And what happens when natural gas fuels more of our trucking and transportation fleets?
Siluria creates catalysts that convert natural gas into fuels and chemicals it says are indistinguishable from oil-derived equivalents.
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In addition to the economic benefits, it is also essential in providing America clean natural gas which fuels public transportation and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The chemical conversion of natural gas to liquid fuels could provide an attractive alternative to CNG.
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Clean Energy Fuels makes natural gas-filling equipment for buses and other large vehicles.
Push the transition away from oil to natural gas and alternative fuels.
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But rosy predictions of ethanol's viability often ignore the volatility in the price of corn and natural gas, which fuels most ethanol plants.
It also said emissions could be reduced by making wider use of low carbon fossil fuels like natural gas, and decarbonising exhaust gases from power plants.
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So as we replace oil with fuels like natural gas and biofuels, we can also reduce our dependence by making cars and trucks that use less oil in the first place.
Such fuels include natural gas, methanol (which can be produced from anything with carbon in it, including natural gas and coal) and ethanol (which can be generated from sources other than corn, particularly as cellulosic technologies come on stream).
He's also put venture money into natural gas-to-fuels play Siluria, and diagnostics firm Applied Proteomics.
Siluria converts methane, the primary ingredient in natural gas, into liquid fuels and chemical intermediates.
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In addition to growing energy needs in developing markets, the market is undergoing a shift towards cleaner fuels, like natural gas, from coal.
The organization's Web site, cleanskies.org, touts the benefits of natural gas as the "natural partner" for renewable fuels and its potential as a vehicle fuel.
And earlier this month, Airbus, in association with Shell, Rolls Royce and Qatar Airways, began a research project to test 'Gas to Liquid' (GTL) technologies that convert lower-emission natural gas and other synthetic fuels into liquid kerosene.
Carbon emissions from natural gas are lower than alternative fuels and it is widely considered the fuel for the next generation.
Microturbines can run on natural gas as well as other fuels, including kerosene and the methane given off by landfills and sewage-treatment plants.
That discourages the use of less carbon-intensive fuels, such as natural gas (gas emits 40% less CO2 than coal for every calorie it produces).
Carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming, is produced when fuels like coal and natural gas are broken down to make the hydrogen used in fuel cells.
His plan, by boosting markets for natural gas, would presumably drive up gas prices and goose investments he holds, like shares in the natural gas transportation company Clean Energy Fuels.
Other steps discussed at the conference range from the practical, such as replacing biomass fuels with kerosene or natural gas, to the idealism of cities developed so that no cars are needed, and thus no car-related pollution is generated.
They started with the vague idea of doing something in alternative energy and spent months researching fuel cells, only to discover what countless others have found: Fuel cells are temperamental and run on expensive fuels like hydrogen and natural gas.
Today is Earth Day, and it is very likely that the fact that abundant fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal, are natural resources, and gifts to humanity from Mother Earth herself will be lost amid all the frightful doom and gloom predictions that will be launched by environmental activists and repeated by various media outlets.
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Capitalism involves a continuous selection process, the equivalent of natural selection in biology: business success fuels expansion, while failure causes contraction.
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Hydrogen is a fuel that, like electricity, can be made from a variety of sources: fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, renewables, even nuclear power.
Cox believes that all in all--transformation, transportation, refining--he can make liquid fuels more cheaply by turning natural gas into GTL than can producers that start by extracting crude oil.
Higher prices are needed to induce consumers and businesses to use less energy (the source of most greenhouse gases) and switch to fuels (from coal to natural gas) that have lower emissions.
Gasification of coal offers the potential to turn dirty burning hydrocarbons into cleaner burning liquid fuels, such as synthetic natural gas, jet fuel and gasoline, as well as hydrogen for fuel cell use, a developing field.
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Over the past few weeks auto writer Matthew de Paula and I have hosted an online conversation debating the practicality, performance and appeal of cars that run on diesel, electricity, natural gas and other non-gasoline fuels.
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