Rare Consulting recently compared the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with different forms of fuels for passenger vehicles. A number of fuel types and their emissions were compared over the full life cycle, which includes the extraction of raw product (such as oil or gas), refining, transportation to consumer and then combustion emissions in a passenger vehicle.
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Over the last few weeks more reports and studies have been released which suggest that biofuels aren’t as bio-positive as some promoters advertise – that is, they have a significant environmental impact.
A recently released OECD report...
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The benefits of using biofuels (biodiesel and ethanol) over conventional petrol and diesel have come under question recently. Our previous blogs on the question of the environmental benefits of biofuels and whether ethanol...
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You may have noticed American President George W. Bush in the news lately, discussing how corn-derived ethanol is going to save America from its need for foreign oil. Recently, George W has...
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As you may have noticed, there has been a lot of political talk and media focus lately on the topic of global warming and climate change. With transport contributing 14% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, governments and businesses are looking for cleaner, ‘greener’ alternative fuels to help reduce emissions released from vehicles.
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The Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport produced its final report on ‘Australia’s future oil supply and alternative transport fuels’ last week.
Since the publication of the interim report in September 2006, the Committee has changed its view that measures should be put in place to encourage natural gas to be swiftly taken up as a transport fuel. Reasons for this relate to the wider use of gas for transport and include incompatibility with most of the transport fleet, requirement of large on-board storage leading to a reduction in payload, a slow return on investments and possible resistance by consumers due to limited range and a lack of clear price savings in relation to conventional fuels. By far the largest barrier to the uptake of natural gas appears to be the lack of refuelling infrastructure.
The...
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Rising oil prices and concern about Australia’s oil self sufficiency has prompted vigorous community debate about the potential of alternative fuels to not only meet our future fuel demands but also deliver environmental benefits.
A recent media story...
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We often get asked about the potential for hydrogen fuel cells to be used as an alternative energy source for vehicles, and last week's article in BusinessWeek about the development of a hydrogen powered motorcycle...
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