in sticker price. Statistics Canada reports the average price of a new car in 2009 was $25,683. Adjusting for inflation of 1.86 per cent, that price rises to $25,770 in 2010. The average price of the top ten cleanest vehicles in Canada is $25,300. The least expensive are the Yaris at $14,750 and the Fortwo at $14,990, the only two non-hybrids of the bunch. The most expensive are the Lexus at $39,900 and the Altima at $33,398. Even the SUV comes in less than average car price.

On the other end of the emissions, consumption and price spectrum is the Bugatti Veyron which emits 10,166 kilograms of CO₂ per year, consumes of 4,420 litres of gasoline and costs about $1.7 million, depending upon options, retailer may sell for less. Operating costs are steep as well. At its top speed of 407 kilometres per hour, the tires last about 15 minutes. However, there’s a built-in safety mechanism. At top speed a full tank of gas only lasts 12 minutes.

Funding for green diesel research

You’ve seen the commercials, and heard the popular wisdom – hybrid cars are hip now, and a cornerstone of the future.  Soon, all cars will be hybrids – right?

If that’s the case, why is Ming Zheng focusing on diesel engines? With some help – namely, a $1.4 million grant – from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the University of Windsor researcher wants to find a way to increase the fuel efficiency of diesel – while decreasing its emissions.

Zheng believes biofuels and biodiesels derived from plant and animal sources are the way of the future. He wants to free us from relying on fossil fuels altogether.  Hybrids still require some gasoline; biodiesel engines would not.  Zheng figures diesel-based hybrids may even trump them all.

Currently, however, the university is using this $1.4 million grant primarily to focus on ways to make conventional diesel burn cleaner. It’s already a more energy-efficient option; diesel’s big advantage is fuel efficiency.

However, as demand increases, so does price.  This was demonstrated in April 2008, when in some places diesel prices topped that of gasoline.  This impacted shipping costs worldwide, and drove up the prices consumers paid for imported goods.

That may have been more than just an anomaly.  But reports show that demand for diesel has been experiencing much more growth than comparable demand than gasoline.  It’s a global phenomenon, but particularly in Europe, where diesel-running cars are incredibly popular.

Perhaps Zheng, telling us to jump on the diesel bandwagon, has the right idea.

Fuel efficiency a novel ‘concept’ in automobile design

If necessity is the mother of invention, what role does cheapness play?  

Sound trite?  It’s really just basic economics.  Spurred by customers seeking relief from rising gas prices, automakers are using a combination of new and old concepts to improve fuel efficiency.  

Certainly, some new and intriguing innovations are on the horizon. Take France’s MCE-5 Development, which is working on building gasoline engines to work more like diesel engines, combining the best of both worlds: gas’ relative cleanliness with the efficiency of diesel.  

Mazda’s new Kiyora goes another direction: up. Well, not really, but reflects Mazda’s “gram strategy” of fuel efficiency via weight loss.  The combination of a new platform, small 1.3-liter engine and greatly reduced mass will produce a mere 90g/km of carbon dioxide.  

Several manufacturers are working towards removing fossil fuels altogether, planning to produce fully electric cars for market by 2010.  Electric cars has been the holy grail of auto technology for decades, but the obstacle remains: the lithium for batteries ain’t cheap.  

The one overarching trend in fuel economy isn’t a new concept at all, but a welcome reversal of an unhealthy trend: cars are finally getting smaller.  All things being equal, small cars are more efficient than your average suburban assault vehicle.  Dramatically so.  

While innovation is never bad, sometimes it’s the oldest, simplest ideas that work best.