Gas prices haven't been this low since 2007

US drivers can hail the return of the gold old days, if they consider 2007 to be "old." That's the last time gasoline and diesel prices were as low as they are today, according to the Diesel Driver. And some experts are saying gas prices could fall further on an oil-inventory glut and a continued decrease in demand from China.

Truckers, in particular, can celebrate, since diesel fuel is priced on average at about $2.48 a gallon right now, about 48 percent less than a year ago. Regular gas costs about $2.06 a gallon, on average, or about 35 percent less than it did last year. If you're looking to see how the trend is going, both gas and diesel prices are down two or three cents a gallon in the past week alone.

These costs are driven largely by the Midwest. Michigan has the country's lowest-priced gas at about $1.80 a gallon, and states such as Oklahoma, Missouri, South Carolina and Ohio are all within a penny or two of that figure. Not as happy are the folks out west. Hawaii, per usual, has the country's most expensive gas at more than $2.80 a gallon, followed up by California at $2.69 a gallon and Nevada at $2.53 a gallon.

The only folks who may not be ready for the full-fledged party are sellers of hybrid and plug-in vehicles, which have been banking on higher gas prices to push consumers towards alternative powertrains. Last month, US sales of hybrids, plug-ins and diesel fell 27 percent from a year earlier. Even after factoring out the stop-sale of Volkswagen diesels, green-car sales still fell 16 percent compared to November 2015. Who's happy now?

ExxonMobil: Diesel Will Overtake Gasoline In Seven Years

 

According to a report published by ExxonMobil called Outlook For Energy: A View To 2040, diesel will overtake gasoline as the number one fuel by the year 2020, which is only seven years away.

The report also stated that diesel will continue to increase its market share well into 2040. 27 years is a very long time, so could this be wishful thinking? First: The efficiency of gasoline and diesel-fueled automobiles is likely to improve considerably, and these efficiency improvements enable us to continue using gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles, despite increasing gasoline and diesel costs. That said, diesel engines have the ability to be far more efficient than gas engines, and consumers are starting to catch on.

Apart from this, hybrid and electric vehicles have been making strides recently because of the push for electrification of the automobile, and these strides have not shrunken, they have increased in size. Gasoline demand is expected to remain flat because of these efficiencies, despite an expected doubling of the number of gasoline-powered vehicles on the road.

Finally, hybrids can also help extend the lifespan of the oil industry because their efficiency enables people to continue using gasoline, even if gasoline prices are unusually high because they won’t need much of it. Basically, fuel efficient cars, once the enemy of the oil industry, have become an unlikely ally. Wrap your mind around that.

Source: Green Car Congress

For real? Researchers use air, water to make gasoline

Here's a potentially really cool discovery that combines air and water, and it ain't Perrier.

UK-based Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS) says it has found a way for those two basic elements to be combined to make fuel. In a nutshell, the company electrolyzes water to produce hydrogen, which is combined with carbon dioxide via a fuel reactor to make a fuel-type liquid. And that fuel can be blended with gas, diesel or jet fuel. Describing this in more detail would require finding our 10th grade chemistry books (it's complicated), but the company says it's making as many as 10 liters of liquid fuel a day from a small demonstration setup.

AFS is putting some money into the project – about 1 million British pounds ($1.6 million) during the past two years, according to a BBC video that can be seen below – to bring the technology to commercial scale. You can also read AFS' more scientific explanation below. Don't worry, you won't be tested.

Source: Autoblog Green