Fuel

Royal Dutch Shell: Gearing To Repair Shutdown Louisiana Pipeline

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The Caillou to Houma pipeline was shut down late Saturday after a light sheen was seen near a pump station in Lake Barre, off the state’s coast. “We believe the origin of the sheen is a small release” from the 16-inch crude pipeline, spokeswoman Kimberly Windon said in an e-mail.

The sheen disappeared on Sunday, but the company deployed a response crew and boom around the point where the crude leaked. “Our response team will continue to closely monitor the release site while preparations are made to safely inspect and repair the pipeline, as soon as possible, weather permitting,” Ms. Windon said, adding that the cause of the incident is being investigated. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 26, 2013 at 11:05 AM

Oil Sands Developers: Market Access Issues Weigh Even As Tech Promises Emissions Reductions

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It’s telling that a panel discussion about using technology to reduce the environmental impacts associated with Canadian oil sands development ended up mainly being about dire market access issues impacting producers.

At the FT Global Investment Series: Focus on Canada conference held in New York City this week, corporate executives were clearly concerned about reducing greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands projects, but they were also very concerned about the billions of dollars being lost from commodity price differentials between Canadian heavy oil and other grades. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 15, 2013 at 2:30 PM

Cellulosic Ethanol Breakthrough In Oregon

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It’s been a long road, but the government-backed ZeaChem cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in Oregon is finally turning out fuel.

The company announced the step this week, calling the Boardman plant “among the first operational cellulosic biorefineries in the world.” It’s a bit of good news in the seemingly illusory realm of ethanol made from non-food feedstocks, which have been slow to fulfill their promise of extricating the industry from the food vs. fuels debate. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 14, 2013 at 2:30 PM

Canada’s Oil Sands in Pictures: Slideshow

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Canada’s oil sands have been all over the news in the context of the Keystone XL pipeline project that would ship upgraded crude oil and diluted bitumen from Northern Alberta to the US Gulf Coast refining center.

Breaking Energy toured the region and visited some oil sands production projects as part of a media tour organized by the Canadian Consulate General in NY and the Government of Alberta last November. If Keystone XL has become a big deal in the US, the push and pull between environmental consequences and economic benefits at the heart of oil sands development is probably an even bigger deal across the northern border. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 7, 2013 at 8:30 AM

Video: First Solar Powered Airplane Flight at Night

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Solar Impulse, a one-of-a-kind solar powered airplane, started as an ambitious idea to circumnavigate the globe using zero liquid fuel and has surpassed numerous milestones along its path toward that goal.

Last year the plane made its first intercontinental flight from Europe to Africa and this spring the team plans to fly Solar Impulse from California to NY, but flying through the night was one of the most impressive demonstrations that proved the technology’s capabilities. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 4, 2013 at 12:45 PM

Solar Powered Airplane to Fly from California to NY this Spring

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History will be made when the first transcontinental airplane flight made with zero liquid fuel takes place this spring. The solar-powered plane called the Solar Impulse will travel from San Francisco to New York using 11,628 photovoltaic cells, several lithium polymer batteries and four 10 horsepower electric engines. The plane’s wingspan is the size of a Boeing 747, it weighs about as much as a car and has as much power as an average scooter.

The idea for Solar Impulse was born in 1999 when Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones circumnavigated the globe in a balloon – a mission that almost failed due to fuel supply constraints. The incident motivated Piccard to circle the Earth again, but this time without fuel, a goal that hit a major milestone last year when Bertrand and Co-founder Andre Borschberg flew the plane from Switzerland to Morocco and back in the first fully-solar powered intercontinental flight. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 4, 2013 at 8:30 AM

Energy Security Trust: Obama Proposal Attracts Confusion, Counterproposals

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In his recent State of the Union speech, President Obama proposed an Energy Security Trust that would rely on the money from increased oil and gas drilling to support research that could move cars and trucks off oil-derived fuels.

From a White House briefing document accompanying the President’s speech: Keep reading →

 /  Published February 28, 2013 at 3:20 PM

Pro: Why It’s Time to Get Into Nat Gas

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Natural gas has been trading in a serious downtrend starting in November, but Monday’s upside action constituted a clear breakout from that trend.

So what’s behind the strength? Keep reading →

 /  Published February 26, 2013 at 2:30 PM

US Railcar Oil Deliveries Hit Record in 2012 -Trade Group

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The use of rail cars to transport crude oil in the U.S. reached a record in 2012 and continues to rise, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday.

 /  Published February 21, 2013 at 3:40 PM

NASA’s ‘Hybrid Wing’ Could Halve Airplane Fuel Use

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Flying, although faster, still isn’t a very pleasant way to travel. First, there’s the massive amount of fuel required to hoist a jet airliner carrying over 100 people into the air. Second, there’s the fact that when inside, one gets the sensation of a sardine stuffed inside a metal tube.

It turns out that aviation scientists have known for years that the tubular fuselage and bird wind design is far from efficient, but it’s the best they could do. Now, researchers at NASA have developed a “hybrid wing” shape that could dramatically reduce fuel consumption. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 6, 2013 at 12:00 PM
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