Rob’s article explains the three categories of vehicle emissions as (1) during manufacture, (2) during use, and (3) at end-of-life.From God’s grand perspective of the universe, this is absolute and true. However from the puny perspective of an average consumer, only the middle one rates. Consumers today are being fed propaganda from multi media sources that the middle one, emissions during use, are what the Green-initiatives are all about. Often, overly self-righteous and often myopic in true vision. Articles like this one should be heralded from the rooftops, to inform the public of the whole truth.For this reason, we all as Design Engineers, have to carry the burden of developing all three categories toward improved levels. Because consumers don’t understand and they only care about the “middle one”.
And methanol came into the discussion. Methanol is a step backwards for a number of reasons. The one that really worries me is, what do we do when the arable soil runs out? Proponents of Ethanol always neglect to mention that raising crops takes mass out of the soil that cannot be replaced. Walk through a corn field. Those stalks, roots, and ears don't grow out of thin air, rain and sunshine. There's also the fact that trace elements/chemicals that the human metabolism requires eventually go away forever. You might be tempted to think, Hey what about fertilizer? There's another double-edged sword. Do you know what we're doing to the Gulf of Mexico with the runoff of fertilizer flowing down the Mississippi River? There's this huge oxygen depleted zone that's growing at an increasing rate (thanks to ... you guessed it). Nothing can live in that zone. Ethanol requires additional energy, all through the refining, storage, and delivery cycle, to keep water out of it. That's not helpful in the combustion cycle and is actually very corrosive to engine parts. Ethanol contains about 82% of the energy of gasoline so your engine runs less efficiently with it. I Think that's enough environmental bad news to make a solid case against it. If some of the big farm, and farming related companies hadn't sold congress on the joys of free energy (free, except for the huge governmental subsidies), we would have tossed this bad news idea years ago. I apologize for the rant but this business has been stuck in my craw for a long time.
I also like the concept of looking at the whole picture when looking at the carbon foot print. It bus me when people only focus on the operating foot print of the electircal cars. Much of the same can be said of the other green fuels. Take ethynal for example. There is more to ethynal than just turning corn into gas. There is the ability to use the waste product, (stocks etc) for gas as well. There is still significant potential to increase crop output. When you compare these types of green technology with wind energy some logical conclusions have to be drawn. Let's face it, the wind will never start blowing twice as hard as it does now. But we can work towards doubling the output of our farm generated fuel sources. Okay so I kind of chased a squirrel on this post.
It is good to see the steel industry moving forward trying to keep up in the lightweight material race. As an end user, it is a lot cheaper to pull a dent in a steel panel than it is to replace an entire composite car panel.
I agree William. It's the same argument IPC had with the EU over RoHS. IPC said, we will be happy to comply with your regulations if they're based on science. While IPC didn't win the battle on that point (there is still argument over whether lead leaches from solder in the landfill), the EU did yield to IPC's call for science-based justification on upcoming materials in line for restriction.
I am encouraged that the Steel Market Development Institute is engaged in educating the EPA. I can only extend my naive hope that the EPA hires as many scientists and engineers as they do politicians and regulators. I am all for innovation, but when a new "green" technology is deployed too often the energy balance does not include the fact that its use relies on exotic heavy metals and energy produced from the electricity grid. We are already fighting perpetual wars on drugs, poverty and ineffective education in the US. We can't afford a new war on CO2.
Using almost 200 light-emitting diodes in the front and back of the new 2014 CTS, Cadillac designers are showing how LEDs can change the character of a vehicle.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
1 
