DOE Expands International Effort to Develop Fuel-Efficient Trucks
One of the big contributors to rising food prices over the past year has been the cost of getting food from the field to the grocer. Truck drivers across Europe and especially in the UK have been protesting increasing fuel costs for months. The U.S. Department of Energy is partnering with the Swedish government and one of the largest manufacturers of heavy trucks - the Volvo group - to find ways to reduce the fuel consumption of those trucks. The two governments and Volvo have already previously committed $12 million to the joint development program and this week announced an additional $36 million dollars. The two governments will each contribute $9 million of the new funds with the rest coming from Volvo. The goal is to reduce fuel consumption of the truck engines by 10 percent. The program will evaluate biofuels in heavy truck engines as well as develop advanced transmissions, new engines and hybrid drive systems.
[Source: Department of Energy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tankd0g 10:21AM (7/07/2008)
Trains. $12 million please.
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a.brien 5:23PM (7/05/2008)
Why don't they study for 1000$-2000$ the hydrogen electrolyser of this canadian compagny to save 10%-20% fuel and cut emission by 40%. These millions serve the contrary of what they say. They probably study how to make a fuel that kill more rapidly then petroluem diesel. They were talking abouth deadly gas and terrorism on 9/11. Now they open a new office in sweden.
http://www.hypowerfuel.com/home.html
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EV-1 8:51PM (7/05/2008)
TRANSPORTS SHOULD
N-O-T
BE DONE BY TRUCKS !
Period.
Realistically, there have to be some SHORT distance distributing done via trucks, but for the Lion part
TRANSPORTS SHOULD BE DONE ON RAILROAD !
OBVIOUSLY ! the truck manufacturer(s) will invest in research - with the pretension of acting responsible - and thus trying to continue selling even more trucks -> making more money !
That's OBVIOUS for anyone able to think at all.
"The goal is to reduce fuel consumption of the truck engines by 10 percent."
well..
I'm lost for words.
If they had made a PROMISE
to reduce the emissions by 50 % it still wouldn't really be sufficient !
And we, the consumers, should do our part and
- DEMAND information of what carbon footprint each food product has !
- FAVOUR local products !
Have a nice summer ! :)
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Tormod 4:46AM (7/07/2008)
Railroads are fine, except they don't go to all destinations needed.
And it may take a week instead of a day to get there.
Volvo has a pretty good web page for their hybrid trucks program:
http://www.volvo.com/trucks/global/en-gb/aboutus/environmental_care/The_Volvo_Hybrid_Concept/
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