Energy lab info, tests help cut gas use, emissions

By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 28, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

VIBE and ReFUEL.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden hopes these will help cut down on fuel use and turn off foreign oil spigots.

Virtual Information Bridge to Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy - gathers and displays data to help vehicle owners and managers of fleets switch to alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. The ReFUEL, or Renewable Fuels and Lubricants, laboratory tests fleet vehicles to find ways to dramatically improve their fuel mileage.

VIBE's control room at NREL is eye-popping. Wide flat-screen monitors mounted on the walls display useful data:

How many ethanol E-85 or biodiesel B20 filling stations are there in a state? Where are they located? How many vehicles could they support?

VIBE answers these questions by pulling together information from eere.energy.gov/afdc and several other Web sites. By doing so, VIBE will help fleet managers select vehicles that will cut emissions of carbon dioxide - a global-warming pollutant - along with fuel consumption, said Debbie Brodt-Giles, senior project leader at NREL's Center for Transportation Technologies and Systems. NREL is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy.

"Visitors to the VIBE control room can view various data, trends and analyses characterizing energy demands, technology usage, petroleum displacement, etc.," said Brodt-Giles, sitting in the control room on a recent afternoon.

Even without visiting the room, anybody will be able to freely access the information through a VIBE Web site once the next phase is completed in the next six months.

Brodt-Giles and a team of 13 scientists are working on the project, building on work they've done over the past 15 years to gather information on alternative fuels and advanced vehicles. They're collecting information from sources such as the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Energy Information Administration.

NREL initially put $300,000 as seed money into the project, mostly for the control room and the Web interface. Brodt-Giles said VIBE could eventually benefit fleet owners when newer fuels such as hydrogen and biomass enter the U.S. market.

State and federal government and private companies have worked with VIBE scientists to figure out which cities could support what kinds of vehicles - say, gas and electric hybrids or flexible fuel vehicles that run on ethanol and gasoline - for their fleets to cut fuel consumption.

Meanwhile, manufacturers can test their fleet vehicles at NREL's ReFUEL lab to improve fuel efficiency. The lab in Denver, one of eight such facilities nationwide, has an operating cost of $25,000 a week.

Denver's Regional Transportation District, FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service and Westart-CALSTART are among the dozens of agencies that have used ReFUEL to test their vehicles. The test lasts two weeks and helps companies achieve 10 percent to 60 percent improvement in fuel economy, said Dan Pedersen, a ReFUEL senior engineer.

chakrabartyg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2976

Virtual Information Bridge to Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy, or VIBE

* Received $300,000 in seed money from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.

* Collects and displays information from databases such as the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Census and the Energy Information Administration.

* Has 14 engineers working on the project. Once completed in the next six months, it will help vehicle owners make decisions about alternative fuel vehicles based on availability of filling stations in towns and cities, carbon emissions, vehicle specifications, etc.

Renewable Fuels and Lubricants, or ReFUEL, laboratory

* Located in Denver, it tests a vehicle for roughly two weeks to determine pollution emissions and improve fuel mileage.

* Operating cost of $25,000 a week funded by the Energy Department.

Featured

• Legislature Blog

  

  Read live updates from the opening of the 2009 legislative session.

• Rocky multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.

• Who's next?

  

  Complete coverage of the Broncos' search for a new coach.

• Rocky year in photos

  

  View an audio slide show of staff selections from 2008.

• Winter Escapes

  

  Your insider’s guide to the copious joys of the coolest season.

• Sam Adams' Open Mic

  

  Open Mic: Two-man advantage with Avs

• Shanahan's career

  

  See photos from Mike Shanahan's career as Broncos coach.

• 12 days of Drew

  

  Look back at the year that has been with Drew Litton.

• A dream fulfilled

  

  A Rocky Mountain News and MediaStorm production