Fueling the Future of Transport Podcast

Recently, I spoke with Adam Gustafson who represents the Urban Air Initiative (UAI) and is also a partner at Boyden Gray & Associates . UAI, as Adam noted, “exists to remove regulatory barriers to improving fuel quality for the purpose of cleaning the air and improving human health. And Urban Air Initiative believes that the best way to do that is by reducing the harmful components of fu...

I met Jeff Wood at the Fuels Institute’s annual meeting , where we shared the stage and a panel to discuss the impact of urbanization and what it could mean for the fuels industry. Jeff is an urban planning specialist who runs his own consultancy, The Overhead Wire . On the panel, Jeff discussed comprehensive planning strategies that would take advantage of existing city structures and emplo...

Recently, I spoke with Astrid Sonneveld , Head of Marine and International, for GoodFuels a developer and supplier of advanced biofuels targeting the road, rail, aviation and marine sectors. We spoke about the promise of marine biofuels to help decarbonize the sector. You can listen to or download the podcast below or listen to it in ITunes. On Governments and the IMO Taking More Action on Bunker...

Recently I spoke with Henry Kamau, Director of Sustainable Transport Africa about a range of topics concerning the future of fuels, vehicles and transport in Africa, including improving fuel quality, future emissions and fuel economy standards, electric mobility, public transport and biofuels. Highlights from the interview follow below. You can listen to or download the podcast below or listen to...

Last week REN21 released its annual Global Status Report on the state of renewable energy, which includes renewable energy for transport. Future Fuels Outlook service members can read an analysis here . In summary, REN21 found that additions in installed renewable power capacity is at a all-time high, increasing total global capacity by almost 9% over 2015. Solar accounted for 47% of the total cap...

Recently, I spoke with Sam Wade, Chief of the Transportation Fuel Branch of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) about the status and outlook for the Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS) program. A couple of highlights from the interview follow below, and in addition, we talked about the continuing decline of corn ethanol carbon intensity (CI) and the future of advanced biofuels. You can listen t...

Recently, I spoke with Ian Adams of the R Street Institute about the Institute’s work on fuel economy and especially autonomous mobility. I was inspired to contact Ian after I read a thought-provoking op-ed in The Hill about fuel economy , which I asked him about in the interview. He also wrote another interesting op-ed in the same publication about autonomous mobility . You can listen or do...

Recently, I spoke with Cornie Huizenga , Secretary General of the Partnership for Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) about a wide range of topics, including urbanization and the future of transport in cities, car bans as a response to congestion in megacities, what the Paris Agreement means for sustainable transport and other topics. Cornie is also part of the Paris Process on Mobility and...

Recently, I spoke with Stephen Holland , Professor of Economics in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro about a study he was part of that was published in the December 2016 American Economic Review on electric vehicles. The study, featured in a recent post of mine , makes an argument that has been highlighted by others before and that is the...

Recently, I spoke with John Cooper, Director General of FuelsEurope about a range of topics including the state of the refining industry in Europe and the future of fuels in Europe, specifically, diesel, gasoline advanced biofuels and electrification. What follows are highlights from the interview. You can listen or download the podcast below or listen to it in ITunes. On the Future of Refining in...

Recently, I spoke with Paul O’Connor , an expert in heavy oil conversion processes and refining catalysts As many of you know, he was formerly with Shell and Akzo Nobel, Albemarle and he formed BIOeCON, a company focused on the economical conversion of biomass to renewable fuels. BIOeCON and Khosla Ventures founded KiOR to develop and commercialize the Fluidized Biomass Fluid Catalytic Crack...

Recently, I spoke with my old friend and colleague, Terry Higgins , on a study just completed for OPIS on “ The New Economics of Octane .” What follows are highlights from the interview. You can listen or download the podcast below or listen to it in ITunes. On the Study: “We looked at the historic octane market values. They were reasonably predictable over time and at least reas...

Recently, I spoke with Philippe Marchand of TOTAL Refining & Chemicals on the company’s biotechnology portfolio and its plans for the future, as well as his views on electromobility and transitioning to multiple and cleaner forms of transport and how that intersects with what the company is doing on renewables. On TOTAL’s Ambition to Increase Its Renewable Portfolio to 20% within t...

Recently, I spoke with John Boesel of CALSTART on a wide ranging set of issues: new legislation in California that requires a 40% reduction in GHGs by 2030, the California Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS) program and the federal fuel economy standards. On New Legislation Signed by California Governor Brown Requiring a 40% Reduction in GHGs by 2030: The new legislation that was just established thi...

Recently, I spoke with Dr. Jason Hill of the University of Minnesota about a recent paper published in Energy Policy on “Climate Consequences of Low-Carbon Fuels: the United States Renewable Fuel Standard.” What follows are a few highlights from the discussion. On How the Paper Came About: “So, my co-authors and I were interested in the Renewable Fuel Standard and whether it will...

Recently, I spoke with Dr. Chris Malins of Cerulogy about the Biofrontiers project (see post Oct. 12, 2016 ) which focused on advanced alternative fuels. Under the project, the European Climate Foundation and its stakeholder partners put forward policy recommendations to the European Commission on how better to support their development in the EU. Among other findings, the group has called for pri...

Recently I talked to Géraldine Kutas, Head of International Affairs & Senior International Advisor to the President for the Brazil Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) about the future of sugarcane ethanol in Europe. Here’s a few highlights from the discussion. On UNICA’s Reaction to the European Commission’s Low Emission Mobility Strategy: “Well, we are obviously dis...

Recently I talked to Allen Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum about the future of diesel post Dieselgate, not only in Europe, but globally. What follows are a few highlights from the discussion. On Whether Diesel Is “Dead” in Europe I think it is pretty clear that Europe has had a market share of diesel on average about 50% for the last 12-13 years or so in av...

Recently I talked to Jos Dings, the Executive Director of NGO Transport & Environment , based in Brussels, about why transport GHGs are increasing, “dieselgate”, electric vehicles, biofuels and the European Commission’s Low Emission Mobility Strategy . What follows are a few highlights from the discussion. On Why Transport GHGs Are Actually Increasing in Europe “On clim...

In part 1 of the interview , Professor John Heywood and I discussed MIT’s On the Road in 2050 report and topics such as fuel economy. In part 2 of the interview, I asked him about gasoline octane and a number of other topics, including the future of electric vehicles and whether the RFS makes sense as a policy as opposed to a carbon or gas tax. Raising Gasoline Octane Likely, But a Longer Ti...

Recently I talked to Varun Sivaram , Douglas Dillon Fellow and Acting Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change for the Council on Foreign Relations . Sivaram, an expert in clean energy technology, and his colleague, Michael A. Levi modeled the costs and benefits of the CAFE program as proposed in a paper released earlier this year. They modeled the costs and benefits of the re...

Last year MIT released its “ On the Road in 2050″ report , summarizing the results of an ongoing research program that essentially focuses on future fuels and vehicles both in the U.S. and globally. It assesses the extent to which improvements and changes in powertrain and vehicle technologies, and fuels changes, could reduce the fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of l...