Rolls-Royce technology
'Vision'
Each year, in collaboration with our partners, Rolls-Royce invests around £700 million in Research and Development. About two-thirds of this programme is aimed at improving the environmental performance of our products and operations.
Over £120 million of this programme is dedicated to innovative technology aimed at improving environmental performance. This technology is created by many of the same engineers who are later involved in our product development programmes. As a result, they have the skills and knowledge to apply the latest cutting edge technologies to product development.
Experience
For example, experience gained on the EFE programme will be used in many of our next generation gas turbines. New technology can often also be retrofitted into existing, in-service products to improve environmental performance further.
The Rolls-Royce Research and Technology programme operates in three stages - Strategic (or 'basic') Research, Applied Research and Technology Validation. Technology Validation delivers a 'generic' technology base of knowledge, models, and materials for application across a wide range of products.
Strategic Research is where the company evaluates and develops radical new technologies and matches these with potential business opportunities. Progressing technology through this stage can take many years.
Our new low emissions fuel cell system for power generation is now in the final stages of technology validation but the innovative electrochemical and materials technologies that make this power system possible were initially created in our Strategic Research programme in the 1990s.
Collaboration
Much of our innovative technology and process improvement activity is carried out in collaboration with our suppliers and with universities. Our global network of University Technology Centres (UTCs) - each dedicated to a specific technical discipline - has been cited by independent review bodies, collaborators and competitors as an example of best practice in applied technology development.
We are continually expanding this network to address new requirements and to access technological excellence all over the world. We believe that this ground breaking form of collaboration between industry and academia has a vital role to play in responding to the challenge of climate change.
More case studies
Case study
Lower emissions combustion
Loughborough University in the UK has been a
key partner in the Rolls-Royce low emissions
programme since its inception. It has been
active in programmes in all business sectors and
has delivered critical developments in the
combustion module aerodynamics, steady and
unsteady flow processes and turbulent mixing.
The aerodynamic knowledge created within the UTC has been fundamental to achieving the NOx emissions targets on the Trent 900.
