Methanol ICE Development for Marine Applications

This research project is focused on addressing a significant problem in the field of propulsion: the need for cleaner, more efficient liquid fuels. The project specifically explores the potential of methanol, a type of alcohol, as a fuel for internal combustion engines in the marine sector. Methanol is chosen due to its unique properties such as a high octane number, autoignition temperature and heat of vaporization, embedded oxygen, and excellent lean burn properties which can lead to cleaner, more efficient combustion and thus, reduced emissions while improving performance. The project is divided into two stages:

Stage 1: Conversion and Testing
In the first stage, a standard 1-cylinder petrol test engine is convert it to run on methanol. This involves modifying the engine's fuel delivery system to handle methanol, which behaves differently to petrol. The goal is to see if the engine's performance and emissions can be improved by using methanol instead of petrol and what it takes to do a methanol conversion.

Stage 2: Designing a Specialized Engine
In the second stage, the insights and knowledge gained from the first stage are leveraged to design a new engine that is specifically optimized for methanol. This engine will be designed and built from the ground up with methanol in mind, potentially offering even greater benefits than a simple petrol to methanol conversion.

The ultimate goal of this research is to see if methanol can be used to improve the efficiency and reduce the emissions of marine engines, helping the UK achieve its net-zero targets by 2050. While the initial focus is on smaller vessels, the findings could potentially be applied to larger marine applications and other transport sectors, such as automotive and aviation in the future.
In addition to the experimental work, the project also involves creating computer models of the engines. These computer simulations will mimic the behaviour of the real engine under different operating conditions, allowing for raping testing and optimization of various concepts without having to build physical prototypes. This can save time and resources, and allows exploration of a wider range of possibilities.

Impact Summary

This proposal has been developed from the ground up to guarantee the highest level of impact. The two principal routes towards impact are via the graduates that we train and by the embedding of the research that is undertaken into commercial activity. The impact will have a significant commercial value through addressing skills requirements and providing technical solutions for the automotive industry - a key sector for the UK economy.

The graduates that emerge from our CDT (at least 84 people) will be transformative in two distinct ways. The first is a technical route and the second is cultural.

In a technical role, their deep subject matter expertise across all of the key topics needed as the industry transitions to a more sustainable future. This expertise is made much more accessible and applicable by their broad understanding of the engineering and commercial context in which they work. They will have all of the right competencies to ensure that they can achieve a very significant contribution to technologies and processes within the sector from the start of their careers, an impact that will grow over time. Importantly, this CDT is producing graduates in a highly skilled sector of the economy, leading to jobs that are £50,000 more productive per employee than average (i.e. more GVA). These graduates are in demand, as there are a lack of highly skilled engineers to undertake specialist automotive propulsion research and fill the estimated 5,000 job vacancies in the UK due to these skills shortages. Ultimately, the CDT will create a highly specialised and productive talent pipeline for the UK economy.

The route to impact through cultural change is perhaps of even more significance in the long term. Our cohort will be highly diverse, an outcome driven by our wide catchment in terms of academic background, giving them a 'diversity edge'. The cultural change that is enabled by this powerful cohort will have a profound impact, facilitating a move away from 'business as usual'.

The research outputs of the CDT will have impact in two important fields - the products produced and processes used within the indsutry. The academic team leading and operating this CDT have a long track record of generating impact through the application of their research outputs to industrially relevant problems. This understanding is embodied in the design of our CDT and has already begun in the definition of the training programmes and research themes that will meet the future needs of our industry and international partners. Exchange of people is the surest way to achieve lasting and deep exchange of expertise and ideas. The students will undertake placements at the collaborating companies and will lead to employment of the graduates in partner companies.

The CDT is an integral part of the IAAPS initiative. The IAAPS Business Case highlights the need to develop and train suitably skilled and qualified engineers in order to achieve, over the first five years of IAAPS' operations, an additional £70 million research and innovation expenditure, creating an additional turnover of £800 million for the automotive sector, £221 million in GVA and 1,900 new highly productive jobs.

The CDT is designed to deliver transformational impact for our industrial partners and the automotive sector in general. The impact is wider than this, since the products and services that our partners produce have a fundamental part to play in the way we organise our lives in a modern society. The impact on the developing world is even more profound. The rush to mobility across the developing world, the increasing spending power of a growing global middle class, the move to more urban living and the increasingly urgent threat of climate change combine to make the impact of the work we do directly relevant to more people than ever before. This CDT can help change the world by effecting the change that needs to happen in our industry.