AAA: Four million car batteries, 90 million pounds of lead recycled
Filed under: Etc., Green Daily
Think about the battery sitting idly away under the hood of your car or truck. Since it’s made up almost entirely of lead and plastic, pretty much the whole kit n’ kaboodle is recyclable. And, fortunately, lead acid car batteries are one of the few items that Americans are actually rather good at recycling.
To wit, AAA has just announced that it has had a hand in recycling four million car batteries through its AAA Mobile Battery Service and the AAA Approved Auto Repair network. For those that really like numbers, that equals 90 million pounds of lead and 12 million pounds of plastic.
Even the battery acid can be recycled. Says AAA:
Sulfuric acid can be repurposed in three different ways. In addition to being reused for new batteries, it can be neutralized, purified and tested before being released as clean water; or it can be converted to sodium sulfate, a product used in fertilizer, dyes and other products.
MIT researchers engineer viruses to split water in search of hydrogen
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen, USA
The jury is still out on whether hydrogen-fueled cars will be a competitive alternative in the future. BMW still seems to think it will be. Honda hasn’t given up on its FCX Clarity hydrogen car either. Cities like London are laying the preliminary groundwork for a network of hydrogen filling stations. And then there’s Ahhhnold and his hydrogen highway.
One of the issues facing hydrogen-powered cars is large-scale hydrogen production. H2 proponents always cite the fact that hydrogen is the most abundant resource in the universe. This is true, but it’s not exactly growing on hydrogen trees, ripe for the plucking. Harnessing that abundant hydrogen is tricky, though, and if you’re using coal-fired power plants as an energy source to create hydrogen, well, your hydrogen car isn’t nearly as green as it could be, is it? H2 fans shouldn’t worry quite yet. MIT is ready to throw some science at the problem.
As we all remember from seventh grade biology, photosynthesis is the process by which plants use the power of sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water into usable fuels. For plants, these fuels are sugars. A team of MIT researchers has found a way to mimic the photosynthetic process to harness the power of sunlight to split water and possibly make a fuel of their own – hydrogen.
The team, led by Angela Belcher (pictured above), the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 to attract and bind with molecules of a catalyst (the team used iridium oxide) and a biological pigment (zinc porphyrins). The viruses became wire-like devices that could very efficiently split the oxygen from water molecules.
So, as we understand it, the wire-like viruses act like a sort of scaffolding, supporting the pigments and catalysts and allowing them to line up in just the right way for a water-splitting reaction to occur. The role of the pigments is “to act as an antenna to capture the light,” Belcher explains, “and then transfer the energy down the length of the virus, like a wire.” Right now, the system is only able to perform the oxygen-producing half of the reaction. But the team is hoping to create a similar, biologically-based system for the other half of the reaction, the hydrogen-producing half.
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2010 GMC Terrain – Rugged, Aggressive Styling
GM will introduce the 2010 GMC Terrain to the public at the New York Auto Show. In the build-up to the show GM has released all of the details of the new vehicle including the press photos, which show very dramatic and rugged, block styling for the five-passenger crossover SUV.
In fact, the new Terrain [...]
Via New Car Blog
Autoblog Podcast #174 – AOL Autos’ Reilly Brennan stops by
Filed under: Podcasts, Audi, Chevrolet, Ford, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Mini, Nissan, Ferrari
Click above for the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes, RSS or listen now!
Chris Shunk, Sam Abuelsamid, Chris Paukert and Dan Roth are joined by Reilly Brennan of AOL Autos. After discussing what’s in the Autoblog Garage, attention turns to the Ferrari 599 GTO, the ongoing Chevrolet Camaro-Ford Mustang V6 cage match, wacky interior awards from Ward’s Auto, Audi beating Mercedes in the most recent sales numbers, and the Daimler-Renault/Nissan tie-up. We hit some questions and then skedaddle just under the hour and twenty mark.
Autoblog Podcast #174: with Reilly Brennan from AOL Autos
In the Autoblog Garage:
Audi A4 Avant
Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited
Mini John Cooper Works Cabrio
Ford Escape Hybrid
Mercedes CL550 4Matic
Report: Ford adding SuperCrew to SVT Raptor lineup
Filed under: Truck, Ford, Rumormill, Off-Road
2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor – Click above for high-res image gallery
Ford’s desert-clobbering SVT Raptor is already off to a relatively good start, and things are only poised to get better now that the automaker has shoehorned its new 6.2-liter V8 under the truck’s hood. Adding to that, the folks at InsideLine report that a four-door SuperCrew version of the Raptor is also in the cards, possibly slated to debut later this year.
IL states that mules of what appear to be a SuperCrew Raptor have been spotted near Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. When prompted for a response, a spokesperson for the automaker simply said, “We do not comment on future product.” (We’ve heard that one a thousand times before.) Still, we don’t dispute IL’s predictions, and having four-door functionality only boosts the Raptor’s attractiveness to potential consumers.
Gallery: 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
Honda unveils electric scooter in Japan
Honda unveiled a prototype of a zero emission electric scooter at a research facility on the outskirts of Tokyo.
The scooter named as EV-neo is powered by a lithium ion battery which matches the performance of a 50cc petrol engine. The scooter can travel 30 km on a single charge at up to 30 kmph. The battery can be charged up to 80% in just 20 minutes. . Honda claims the scooter as “quiet and clean, contributing to creating a low-carbon society”.
2020 Lamborghini Minotauro
Interesting concept was introduced this week, called the 2020 Lamborghini Minotauro.
Concept is equipped with four electric motors, lithium-based batteries, with power distribution in respect of 30/70 (front / rear axle), the system KERS, in turn, helps to recover the liberated energy during braking.
The absence of a huge V-12 at the rear there is enough space for a third passenger. Driver’s door has normal dimensions, and the passenger door is much larger, designed for better access to the rear seat.
Original ideas include exhaust pipes, placed relatively high, and received a response to a triangular, which also work as subwoofer, allowing the driver to manually control the “roar” of the engine.
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