37 CIRCULAR CARBON
THE FUTURE OF FUEL
MCLAREN GROUP “McLaren Racing recognizes its responsibility to sustainability, and KAUST helps us advance R&D into long-term sustainable innovations with their excellent expertise, facilities and talent.” Jonathan Neale, Chief Operating Officer of McLaren Group
EFFICIENT COMBUSTION Researchers at KAUST’s Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC) are working to make fuels and combustion more efficient, clean and economical. For example, KAUST PhD student Rafig Babayev and other KAUST researchers from the CCRC published an article in January 2019 detailing a new method called isobaric combustion. This enables internal combustion engines to simultaneously achieve higher efficiency and lower emissions. The study is part of the CCRC’s collaboration with Volvo Trucks to develop a new split-cycle engine concept. Babayev’s study showed that isobaric combustion can improve the thermal efficiency of an engine by reducing heat transfer loss by 20% and simultaneously cutting nitrogen oxide emissions in half. It is expected that isobaric combustion can enable split-cycle engines to achieve 60% energy efficiency – significantly higher than the 45% efficiency of standard truck engines. Hydrocarbons and the technologies that rely on them, such as the combustion engine, are expected to retain an important role in the international energy system in the coming decades. Their use will be needed in multiple emissions pathway scenarios. Scenarios anticipating a slower transition to net zero emissions, as well as scenarios anticipating a strong reliance on carbon capture and storage, project that hydrocarbons are likely to remain a source of energy throughout the 21st century. Scenarios anticipating a more rapid transition recognize significant continued use of hydrocarbons in the decades preceding 2050 – the point at which the global economy is expected to achieve net zero emissions. Either way, innovations that boost the efficiency of combustion technologies will be critical to minimizing their impact on the environment. FUELCOM: PARTNERING WITH SAUDI ARAMCO For almost 10 years, Saudi Aramco and KAUST’s CCRC have been working together to develop game-changing technologies that are shaping
