The Alternative Motor Fuel Act of 1988 requires the U.S. Department of Energy to demonstrate and evaluate alternative fuels usage in the United States. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is conducting the Alternative Fuel Truck Evaluation Project to compare alternative fuel and diesel fuel trucks. Information for the comparison comes from data collected on the operational, maintenance, performance, and emissions characteristics of alternative fuel trucks being used in vehicle fleets and comparable diesel fuel trucks servings as controls within the same fleets. This report highlights the start-up experience and presents the lessons learned from a project that operated a fleet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) refuse haulers in Washington, Pennsylvania.

A new demonstration biomass gasifier in Burlington, Vermont, is a major advance toward biopower systems of the 21st century. The purpose of the project is to verify design and operating characteristics of this gasification technology at an intermediate size. The Vermont gasifier is rated at 200 tons of biomass per day. The demonstration will allow further scale-up to a first-of-its-kind commercial gasifier to be demonstrated in the future at an industrial or utility scale.

The report discusses the perspectives on the evolving U.S. electricity future, the renewable electric technology portfolio, the regional outlook, and the opportunities to move forward. Renewables are at a critical juncture as the domestic electricity marketplace moves toward an era of increased choice and greater diversity. The cost and performance of these technologies have improved dramatically over the past decade, yet their market penetration has stalled as the power industry grapples with the implications of the emerging competitive marketplace. Renewable energy technologies already contribute to the global energy mix and are ready to make an even greater contribution in the future. However, the renewables industry faces critical market uncertainties, both domestically and internationally, as policy commitments to renewables at both the federal and state levels are being reshaped to match the emerging competitive marketplace. The energy decisions that we make, or fail to make, today will have long-lasting implications. We can act now to ensure that renewable energy will play a major role in meeting the challenges of the evolving energy future. We have the power to choose.

This is the second issue of the second volume (Fall 1999) of a quarterly bulletin produced under the Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP). It's intended for Federal solar energy champions, i.e., all those who are planning or working on projects in which solar and other renewable energy technologies are being installed in Federal government facilities. Contents include articles describing the implications of Executive Order 13123 for Federal renewable energy installations, and recent solar energy projects of the Departments of Defense and the Interior, the General Services Administration, and the U.S. Postal Service.

Directory of travel for planning and travel with Texas state agencies.

Annual compilation of information and statistics related to educational facilities at public colleges and universities in Texas, including space usage and maintenance, campus planning, and other relevant data.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document addresses mandates.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document addresses planning to govern.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document addresses state revenue capacity and effort.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document addresses federally induced costs affecting state and local governments.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document addresses federal grant programs in fiscal year 1992.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document is a directory of intergovernmental contacts.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document is a directory of intergovernmental contacts.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document is a sourcebook of working documents to accompany high performance public works.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document is a report on ACIR's federal grant fragmentation index.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document addresses significant features of fiscal federalism.

The ACIR Library is composed of publications that study the interactions between different levels of government. This document addresses federal statutory preemption of state and local authority.

Auxein Corporation is demonstrating for commercial use an organic acid phytochelate, derived from what would otherwise be a discarded portion of sugar cane, that could increase the domestic sugar industry's profit margin from near zero to 7%. Along with helping a struggling industry, the phytochelate will bring substantial improvements to crop and tree production and greatly reduce the environmental threat posed by nitrogen-based fertilizers. Currently, the amount of fertilizer used produces harmful levels of run-off that contaminates ground water with unwanted nitrogen. By utilizing organic acid phytochelates, which assist plant growth by unlocking minerals stored in soil, fertilizer use can be dramatically reduced. This would improve crop yields, remove environmental threats to ground water, and cut fertilizer costs by as much as 50%.

Energy Concepts has developed an absorption-augmented system as a cost-effective means of achieving more cooling capacity with a substantial reduction in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for industrial refrigeration. It cuts fuel consumption by 30% by combining an internal combustion engine with a mechanical compression refrigeration system and an absorption refrigeration system. The absorption system is powered by engine waste heat. Conventional industrial refrigeration uses mechanical vapor compression, powered by electric motors, which results in higher energy costs. By the year 2010, the new system could cut fuel consumption by 19 trillion Btu and greenhouse emissions by more than 1 million tons per year.

NREL PV Working With Industry is a quarterly newsletter devoted to the research, development, and deployment performed by NREL staff in concert with their industry and university partners. The Second Quarter, 1999 issue, titled ''Shedding Light on the Matter,'' focuses on the PV-related research activities of NREL's Basic Sciences Center. The editorialist is Satyen Deb, in his role as Director of the Basic Sciences Center.

Fact sheet on manufacturing filler during paper manufacturing written for the NICE3 Program. With its new fiber loading process, Voith Sulzer, Inc., is greatly improving the efficiency of paper production and recycling. Fiber loading produces precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) filler in the pulp recycling process at costs below conventional means. Fiber loading allows papermakers to use as much filler, like PCC, as possible because it costs 80% less than fiber. In addition, increased filler and fines retention due to fiber loading reduces the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions, deinking sludge, and other waste while substantially lowering energy costs. Currently, the most efficient way to produce PCC as filler is to make it in a satellite plant adjacent to a paper mill. Satellite plants exist near large scale paper mills (producing 700 tons per day) because the demand at large mills justifies building a costly ($15 million, average) satellite plant. This new fiber loading process combines the PCC manufacturing technology used in a satellite plant with the pulp processing operations of a paper mill. It is 33% less expensive to augment an existing paper mill with fiber loading technology than to build a satellite plant for the same purpose. This technology …

Fact sheet on curing aluminum can coatings written for the NICE3 Program. Coors Brewing Company has been using ultraviolet (UV) light curing technology on its aluminum beverage cans for 25 years. The company is now looking to share its cost-saving technology with other aluminum can producers. Traditional curing methods for creating external decorations on cans rely on convective-heat ovens to cure ink and over-varnish coatings. These thermal-curing methods require large amounts of energy and money, and can have unintended environmental impacts. Coors' technique uses coating materials that cure when exposed to UV light, thereby eliminating the expensive heat treatments used by conventional coating methods. Additionally, the UV-coating process creates much lower emissions and a smaller pollution waste stream than rival thermal processes because it requires much less solvent than thermal processes. This technology can be used not only in the aluminum can industry, but in the automotive, airline, wood, paper, and plastics industries, as well.

Installing a ''solar wall'' to heat air before it enters a building, called solar ventilation preheating, is one of the most efficient ways of reducing energy costs using clean and renewable energy. A solar wall can be designed as an integral part of a new building or it can be added in a retrofit project.

This special issue of Alternative Fuel News highlights the Fifth National Clean Cities Conference held in Louisville, Kentucky. The momentum for the program is stronger than ever and the coalitions are working to propel the alternative fuel industry forward.