Lionel SobehartThe General Motors (GM) conference, held on campus yesterday, featured a presentation on GM’s new fuel-efficient technologies and vehicles by GM representative Eric Kaufman. Pratim Biswas, the chair of the new department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, presented Washington University’s research and educational efforts in the energy and environmental area.
Biswas began the event by discussing the goals the University hopes to achieve through its newly created department. One of the key missions of the department is to conserve the planet and its resources, which it hopes to achieve through its studies of energy, advanced materials, such as nanoparticle technology, and sustainable technology, such as benign synthesis and reaction engineering.
“The entire planet depends on understanding these disciplines in a rigorous manner,” said Biswas.
But in order to accomplish these long-term goals, Biswas stressed the need to understand environmental options and to come up with solutions, an area in which Biswas said the University is leading.
Presently, he said the department is focusing on biofuels produced from plant-based sources, oxy-biofuel combustion and carbon dioxide mitigation methodologies. In the future, he said that energy sources will likely be solar energy, as well as converting waste into energy.
“The campus is a living laboratory for us. We want the buildings [on campus] to be energy-efficient and environmentally sound,” said Biswas.
Along these lines, Eric Kaufman, a technical integration engineer at the General Motors Energy Center, discussed the current progress that his company has made in developing more fuel-efficient vehicles and their plans for the future.
He said that in the year 2020, there will be approximately 1.1 billion vehicles – enough cars to circle the Earth 125 times.
“Petroleum alone is not going to cut it when you look at the world’s fuel demands,” he said.
Sources of energy that GM is examining are biofuels and electricity and a more long-range goal of hydrogen fuel cells. Specifically, GM is using E85, which uses 85 percent of the biofuel ethanol and only 15 percent gasoline. Ethanol is a renewable fuel that helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduces the current dependence on petroleum, supports the local economy, and offers better vehicle performance.
GM Flexfuel vehicles, such as the E85 capable Chevy Tahoe, can run on any combination of gasoline and/or E85. Kaufman stressed that vehicles such as these will reduce our dependence on petroleum.
Kaufman also talked about the Saturn Vue Green Line, which has been available since September 2006. This car saves energy by cutting off the engine when the car is stopped and cutting off its fuel during coasting. Actions such as these lead to a 20 percent improvement in the fuel economy.
GM will use a Two-Mode Hybrid system in the 2008 MY Tahoe-Yukon, which will provide fuel hybrid capability and efficiency as well as top-notch acceleration that will result in a 25 percent fuel economy improvement.
Additionally, Kaufman discussed the E-Flex system, which is a group of cars with a purely electric drive. An example is the Chevrolet Volt that will allow the user to drive around with little or no gasoline.
For the present, Kaufman offered tips to optimize the gasoline, some of which are to accelerate smoothly, maintain a steady speed, limit the use of accessories like heated seats, and to properly maintain the vehicle.
Laura Anderson, a graduate student in organic chemistry who recently did a seminar on Green Chemistry, is interested in alternative uses of energy.
“The environment will not be able to be sustained with the way we are using natural resources currently,” she said.
Junior Richard Ockers said he is interested in alternative fuel sources and feels that the sooner we start contemplating the issue, the sooner we can become more fuel-efficient.
“If a person buys a truck for a farm, that is legitimate. Buying a truck for your wife to get the groceries is not.”