How far can one litre of fuel take you? Two teams of Shell scientists in the USA tried to answer this simple question in 1939 with a friendly bet. They each filled their cars with one gallon of petrol and drove to see who could go farther. The winner managed 50 miles per gallon, or 21 km per litre.
Fast forward to today and the challenge lives on in the Shell Eco-marathon, which returns to Manila this month. Testing the ingenuity of student engineers, we ask them to design, fund and build a car that can travel over the longest possible distance on the least amount of energy.
Last year, a Thai team built a car that could cover 2,730.8 km, the distance between the capitals of Indonesia and the Philippines, on just one litre of ethanol. Such record-breaking efforts demonstrate how collaboration and innovation can push existing technological limits.
But the overall stock of scientists and engineers in Asia remains smaller than the combined total in the USA and Europe. This is a critical issue for our business. Growing a pool of talented young Asian engineers and scientists will be essential in helping the region meet one of its biggest challenges: supplying enough energy to maintain economic prosperity while tackling potentially devastating climate change.
By 2050, the urban population in Asia is expected to soar from 1.9 billion to 3.3 billion, meaning rising demand for energy to power high-rise apartments, public transport networks, and mobile devices.
A growing number of Asians living in cities will also be buying their first cars. In China, the number of motor vehicles could grow to between 560 million and 730 million by 2050, more than two to three times the number in the USA, the biggest market for vehicles in the world, according to a report by the US department of energy.
But how do we balance this surge in energy use with our need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions? Part of the solution will involve a radical change in the global energy system, with a wider mix of sources including cleaner-burning fuels.
The answers, however, won’t come from a single country or company. The breakthroughs will likely be the result of new ways of thinking, with collaboration between the private sector, academia and the government.
Innovators don’t surface by chance. They have to be discovered, encouraged and challenged. For example, The Shell Ideas360 contest, for example, encourages students around the world to conceive, share and develop game-changing ideas to improve the availability of energy, food and water.
By Hugh Mitchell
The author is chief HR and corporate officer, Shell
