Fueling the Future of Transport Podcast

As the automotive landscape shifts toward electrification, how will the electric grid keep up? WeaveGrid is providing a technological bridge between industry players, from utilities to automakers to charging station operators, and in this episode, we dive into the intersection of technology, policy, and the electrification revolution.

Apoorv Bhargava, CEO & Cofounder, WeaveGrid

“My worry is that the conversation is so dominated by critical minerals and the need for labor unions and the need for manufacturing capacity and this and that, that we are forgetting the fact that when we start cranking out 10 million vehicles a year in this country – forget getting to a place of having 280 on the road – we will find the grid is not ready to handle it and that we have not built out the requisite grid infrastructure and of course, the corresponding charging infrastructure to support it, but really importantly, the grid infrastructure. And, I think that is going to be a huge failure moment where we forgot that finding bottlenecks in supply chains isn’t just looking upstream. It also means looking downstream. And the grid, in my view, is one of the biggest downstream risks to large-scale electrification.”

Apoorv Bhargava is the CEO and Co-founder of WeaveGrid. WeaveGrid is a software company that drives rapid decarbonization at the intersection of clean energy and transportation, by helping some of the largest utilities and automakers transform electric vehicles into grid assets. Apoorv has dedicated his career to furthering innovation in the climate and energy sectors. His prior experiences include Opower and NRG, as well as in management consulting at BCG and climate-focused venture capital. He was featured on both the GreenBiz and Forbes 30 Under 30 Lists in 2019 for his work on WeaveGrid. Apoorv holds an MBA and an MS from Stanford University, and graduated from Rice University with a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a B.A. in Economics.

The post #100. Accelerating Decarbonization at the Intersection of Transportation and Energy appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

In this episode, Ben Nyland, President and CEO of Loop Energy, discusses their role in enabling zero-emission transportation. We discuss Loop’s hydrogen fuel cell technology in multiple applications, the impact of policies, and the challenges and opportunities in the growing hydrogen sector.

Learn more about Loop Energy

Ben Nyland, President and CEO, Loop Energy

“We see an opportunity for Loop to be a major international player in this value chain, really enabling vehicle manufacturers to deliver zero-emission vehicles that meet both the emission and the economic requirements that fleets have and their operating requirements at the same time. And that’s our mandate, that’s our mission. And we see ourselves as a key part of the solution to making zero emissions a reality in the transportation sector.”

As President & CEO of Loop Energy, Ben Nyland strategically guides the company’s vision to design and manufacture fuel cell solutions for the commercial vehicle industry. Ben was appointed President of Loop Energy in 2015 and Chief Executive Officer in 2016. Under his leadership, Loop Energy has grown its operations internationally, with facilities in China and Europe to serve its growing customer base in Asia and Europe. During his tenure, Ben has overseen the launch of multiple industry leading products while expanding Loop Energy’s team to China, the US and Europe. He led the company in securing two rounds of strategic investment and subsequently through the IPO process in 2021, raising $100 million on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Prior to joining Loop Energy, Ben spent over 10 years in a variety of senior management positions, including as President of Rampworth Capital Services, Exro Technologies and Maclean Group Marketing.

The post #99. Driving Zero-Emission Innovation With Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

What are the challenges and future prospects of ethanol in the European market? David Carpintero of ePURE, the association representing European producers of renewable ethanol, discusses the state of the ethanol industry in Europe, the goal of reaching 10% ethanol blending in the EU, and the development of advanced ethanol technologies in Europe.

David Carpintero, Director General, ePURE

“And I think new internal combustion and engine approaches to powertrains where we are able to use and benefit from both biofuels and efuels will be part of how we tackle this big issue of defossilizing transport.”

David joined ePURE as Director General in June 2022. Previously he worked as Director General for a Brussels-based food trade association and has a long international experience with a multinational in the agricultural sector with postings in Europe and America. He started his career as a management consultant with A.T. Kearney. David earned an MBA at IESE Business School and a Master’s in Agronomic Engineering at Polytechnic University of Madrid.

The post #98. Exploring Europe’s Ethanol Industry and Policy Landscape appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is identical to conventional jet fuel but made from renewable resources and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 85%. Rohini Sengupta, Director of Sustainability and Decarbonization at United Airlines, discusses United’s commitment to reaching net zero by 2050 through strategies such as fuel reduction and the expansion of SAF usage, highlighting both the opportunities and the challenges as the market scales up.

Rohini Sengupta, Director, Environmental Sustainability, United Airlines

“We don’t have a magic wand to do over and just create a brand new way of providing energy to aircraft to get people around the world. And, it’s important to get people around the world. So I think we have to find ways to smartly transition using what’s in the ground. We always have to recognize that and aim to strive for better.”

Rohini Sengupta has worked in all aspects of the environmental industry, from quantifying greenhouse gas reductions in operations to helping shape global climate policy. Currently, she is the Director of Environmental Sustainability for United Airlines. Rohini has been recognized as an expert on the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, nominated to ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), as well as the company’s lead on carbon markets and climate policy/legislation. Before several positions at United, Rohini was an Environmental Specialist and Engineer at BP, focusing on refinery greenhouse gas emissions, with before that biofuel coprocessing and hydroprocessing. Rohini received her Bachelors of Science in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University.

The post #97. Sustainable Aviation: A Conversation with United Airlines appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

Renewable DME (dimethyl ether) is a sustainable fuel that is formed using waste and other feedstocks, creating LPG. In some cases, rDME production is low-carbon and even carbon-negative. Slightly a crash course in chemistry, this episode will dive into the production and benefits behind rDME.

Rebecca Boudreaux. President and CEO, Oberon Fuels

“It’s interesting when people think about innovation generally. They think about the new shiny object, something really cool that’s being released. And so naturally when we think about decarbonization, we think about something completely new. What is a completely new thing we’re going to do to help the world decarbonize because we love new things and we love shiny objects. But I think it’s more important that we say, how are we gonna decarbonize really quickly and what do we have that partly exists that we can leverage to help that happen faster?”

Rebecca Boudreaux, Ph. D. is President and Chief Executive Officer of Oberon Fuels. Oberon is the first company in the world to commercialize renewable DME as a straightforward way to both slash the CO2 emissions of the huge propane industry, and transport renewable hydrogen more efficiently and cost effectively.

The post #96 Decarbonizing with DME (Dimethyl Ether) appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

Chevron believes the future of energy needs to be lower carbon, reliable and affordable. The company is taking a “portfolio approach” to carbon intensity reduction, investing in an array of different technologies to meet its carbon reduction targets. One of those technologies we discuss in this episode is Chevron’s partnership with Toyota and its recent road trip across the Southeast U.S. to test its new renewable gasoline formulation. Learn more about the road trip, how consumers and policymakers responded, and about what Chevron is planning for the future.

Kaustav Sinha, Director, Strategic Partnerships, Chevron

“We need to continue to learn from our past, plan for the future, but most importantly, act now on what is in our control and we believe working collaboratively with fuel producers and innovators in the automotive, agriculture and technologies sectors can promote adoption of these lower-carbon technologies like renewable gasoline blend.”

Kaustav Sinha is director of strategic partnerships. He is responsible for leading a global team across multiple Chevron business units to develop Chevron’s enterprise automotive OEM strategy and shape the potential for commercial, technology and advocacy partnerships with strategic OEM partners, with a focus on lower carbon solutions.

Prior to his current role, Kaustav was Manager, Global Strategic Account responsible for managing people, P&L, strategy, business development and operations of one of Chevron Oronite’s largest ustomer portfolios. He also led Chevron Oronite’s North American sales organization where he and his team played a key role in growing the regional business and developed a growth portfolio with multimillion-dollar opportunity pipeline. Previous assignments included global product segment management here he led one of Chevron Oronite’s key automotive growth projects from early development phase through commercialization. He has actively participated in several industry advocacy positions where he worked closely with various industry groups, energy companies and OEMs to develop new specifications and build strategic partnerships.

Prior to joining Chevron, he worked at Dow Chemical, Infineum (an ExxonMobil & Shell JV) and Ford Research in various technology, strategy, R&D and product development roles. He has over 15 years of technical, commercial and people management experience with focus on building and scaling new products, businesses, and teams in the energy/chemicals industry. He regularly engages in various diversity, inclusion and mentoring initiatives and is currently on the enterprise leadership team of Chevron’s elevate program (an inhouse diversity and inclusive initiative supported by Chevron’s CDIO).

He received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Nevada Reno and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

The post #95. Chevron: The Future Is Lower Carbon Energy appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

Methanol – it’s everywhere you want to be! Blue World Technologies is developing methanol fuel cells for stationary, automotive, heavy-duty and maritime applications and paving the way to net zero.

Anders Korsgaard, CEO and Co-Founder, Blue World Technologies

“Just looking at the last couple hundred years, we’ve been relying on the discovery of fossil energy to drive our growth. Now we are changing that. It’s the biggest change in the last 200 years, since the early 1800s, that we’ve been replacing both conversion and devices such as combustion intelligence and also sources of energy. It’s a pivotal moment where humankind has the opportunity to continue growth or to do the opposite. But really, if you don’t change that now, it’s like we have already peaked. But if we succeed in this transition, then there’s infinite growth potential ahead in the future.”

Anders Korsgaard is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Blue World Technologies. An experienced tech entrepreneur and leader with a focus on new energy technologies and with a PhD and DBE from Columbia/CBS, Anders was previously the founder and former CEO of SerEnergy.

The post #94. A Whole Blue World: The Future of Methanol Fuel Cells appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

When the founder of EV charging company FreeWire took apart his first electric vehicle to find it resembled a washing machine motor, he realized that EVs would be the simpler and safer car that the world needed. After making a name in Silicon Valley as a one-man charging network, Arcady Sosinov’s company is revolutionizing the way retailers (formerly known as gas stations) are viewing their EV charging business.

Arcady Sosinov, CEO, FreeWire Technologies

“I remember getting a Fiat 500E, it’s a little tiny car…I put it up on a lift, tore it apart, dropped the battery pack and I looked at what remained, and there was almost nothing on the ground. I mean, it was just a battery pack that was relatively simple to design at this point, a motor that was effectively a souped-up washing machine motor – the same motor that we’ve been using in washing machines for many decades now – and I just think about it now. Imagine you telling me or telling my kids one day that we used to drive around and there were thousands of little explosions that happened within the hood of the car and we had to control those little explosions. So how did those explosions happen? Well, we used dinosaurs and that concept seems crazy and complex. And when you look at how simple the platform the electric vehicle is, you start to think to yourself simplicity always wins. It always wins.”

Arcady is the Founder and serves as the Chief Executive Officer of FreeWire. Prior to founding FreeWire, he spent almost a decade in finance and investment management, most recently at GMO and prior to that BNY Mellon. Arcady holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and an economics degree from Boston University.

The post #93. Who Owns the EV Customer? appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

Ukrainian Serhiy Kaminskyi invented a revolutionary battery storage system and details his journey from founding the company SorbiForce in Ukraine to today’s expansion to the U.S. Self-professed as “the Google of battery storage”, this technology start-up offers a safe and sustainable energy system that could alter electrification across many sectors.

Serhiy Kaminskyi, Founder and Kevin Drolet, Chief Marketing Officer, SorbiForce

“So actually, I am a citizen of the planet. I have no borders. I don’t like any borders. And I’m trying to think globally. As I told you, to be a global company you have to be at the cutting edge of this, in the center of the revolution. And now this revolution is in the United States.”

Serhiy Kaminsky is the founder of SorbiForce. Serhey is an author of the idea, an engineer, and the head of an R&D center. He created and managed large productions and consulted over 10 startups in the field of renewable energy.

The post #92. The Challenging Journey of a Ukrainian Sustainable Battery Company appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.

FuelsEurope is the business association for fuels manufacturers in Europe and we talk with Director General John Cooper about Europe’s energy transition including the Clean Fuels for All campaign, Fit for 55, and how global energy policies affect European actions.

If you would like to learn more about this subject, visit www.cleanfuelsforall.eu.

Related Links:

Episode #13. John Cooper: There’s Space in the Carbon Budget for Liquid & Petroleum Fuels
Clean Fuels for All
FuelsEurope

John Cooper, Director General, FuelsEurope

“Our work started very soon after the Paris Agreement to look at what the transformation of the fuels industry can look like and what kind of technologies, feedstocks, and what kind of trajectory is implied by that work. And, we turned that into essentially a strategy for our industry to provide a pathway by 2050 for all of the remaining liquid fuels demand to be climate neutral. And we could see that some of that could go into each of the sectors, and it meant that both those objectives of meeting quality of life and also climate neutrality could be met with those remaining products that we would produce. And so we decided to call it Clean Fuels for All.”

John Cooper was appointed Director General, FuelsEurope and Concawe in April 2015. He started his career in the motor industry working on future powertrains, and after 3 years moved to BP Downstream where he has 27 years of experience. His previous role was as Director, Renewables Strategy Downstream, leading BP’s commercial compliance strategy for renewables regulation. He has also had business leadership roles in aviation fuels and lubricants, transport energy policy, and fuels technology, in the UK and USA, and has represented the UK fuels industry at the UK Automotive Council Technology Group. He holds a BA in Engineering from Cambridge University.

Episode Transcript

The post #91. Europe Needs Clean Fuels for Net Zero appeared first on Transport Energy Strategies.