Stanford Engineering Library Blog

As biodiesel continues to penetrate the market, work is ongoing to refine existing standards as well as to develop new ones. Though ASTM D6751-07b, Standard Specification for Biodiesel Fuel Blend Stock (B100) for Middle Distillate Fuels, has already been published, the ASTM Committee on Biodiesel Fuel, under the leadership of chair Steve Westbrook, continually works to revise it.
The ENG library provides online access to the ASTM standards through the ASTM digital library

Bloomberg (11/15, Koenig) reports that "General Motors Corp. said it will have prototypes of its Volt electric car ready for testing in 2008's first quarter, as the automaker challenges Toyota Motor Corp.'s hybrid technology." According to Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, GM "will take Chevrolet Malibu cars and install Volt underbodies for the prototypes," adding that they will also use lithium-ion batteries. Meanwhile, "Toyota is touting its hybrid strategy, saying its Prius gasoline-electric car uses market-ready technology while the Volt depends on batteries that don't yet exist." Detroit-based "GM may sell the Volt, a so-called plug-in hybrid, as early as 2010. Toyota is planning the first tests, in the U.S. and Japan, of plug-in Prius cars that can recharge from home outlets." Bloomberg points out, "The Volt, like the Prius, combines an electric motor powered by batteries with a gasoline engine."

The Financial Times (11/15, Simon) adds, "The biggest test of General Motors' ability to regain the loyalty of North American car buyers has begun to unfold at dealerships across the U.S. and Canada with the arrival of the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu family [sedan]." If Malibu is successful enough "in eating into the market share of Toyota's top-selling Camry [it] could also help determine whether GM can retain its 76-year title as the world's biggest carmaker against Toyota." Notably, "GM sold just 10,000 vehicles more than Toyota globally in the first nine months of this year."

snipped from ASEE's First Bell online newsletter

Carmaker to fund Stanford auto lab
By Matt Nauman
Mercury News
Article Launched: 11/16/2007 01:37:35 AM PST

Volkswagen of America said Thursday that it will spend about $6 million to build and fund an automotive research lab on the Stanford University campus.

To be called the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab, the building will serve as a research center for vehicle-safety and environmental issues, as well as continuing work on autonomous driving. Since 2004, Stanford professors and students have collaborated with VW's Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto to build a series of robotic vehicles that have finished first and second in Defense Department events in 2005 and 2007.

Chris Gerdes, a mechanical engineering professor, will direct research that will take place, which Stanford has dubbed as CarLab.

VW said it will donate $2 million for the building, and $750,000 a year for five years to fund research.

The 8,000-square-foot lab near Stock Farm Road and Campus Drive West will replace a dusty Quonset hut where the robotic vehicle team tested its vehicles. It will include auto bays with lifts, a machine shop, meeting rooms and an outdoor drive space.

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Contact Matt Nauman at mnauman@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5701.

The AP (12/6) reported that "Toyota's new robot plays a pretty solid 'Pomp and Circumstance' on the violin." The "five-foot-tall, all-white robot," was "shown Thursday, [and] used its mechanical fingers to press the strings correctly and bowed with its other arm, coordinating the movements well." Toyota Motor Corp. "has already shown robots that roll around [and] work as guides and have fingers dexterous enough to play the trumpet." According to Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe, "robotics will be a core business for the company in coming years." The company "will test out its robots at hospitals, Toyota-related facilities and other places starting next year," Watanabe said, adding that Toyota "hopes to put what it calls 'partner robots' to real use by 2010." He and other Toyota officials described robotics as "a natural extension of the automaker's use of robots in manufacturing, as well the development of technology for autos related to artificial intelligence, such as sensors and pre-crash safety systems." Toyota's president "presented a vision of the future in which wheelchair-like 'mobility robots'...would offer 'bed-to-bed' services to people, including the elderly and the sick, just like cars take people 'door-to-door.'"

The AFP (12/6) noted that Toyota's "new robots come three years after" the automaker unveiled its "trumpet-playing robot – [the company's] first humanoid machine -- in a bid to catch up with robot technology frontrunners such as Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp." Robot makers "see big potential for their use in Japan, where the number of elderly people is rapidly growing, and causing labor shortages in a country that strictly controls immigration." The country's "most famous robot is arguably Asimo, an astronaut-looking humanoid developed by Honda which has been hired out as an office servant and has even popped up to offer toasts at Japanese diplomatic functions."

Snipped from ASEE's First Bell Custom Briefings

The New York Times (12/2, Marshall) reported that "the city of San Francisco...completed a yearlong project to convert its entire array of diesel vehicles...to biodiesel, a clean-burning and renewable fuel that holds promise for helping to reduce greenhouse gases." The fleet of 1,500 vehicles is using B20, a mix of 20 percent "virgin soy oil bought from producers in the Midwest," and 80 percent petroleum diesel fuel. The city's effort is "intended to sharply reduce toxic diesel exhaust linked to a higher risk of asthma and premature death." The city has pledged to cut its emissions to "20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012." In addition, the city has started SFGreasecycle, "a program to collect fats and cooking oils from restaurants" and convert them to biodiesel fuel.

Snipped from ASEE First Bell Customized Briefing

In continuing coverage from Thursday's briefing, in a front-page story, the New York Times (1/11, A1, Sengupta) reports that this week, when "Tata Motors unveiled the world's cheapest car, the $2,500 Nano," carmakers "from across the world [went] to New Delhi to peddle their wares to a bubbling Indian car market." While "incomes rise, car loans proliferate, and the auto industry churns out low-cost cars to nudge them off their motorcycles," Indians "bought 1.5 million cars last year," and, "[b]y some estimates, India is expected to soar past China this year as the fastest-growing car market." Not surprisingly, "Indian environmentalists have assailed the car craze, particularly because of the country's relatively relaxed emissions standards and the proliferation of diesel-powered cars."

The AP (1/11) continues, "The potential impact of Tata's Nano has given environmentalists nightmares, with visions of the tiny cars clogging India's already-choked roads and collectively spewing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air." However, according to industry analysts, "For millions of people in the developing world, Tata Motors' new" subcompact sedan "may yield a transportation revolution as big as Henry Ford's Model T." John Casesa of the Casesa Shapiro Group called the car "a potentially gigantic development if it delivers what has been promised."

The U.K.'s Financial Times (1/11, Johnson) adds that Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors, said that the company "made no claim to have made the most eco-friendly car in the world." However, "he pointed to the car's fuel-efficiency, noting it would achieve more than 20km a liter with its 0.62-liter engine and meet Indian and European emissions standards." Tarun Das, described by the Times as "chief mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry," said that "he sees the Nano as a godsend for the Indian economy." Many Indian industrialists assert that "[s]uch entrepreneurial verve...will boost the confidence of Indian industrialists long overshadowed by China's manufacturing prowess."

"The Nano has sparked a race among global automakers to come up with vehicles at rock-bottom prices to appeal to the new lucrative segment of consumers in India and other emerging markets," noted the AFP (1/10, MacRae). "The budget car's nearest rival, the Maruti 800 from Japanese-owned Maruti Suzuki, sells for $4,800."

snipped from ASEE First Bell, January 11, 2008

Cars made almost entirely of plastic are paving the way for what you may be driving in the future. Mechanical engineers use a lightweight, high-strength aerospace material called carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic in the doors, hoods, fenders, chasis and also in support frames for the engine and transmission. Read more and watch the video at Science Daily.