Ford to Conduct Research on Alternative Fuel Systems, Says DOE

Ford Motor Company has been recently chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct a research regarding flex fuel engines that are capable of running with E85 and clean diesel fuels. Ford will do the research in conjunction with the Michigan State University (MSU). Ford and MSU will focus on improving the flexible-fuel engines in day to day applications.

Ford has received a total of $4.5 million from DOE to fund the research. In fact, DOE will put up 21.5 million to finance 11 cost-shared research and development projects here in the US. Two of these 11 research projects were given to Ford. DOE gave the Dearborn-based automaker with $3.2 million for the research on improving flexible-fuel engines, and $1.3 million for a research project that focus on diesel-boosting technologies to improve the efficiency and performance of advanced clean combustion diesel engines.

Ford was pleased with this announcement. According to Sue Cischke, Ford's senior vice president Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering: “We are very excited about this news. As a leader in both flexible fuel and hybrid technology, Ford is the ideal company to be involved with this research.”

Cischke continued: “In addition to hybrids and flexible fuel vehicles, Ford is committed to the development of other advanced alternative fuel technologies, including clean diesel, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen. This research grant will help us further develop technologies designed
to help reduce this nation's dependence on imported oil.”

Well, we should support this kind of research and hope that this will contribute in the development of alternative fuel powertrain system.