description
- There is an urgent requirement at the European and global levels for the development of low carbon transportation fuels as they have a key part to play in the enabling of sustainable mobility. The area is vitally important for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting climate change impact of transportation. This will be achieved by adopting a holistic approach which studies fuel design parameters and engine behaviour along with carbon sequestration technologies and green house gas life cycle analysis. This proposed industry-academia interchange tackles fundamental challenges in understanding mechanisms that will be key to unlocking future improvements in the development of low carbon fuels. Long-term collaborative relationships will be established between Shell, the coordinating host organisation and four partner universities - Aachen, CNRS (Orleans), Bologna and Imperial College. This will link their collective combustion and lifecycle CO2 scientific expertise directly with Shell’s longstanding R&D capability in CO2 reduction technologies. In the first two years, university researchers will participate via secondments to multi-disciplinary R&D projects carried out at Shell. An annual one-week workshop will bring together all the participants (research fellows, industrial and university supervisors, and a scientific advisory board), enabling new technical synergies to be established. Industry approaches to the commercialisation of knowledge will be conveyed to each university via the short term secondments of senior Shell researchers. To demonstrate commitment to a durable intersectorial collaboration, Shell will pay for the cost of the researchers' reintegration year and academia and industry will jointly develop and implement follow-on programmes of research. This will establish the platform for a lasting intersectorial collaboration.