Automotive/Fuel Cooperative Research - Past, Present and Future

In the United States, the Coordinating Research Council (CRC) is the organization that for 58 years has been the mechanism through which the automotive and petroleum industries have undertaken to solve technical questions of mutual interest to the two industries. This paper presents a brief overview of the CRC, its relationship to SAE, its role in automotive research, current and future studies, and the need for worldwide cooperative research efforts. Discussion of current studies includes a CRC program to examine how to measure diesel particulate in the laboratory to accurately reflect on-road conditions and a study to develop a combustion chamber deposit (CCD) test for use as a research tool.

Cooperative research is an important mechanism for generating the data necessary for solving well-defined technical issues of importance to both the automotive and petroleum industries and the public. With the advent of the “World Car,” and mandated air quality improvement worldwide, research needs will most likely exceed the financial resources individual companies and countries are willing to spend. Cooperative research, in addition to cost saving, also provides the important advantage of leveraging technical expertise. Means by which the automobile and petroleum industries can cooperate worldwide need to be improved so that both the environmental and associated automotive technical issues can be addressed in a cost-effective manner. Addressing these issues requires research on both vehicles and fuels. Cooperation can begin with an exchange of technical reports, evolving into each organization addressing a part of the research problem, and finally co-funded research programs.