Green Energy News | May 6, 1996

May 6, 1996 – Vol.1 No.6

ENERGIES... week of May 6, 1996

GASOLINE IS CHEAP! Americans complaining about high gas prices should be glad they don’t live in Europe. The price of petrol on the other side of the big pond has always been higher than ours, mostly due to government levy of up to 70%. Generally speaking the base price is about the same as ours, but the added taxation creates an easy way to fill government coffers as well as encourage the use of more energy efficient mass transit.

In Britain, where a fill-up is generally the cheapest in Europe, petrol taxes are slated for annual increases of 5% through 2005 to discourage consumption and thus reduce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas emission. What’s left of the Empire wants to do its part in reducing pollution and help put a damper on global warming.

VOLVO OF SWEDEN is testing a fleet of bi-fueled 850 wagons in the New York area. A 4.5 gallon tank for compressed natural gas (CNG) is bolted along side the 19.3 gallon gasoline tank. The driver can take his pick through a dash mounted switch. Volvo has had to build its own refueling station, as CNG is not readily available in the area.

Though the small CNG tank can only provide a 150 mile range with 14 less horsepower, CNG burns much cleaner than gasoline. In Sweden gasoline at the pump is the highest in Europe, averaging $4.50 a gallon.

FELLOW SWEDE SAAB, an engineering maverick, has developed a new emission control system they’d like to see others use. The Exhaust Recirculation Concept uses a bag to catch the first 25 seconds of exhaust at start-up, later to be drawn back into the engine. Cars like the test 9000 hatchback, which utilize a catalytic converter, are dirtiest when they’re cold. It takes a few seconds of engine operation for a converter to get hot enough to do its job.

THE “ECOPOWER” engine technology in the same SAAB completes the clean engine design. Spark-to-piston technology includes a cone on the top of each piston which acts as the second electrode for the spark plug. (Electricity leaps from the spark plug to the cone)

The Trionic computerized engine management system, which completes the Ecopower system, was way ahead of its time when it was introduced eight years ago.