Aramco opens R&D center in Detroit

Saudi Aramco inaugurated its new research and development (R&D) center in Detroit. The new facility is located in Novi, Michigan and owned and operated by U.S. subsidiary Aramco Services Company.

The 50,000-square-foot Detroit research center is equipped with four state-of-the-art engine dynamometer labs, and in mid-2016, a vehicle integration lab featuring a chassis dynamometer for evaluating engine performance and identifying solutions to all types of system integration challenges. This includes ensuring that new technologies will meet vehicle performance and emissions specifications in a wide range of certification cycles under cold (20°F) and hot (120°F) conditions.

Specific areas of research being conducted at Aramco’s new Detroit center include fuel combustion and emissions, technology integration and strategic transport studies. The research center is tasked with developing, demonstrating and showcasing low-carbon-footprint transportation technologies, in support of reducing CO2 emissions from transport sources.

“Fuels technology is a critical area of research for Saudi Aramco where we are leveraging on our leading position in integrated oil and gas production and refining to invest in innovative solutions that will significantly improve efficiency and lower emissions from the (production) well-head to the (car) wheel,” said Amin H. Nasser, President and CEO, Saudi Aramco, who led today’s inauguration of the center.

“Opening a research center in Detroit demonstrates our commitment to enabling meaningful impacts and the Motor City gives us an ideal platform to bring the talent of Aramco’s researchers together with great collaboration partners in the heart of the U.S. automotive industry.”

Supporting facilities include a prototype engine build lab, fabrication shop, vehicle soak room, engine start-cart lab, and associated vehicle integration facilities.

U.S. subsidiary Aramco Services Company’s other research centers are: the Aramco Research Center-Boston, in Cambridge across the street from MIT; and the Aramco Research Center-Houston, in the city’s northwest area Energy Corridor. Aramco’s other research facilities are located in Aberdeen; Delft, The Netherlands; Daejeon, Korea; Paris; and Beijing; as well as Dhahran and Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.

The research centers are closely aligned with the company’s award-winning research organizations: the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center’s Advanced Research Center and the Research & Development Center located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.