| Volvo's "CO2 Free" Semi Trucks |
| Written by Nino Marchetti | ||
| Thursday, 30 August 2007 | ||
 Volvo, in addition to work on hybrid garbage trucks, is getting busy looking at other types of renewable energy sources for trucks. It recently demonstrated a group of trucks which the Swedish vehicle manufacturer says are carbon-dioxide free. The seven trucks in question are equipped with Volvo’s own 9-liter engines that have been modified to operate on seven different types of renewable liquid and gaseous fuels. These trucks can, according to Volvo, "be operated on a number of different renewable fuels and/or combinations of fuels: biodiesel, biogas combined with biodiesel, ethanol/methanol, DME, synthetic diesel and hydrogen gas combined with biogas." All the fuels are produced from renewable raw materials, said Volvo, and thus produce no carbon-dioxide into the air. The company apparently conducted studies of the renewable fuels to determine those it thought most useful for carbon-dioxide-free transports. Factors considered included the environment, energy efficiency and the amounts of the different fuels that can potentially be produced.
The last factor in particular could prove to be a stumbling block at the moment. Volvo said that while it is ready with technology to go CO2 free, the "supply of different renewable fuels is significantly limited and there is no large-scale production or distribution for the majority of the alternatives that could be utilized in carbon-dioxide-free transports."
Comments
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written by Michael Pereckas , August 30, 2007
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written by 月餅 , September 01, 2007
"the supply of different renewable fuels is significantly limited"
dddss
written by interior design , October 05, 2007
Thank You for another very interesting article. It's really good written and I fully agree with You on main issue, btw. I must say that I really enjoyed reading all of Your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… it makes you think more. So please try to keep up the great work all the time. Greetings
dsafs
written by Mini storage , October 05, 2007
thanks...your article is great.
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Not to pick on Volvo specifically, I keep thinking that there is this hope that the CO2 thing will end up like the CFCs and ozone thing. After much wailing and whining, we ended up switching from refrigerant "12" to "134a" and...no one really had to change anything important. Sure the new air conditioner has to use a different type of oil, and different types of rubber parts, and runs at slightly different pressure---hence all the wailing---but, in the end, trivial changes and looking back it's hard to remember what all the fuss was about. Now automakers seem to hope they can make small changes to the fuel system materials and the computer software and then, like before, we'll just switch to the new improved substance and nothing changes. Unfortunately, unlike refrigerant, you use up the fuel. They put some refrigerant in at the factory and when you junk the car many years later they suck it back out for recycling. Not the same with fuel. You have to keep buying that, lots of it, continually.