CO-OPTIMIZATION OF FUELS &amp; ENGINES

While vehicles with more efficient and sophisticated engines are hitting the road in ever-greater numbers, their performance is limited by the properties of today’s conventional fuels. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative are exploring how simultaneous innovations in fuels and engines can boost fuel economy and vehicle performance, while reducing emissions—advancing the underlying science needed to deliver better fuels and better engines sooner.

The Co-Optima team views fuels not as standalone elements in the transportation system, but as dynamic design variables that can work with modern engines to optimize and revolutionize the entire on-road fleet, from light-duty passenger cars to heavy-duty freight trucks. Top scientists, engineers, and analysts from national laboratories, universities, and industry are collaborating on this first-of-its-kind effort to combine biofuels and combustion research and development.

Building on decades of advances in fuels and engines, the Co-Optima initiative’s three-pronged, integrated approach is providing American industry with the scientific underpinnings needed to identify and develop:

Engines designed to run more efficiently on affordable, scalable, and sustainable fuels
Fuels designed to enable high-efficiency, low-emission engines
Strategies that can shape the success of new fuels and vehicle technologies with industry and consumers.

Download the Co-Optima fact sheet for a more detailed overview of the initiative.