Hyundai Motor Group announced it will partner with oil giant Saudi Aramco and a Saudi Arabian University to jointly develop an environment-friendly fuel for hybrid vehicles.
Saudi Aramco is the world largest oil producing company and also – expectedly – the single greatest contributor to global carbon emissions. In its efforts to play its part in the global goal of achieving carbon neutrality, it joined hands with the Hyundai to develop an optimal fuel formulation for use with a combustion system in an electrified hybrid vehicle.
The project will take two years with tests being conducted by researchers in the Clean Combustion Research Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
The two companies will take advantage of each others areas of expertise, Hyundai brings its ultra-lean burn combustion design while Saudi Aramco will apply its fuel design and blending know-how.
“As hybrid EVs are rolled out, the real challenge now lies in making strides with optimal fuels and exceptional combustion systems. The Aramco team provides fuel design and blending know-how to improve Hyundai Motor Group engine combustion performance and the outcome could lead to the application of synthetic e-fuels,” Aramco’s Chief Technology Officer Ahmad O. Al-Khowaiter said in the statement.
Hyundai, like other major automakers, has a mission to reduce its emissions by 75 percent by 2040, compared with 2019 level. Further, the company plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2045.
For a company to achieve carbon neutrality, it either needs to balance carbon emissions with carbon removal or cut carbon emissions completely. This partnership with Saudi Aramco falls seems to fall on the balancing emissions side but in general, it is a step in the right direction, for both companies.
