DOE’s OTT Releases Strategic Plan

[The following summarizes the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Transportation Technologies’ Strategic Plan.]

The U.S. faces a number of challenges related to petroleum use. At the same time as vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is rapidly increasing, resulting in an escalating demand for petroleum products, domestic oil production is steadily decreasing, compounding America’s dependence on foreign suppliers. With oil reserves now more concentrated in a smaller number of countries, and many of these countries considered unstable or unfriendly, America is increasingly vulnerable to outside interests, and the threat to America’s security through a disruption or oil embargo is of increasing cause for concern.

Petroleum use also adversely impacts the environment. The exhaust stream from all types of petroleum-fueled vehicles is a major cause of air pollution, with emissions that can include carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulates. The relationship between these pollutants and subsequent health effects is complex and not yet well understood. In order to improve the quality of urban air, many federal and state regulations are calling for more stringent vehicle emissions standards, presenting serious challenges to manufacturers and fleet operators.

On the economic front, the trade deficit caused by oil imports represents a major transfer of wealth and jobs from the U.S. to foreign oil suppliers, stifling domestic economic growth. Another large component of the trade deficit relates to the market for vehicles and related products, and the increasing aggressiveness of foreign competition in both domestic and international markets. In order to reverse the dramatic decline in employment in the U.S. motor vehicle manufacturing industry, there is an urgent need for the U.S. to further develop its advanced transportation technologies, regaining market share domestically and seizing opportunities abroad.

Based on an analysis of this situation, OTT has established the following vision statement. The OTT Vision is that, within the first decade of the 21st Century, the United States will turn the corner in the growth of petroleum use for highway transportation. OTT is addressing this vision by developing and promoting the commercialization of advanced transportation vehicles which use less petroleum and/or cleaner, domestically-sourced nonpetroleum fuels, as well as developing and promoting alternative fuels technologies. Most of OTT’s programs are conducted by resource-sharing partnerships with private industry and academia.

In developing and implementing the OTT Strategic Plan to realistically achieve this vision, the issues and concerns of a number of customer groups and other stakeholders are continuously monitored and addressed. Indeed, OTT itself is organized around the needs of four key customer groups: light vehicle manufacturers and suppliers; heavy vehicle (truck) manufacturers and suppliers; alternative fuel producers and suppliers; and federal, state, and local governments and public/private fleets.

An ongoing dialog also exists with a number of other stakeholder groups, including Congress, a diversity of trade organizations and special interest groups, insurance and public safety organizations, and the agricultural industries. In formulating the plan, OTT has identified and works to continually address a number of complex issues and key practical barriers relating to petroleum displacement, environmental quality and economic growth. And, as in any effort dealing with future events, a number of reasonable assumptions were made during the plan’s development. It should also be noted that OTT programs are often driven by legislation and executive directives and federal and state regulatory actions.

The OTT Strategic Plan includes a slate of activities and target completion dates for each of OTT’s four customer-focused component offices. OTT final products are technologies, and it is vital that U.S. industry pick up the ball to then commercialize these technologies in a marketable product. This fact is another reason for the strong partnerships that each office forms with the private sector at every stage of development.

OTT’s Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies is working to research, develop, and validate technologies that will enable the introduction of practical passenger cars with greater fuel economy and/or lower emissions. Projects include the development of technologies that will lead to more efficient automotive propulsion systems, as well as practical natural gas, ethanol, and electric vehicles, all within the next two decades. OAAT’s work is pursued with an eye toward practical marketability, taking an integrated vehicle systems perspective, concentrating resources on highest-priority barriers, and exploring multiple technology paths.

OTT’s Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies focuses on the diesel engine, pursuing technologies to achieve 55 percent efficiency with ultra-low emissions, increase overall truck system efficiency, and investigate fuels formulation and blending strategies, fuels sensing and control strategies that will enable a greater use of cleaner, domestically sourced, nonpetroleum fuels.

The primary goal of OTT’s Office of Fuels Development is to minimize the cost of fuel ethanol by developing new conversion processes and new feedstock sources, such as agricultural wastes and dedicated energy crops. The goal is to achieve ethanol that is competitively priced with gasoline in the blend market by 2005 and in the pure ethanol market by 2015.

OTT’s Office of Technology Utilization is working to ensure that newly developed transportation technologies receive acceptance among all stakeholders, and is involved with developing fleets and infrastructure, field testing and evaluation, and external communication and outreach.

[For more information, contact: Ann Hegnauer (Room 6B094, EE-30), Manager, Technology Transfer, Office of Transportation Technologies, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20585, U.S.A.; phone: +1.202.586.8014; fax: +1.202.586.1637. See the OTT Web Site at: http://www.ott.doe.gov/.]

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