Whether NATO’s European members can fuel their armed forces out to 2050, in peacetime and in war, has been assessed in a new report drawing on research led from Aberdeen, according to the university.
Dr Alfonso Martinez-Felipe, a senior lecturer in chemical engineering, undertook a fellowship with the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence in Vilnius, working on sustainable fuels, energy resilience and the part future fuel supply chains play in defence. The work produced the report Fuelling the Forces to 2050, published under the centre’s Future of Fuel programme, with two postgraduate students from the university’s MSc in Energy Transition Systems and Technologies also contributing.
The report examines how fuel requirements and supply could evolve under different circumstances, covering both peacetime and conflict scenarios.
Dr Martinez-Felipe said: “It has been extremely rewarding to see the work undertaken during the fellowship develop into a published report and to have the opportunity to present our findings directly to NATO stakeholders in Vilnius.”
Ben Cook, the United Kingdom’s senior national representative at the centre, said: “The University of Aberdeen’s support has been invaluable throughout this project. The research and analysis conducted by Alf, Jose-Luis and Ime have helped drive forward this landmark report on fuel security for the Alliance.”
The Energy Security Centre of Excellence in Vilnius is one of the alliance’s accredited centres, which are nationally sponsored rather than funded from the common budget, and its work informs NATO thinking without binding it.
