A team at RWTH Aachen University in Germany has proposed a Molecularly-Controlled high swirl Combustion system (MCC) which involves dual direct injection of a low- and a high-reactivity fuel in combination with lean relative air-fuel-ratios, high compression ratio, and compression ignition. Run with an ethanol/1-octanol combination, the MCC system achieves... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group will collaborate with the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) jointly to research and develop an advanced fuel for an ultra lean-burn, spark-ignition engine that aims to lower the overall carbon dioxide emissions of a vehicle. Hyundai Motor Group... Read more →

A team at Sandia National Laboratories has designed a five-component gasoline-like blend containing 40% vol of a mixture of 2-methyl furan and 2,5-dimethyl furan (representative of products of a viable pathway to make furans from bio-feedstock). Simulations show promising results when the resulting fuel is compared to regular E10 gasoline.... Read more →

Biologists at Sandia National Laboratories have developed comprehensive software that will help scientists in a variety of industries create engineered chemicals more quickly and easily. Sandia is now looking to license the software for commercial use, researchers said. Sandia’s stand-alone software RetSynth uses a novel algorithm to sort through large,... Read more →

A new report from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Co-Optima initiative identifies the top 13 diesel fuel blendstocks from biomass resources that could reduce harmful emissions from medium- to heavy-duty diesel vehicles. The top 13 blendstocks include hydrocarbons, esters, and ethers that have the potential to reduce GHG emissions... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) selected four projects totaling $1 million to conduct advanced applied research and development concerning the interaction between promising biofuels and combustion engines. The projects will leverage a range of National Laboratory capabilities as part of the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative, and... Read more →

A report released this week highlights the most significant breakthroughs of the last year in the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative, with details on findings that could translate into significant greenhouse gas (GHG) and tailpipe emissions reductions. Co-Optima researchers are focused on identifying... Read more →

The Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) National Laboratory consortium is overseeing a Directed Funding Opportunity (DFO) to apply the unique, world-class capabilities of the consortium toward addressing specific challenges identified by applicants from industry and academia. This DFO seeks proposals to advance foundational knowledge at the fuel-engine interface, as... Read more →

For the past four years, the US Department of Energy’s Co-Optima team (earlier post) has focused research efforts on turbocharged (or “boosted”) spark-ignition (SI) engines, which is the dominant combustion approach for light-duty vehicles such as passenger cars and light trucks. This research involves identifying the fuel properties and engine... Read more →

A new single-phase catalyst that enables the conversion of renewable and waste carbon into sustainable diesel fuels has been developed through a collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and two US Department of Energy (DOE) consortia, Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy (ChemCatBio) and the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected seven projects for awards totaling $1.94 million to conduct research and development to accelerate the adoption of performance-advantaged biofuel blendstocks. These fuels are derived from renewable feedstocks, and can deliver exceptional efficiency with low emissions. The seven projects will leverage National Laboratory... Read more →

Scientists, engineers, and analysts with the US Department of Energy’s Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative are examining how simultaneous improvements to fuels and engines can improve efficiency and reduce emissions and costs for the entire on-road fleet, including light-duty (LD), medium-duty (MD), and heavy-duty (HD) internal combustion vehicles... Read more →

A new machine-learning tool has significantly speeded up calculating the thermodynamics of chemical reactions, making it possible to identify the most promising fuels for lower emissions and greater engine efficiency in seconds. Developed as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative (earlier... Read more →

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed an onboard separation system that could support increased fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions as part of an octane-on-demand fuel-delivery system. A paper on the team’s exploratory research, which was supported under the DOE’s Co-Optima... Read more →

For the past four years, the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) National Laboratory consortium has focused research efforts primarily on turbocharged (boosted) spark-ignition (SI) engines for light-duty vehicles. This research involves identifying the fuel properties and engine parameters that mitigate knock and emissions, while maximizing boosted SI efficiency and... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Co-Optima initiative is overseeing a Directed Funding Opportunity (DFO) to apply the unique, world-class capabilities of the consortium toward addressing specific challenges identified by applicants from industry and academia. The Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) National Laboratory consortium is jointly sponsored by the... Read more →

A novel oxygenate molecule that can be produced from biomass shows promise for use as a blend for diesel fuel, according to researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Their paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The NREL scientists, along with colleagues at... Read more →

A new Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) report describes the top ten biofuel-derived blendstock candidates. These top candidates, when blended with petroleum and used in a boosted spark ignition (BSI) engine, will offer environmental benefits and boost energy efficiency all while being available at a competitive price. One of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $59 million to 43 projects for new and innovative advanced vehicle technologies research. Funded through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, these projects include solid-state batteries (15 projects) and power-dense electric motors (5 projects); co-optimized engine and fuel technologies (3... Read more →

Three years after embarking upon rigorous evaluation of a pool of more than 400 candidates (earlier post), researchers with the US Department of Energy (DOE) Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative have identified the six blendstocks—di-isobutylene, ethanol, fusel alcohol blend, isobutanol, isopropanol, and n-propanol—that exhibit the greatest potential to... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $59 million for new and innovative advanced vehicle technologies research. Funded through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, this funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0002014) seeks projects to address priorities in advanced batteries and electric drive systems, energy efficient mobility systems, materials... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a three-year, $1 million grant to a team of researchers led by a UMass Lowell mechanical engineering professor that is working to develop renewable fuel additives from sawdust and other wood byproducts. The project is part of the Department of Energy’s Co-Optima... Read more →

In a paper in the journal Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, Gautam Kalghatgi, newly retired from Saudi Aramco and a visiting professor at Imperial College London and Oxford; Howard Levinsky, Senior Principal Specialist in Combustion Processes at DNV GL Oil and Gas and Professor of Combustion Technology at the... Read more →

Auburn University researchers are leading a $2-million US Department of Energy Co-Optima project (earlier post) that will evaluate renewable butyl acetate (BA) as a bio-based fuel additive that can be blended with diesel fuel to reduce soot and greenhouse gas emissions and yield cleaner engine operation in cold-weather conditions. Joining... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Hyundai America Technical Center $4.95 million over three years as part of an $80-million Co-Optima funding round (earlier post) to conduct research and development for an advanced mixed-mode gasoline (spark/compression ignition) engine to attain significant improvements in both fuel economy and CO2... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 42 projects for $80 million in funding to support the development of advanced vehicle technologies. Selected projects cover the following areas: Batteries and Electrification ($31.9 million): These research projects will develop technologies to recharge multiple electric vehicles quickly and at very high... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued four funding opportunities (FOAs) totaling up to $78 million to support early-stage bioenergy research and development under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). These include: BioEnergy Engineering for Products Synthesis (BEEPS) (up to $28 million) (DE-FOA-0001916) This... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award up to $68.5 million for early-stage research of advanced vehicle technologies. (DE-FOA-0001919) This new funding opportunity announcement (FOA) seeks research projects to address priorities in the following areas: batteries and electrification; materials; technology integration and energy efficient mobility systems; energy-efficient commercial off-road... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released two studies from the Co-Optimization of Engines & Fuels initiative (Co-Optima) (earlier post). The first study, Fuel Blendstocks with the Potential to Optimize Future Gasoline Engine Performance, identifies eight representative high-octane blendstocks across five chemical groups that could be blended into gasoline... Read more →

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have pinpointed optimized engine designs for a given fuel. Simulations performed by Argonne found two optimized fuel-engine concepts that could improve fuel efficiency substantially, said Yuanjiang Pei, a lab scientist who specializes in computational fluid dynamics at the Aramco Research... Read more →

In separate presentations at the 2017 SAE High Efficiency IC Engine Symposium in Detroit, R&D executives from GM and Ford each stressed the importance of improved, advanced fuels—among other technology developments—for their future engine efficiency gains and for long-term CO2 emissions goals. David Brooks, Director for General Motors Global Propulsion... Read more →

A team at RWTH Aachen University has developed a framework for the model-based formulation of biofuel blends with tailored properties by considering the fuel’s molecular composition as the fundamental design degree of freedom. A paper on their work is published in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels. The researchers envision... Read more →

Penn State Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Yuan Xuan and researchers at Yale University will work together to identify clean-burning biofuels for next-generation internal combustion engines under to a $1.2 million award from the Energy Department’s Co-Optimization of Fuels and Engines Initiative (Co-Optima). (Earlier post.) Co-Optima has two goals: to... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Co-Optima initiative—a broad, joint effort to co-optimize the development of efficient engines and low greenhouse-gas fuels for on-road vehicles with the goal of reducing petroleum consumption by 30% by 2030 beyond what is already targeted (earlier post)—has published a year-in-review report for FY 2016—the... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award up to $7 million to projects at eight universities to accelerate the introduction of affordable, scalable, and sustainable high-performance fuels for use in high-efficiency, low-emission engines. Under the Co-Optimization of Fuels and Engines (Co-Optima) initiative (earlier post), DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office and... Read more →

In October 2015, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) launched a broad, joint effort to co-optimize the development of efficient engines and low greenhouse-gas fuels for on-road vehicles with the goal of reducing petroleum consumption by 30% by 2030 beyond what is already targeted. (Earlier post.) The intended application is... Read more →

Increased market penetration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and range-extended electric vehicles (REEVs) across vehicle segments could present an opportunity for emerging advanced combustion regime engines, such as those using various low-temperature combustion modes, according to a number of presentations at the SAE 2016 Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles... Read more →