Enbridge Inc. will undertake an expansion of its Athabasca Pipeline to accommodate recent shipping commitments by the Christina Lake oil sands project operated by Cenovus. The expansion, to be achieved through modifications at five existing pump station facilities, as well... Mike Millikin

The Nikkei reports that Suzuki Motor Corp. will build a third auto assembly plant in Manesar, near New Delhi, aiming to bring the facility online as early as 2013. With an annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles, the new plant will... Mike Millikin

A new Albertsons supermarket in the San Diego, California community of Clairemont is generating nearly 90% of the electricity it needs with a PureCell 400 kW fuel cell from UTC Power, a United Technologies Corp. The PureCell 400 system uses... Mike Millikin

Discharge curves at different rates after charging at 1C. Credit: ACS, Lee et al. Click to enlarge. A team of researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (Italy), and Stanford University have... Mike Millikin

Nikkei. Japan’s Marubeni Corp. will market energy-efficient coal-fired power plants in Asia, leveraging a bilateral emissions offset mechanism between Japan and other countries that enables Japan to receive carbon reduction credits in return for providing low-carbon technologies and equipment. The... Mike Millikin

Iowa State University (ISU) researchers and their colleagues at the Iowa Energy Center have developed a novel process for converting cellulose and related materials to high-value chemicals with low molecular weights. The biomass conversion process is based on the chemistry... Mike Millikin

ENER1, Inc. has agreed to sell $55 million of senior unsecured notes, together with shares of common stock and warrants, to certain investment funds, led by funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P. In addition, the company also announced... Mike Millikin

RWE, Linde and BASF report that tests in a pilot plant at RWE’s Niederaussem power station near Cologne of new chemical solvents for capturing carbon dioxide from flue gas reduce the required energy input by about 20%. (Earlier post.) The... Mike Millikin

UPS has begun a 90-day demonstration trial of the Electric Vehicles International (EVI) walk-in van (EVI-WI). The EVI-WI is built on a Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC) glider equipped with a Utilimaster body. (Earlier post.) Over the past year, EVI... Mike Millikin

The Government of Canada has finalized regulations requiring an average renewable fuel content of 5% in gasoline; the regulations comes into effect starting 15 December 2010. These regulations are one pillar of the Government’s broader Renewable Fuels Strategy. Canada will... Mike Millikin

Novolyte Technologies, a leading manufacturer and supplier of specialty electrolyte materials for lithium-ion battery and energy storage applications, high performance solvents and other specialty chemicals, has signed a definitive agreement with Foosung Co., Ltd., a leading global producer of specialty... Mike Millikin

Der Spiegel. A study by a German military think tank, leaked on the Internet, has analyzed how peak oil might change the global economy. The study is a product of the Future Analysis department of the Bundeswehr Transformation Center, a... Mike Millikin

A new economic analysis in an issue brief from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is recommending that the Obama Administration set a fleet-wide car and light truck fuel economy standard of 60 mpg (3.92 L/100km) by 2025. The Obama... Mike Millikin

OriginOil, Inc. has notified Australia-based MBD Energy Limited that it is ready to ship a Single-Step Extraction System, the second product to be delivered in its multi-phase commercialization agreement. The notification triggers a new series of payments under a purchase... Mike Millikin

The CT 200h instrument panel, backlit in red to designate Sport mode. The panel is backlit in blue in Normal, ECO and EV modes. Click to enlarge. Lexus has provided a little more detail on the four drive modes—Normal, Eco,... Mike Millikin

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award two consortia—one led by the University of Michigan and one led by the West Virginia University—a total of $25 million over the next five years under the US-China Clean Energy Research Center... Mike Millikin

The US Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) are awarding $8.9 million to projects aimed at improving and accelerating genetic breeding programs to create plants better suited for bioenergy production. The research grants will be awarded under the joint... Mike Millikin

American Jianye Greentech Holdings, Ltd., a China-based developer, manufacturer and distributor of alcohol-based automobile fuels and civil-use fuels, including methanol, ethanol, and blended fuels, plans to build a second waste conversion facility, this one based in Harbin, China, that will... Mike Millikin

CODA Automotive intends to distribute the battery-electric CODA Sedan to consumer and fleet customers in Hawai’i in the third quarter of 2011. CODA plans to begin limited deliveries at the end of 2010. The CODA Sedan is a four-door, five-passenger... Mike Millikin

New fleet efficiency horizon in terms of energy intensity and fuel consumption rate compared to historical fleet averages and recent US regulations. Source: DeCicco 2010. Click to enlarge. Tripling US new light-duty vehicle fleet fuel efficiency by 2035 through evolutionary... Mike Millikin