Urea prices reached record highs in June 2008, increasing the pressure on the AdBlue market’s already tight margins. With additional pressure from the soaring price of automotive diesel, and growing doubt over the health of the commercial vehicles market AdBlue suppliers are heading for uncertain times.
The root causes of skyrocketing oil prices remained unclear at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid this week, but one thing was becoming increasingly evident. Access to “easy oil” will henceforth be “limited”, as Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer put it, while BP boss Tony Hayward spoke of the era of “cheap energy” being over. Read the rest of this entry »
This week the Honda Motor Co. rolled its first hydrogen-powered vehicles off the assembly line. In development for 16 years, the cars run on fuel cells that get the equivalent of 74 miles to the the gallon. Each vehicle costs upwards of $100,000, but Honda says the price will quickly go down as it goes into mass production. The only hitch: Hydrogen fuel stations are few and far between, and Honda is waiting for the infrastructure to catch up to the technology. Read the rest of this entry »
German RFID fuel management manufacturer Hectronic has developed a system to provide accurate fuel management data. The key components do away with a manual ‘key driven’ fuel terminal using RF interaction to authorise, dispense and conclude all refuelling activities. The hardware fits the refuelling activity of a logistics RDC as drivers merely have to place their RF refuelling nozzle into the RF enabled fuel tank neck. The Hectronic system uses a true RF connection between vehicle transmitter, fuel nozzle, and RF enabled fuel terminal.
The Government has announced from March 2008 up to £850,000 from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund to support the training of aggregates sector truck drivers in greener, sager driving techniques. Read the rest of this entry »
New rules, which aim to make transport fuel greener are putting millions of people in the developing world at risk of being driven off their lands, it has been claimed.
The BBC web site reports that oil prices hit a new record high on Monday March 3rd, driven by the falling dollar and fading hopes of more supplies US light, sweet crude made $103.95 a barrel, before dropping back to trade at $102.45. London Brent also hit a record $102. Analysts blamed the falling dollar, which makes oil an attractive investment speculators and warn that it looks unlikely that oil exporters’ cartel Opec will raise production to help ease prices.
More from www.bbc.co.uk
British MPs have told the European Union to abandon new biofuel targets because they may do more harm to the environment than good. Read the rest of this entry »
Biofuels are unlikely to be cheaper in 2008 than mineral oils despite crude prices nudging 100 dollars a barrel. This, combined with crop shortfalls from drought has more than doubled the prices of some biofuel sources, such as corn, soya, palm and sugar, compared with 2006. Not until next autumn is increased supply likely to bring price drops therefore. So sustained switching to biofuels is even more dependent on keeping their taxes (duties) low.
The KillSpills campaign was founded in the Autumn of 2003 when a group of like minded bikers from around the country came together on the www.cbr-forum.org.uk and www.mcnninjas.co.uk forums to tackle the ever increasing problem of diesel spills on our roads. They have produced an anti diesel spill leaflet, funded by a DFT grant. Read the rest of this entry »