Coal Geology

March 4 (Coal Geology): U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a detailed report on future cars yesterday. According to the EIA report, Hybrid and diesel vehicles are currently increasing their market share although they have higher initial purchase price. The increase in sale is driven by long term savings on fuel cost for running the cars. Other types of alternative vehicles that are still not widely available but may change the car market in future includes electric, plug-in hybrid electric, mild hybrid 1, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and fuel cell powered vehicles. In 2008 the alternative vehicles accounted for about 13% of the sale in car market.  The Annual Energy Outlook 2010 projects the share of alternative cars to be 49% by 2035. However, the conventional gasoline powered automobiles will retain the majority of sales even in 2035.

• Flex-fuel: Vehicles that run on gasoline or any gasoline-ethanol blend up to 85 percent ethanol.
• Mild Hybrid: Vehicles that use a gasoline engine with a larger battery and electrically-powered auxiliary systems that allow the engine to be turned off when the vehicle is coasting or idle and then be quickly restarted. These vehicles are recharged using regenerative braking but do not provide electric traction to support motive power to the vehicle.
• Hybrid Gasoline/Diesel Electric: Vehicles that combine a mixture of internal combustion and electric propulsion but have an extremely limited all-electric range and batteries cannot be recharged using grid power.
• Plug-in Hybrid Electric: Vehicles that use battery power to drive the vehicle for some distance until a minimum level of battery power is reached, at which point the vehicle operates on a mixture of battery and internal combustion power. Plug-in hybrids can also be engineered to run in a blended mode of operation, where an onboard computer determines the most efficient use of battery and internal combustion power. The batteries can also be recharged from the grid by plugging a power cord into an electrical outlet.
• Gaseous: Vehicles powered by compressed natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas exclusively or as a bi-fuel vehicle with gasoline.
• Electric: Vehicles that operate by electric propulsion from batteries that use regenerative braking and are recharged exclusively using grid power.
• Fuel Cell: Vehicles that use a fuel cell stack to convert a fuel such as hydrogen to electricity to drive the vehicle.

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