Engineers put our chemistry to the test at UTAC’s state-of-the-art testing facility at Millbrook in the UK.

Exhaustive testing fine-tunes the performance of Innospec’s fuel additive packages.

UTAC’s engine testing and validation centre in the UK, with its state-of-the-art facilities, is known all over the world as an independent centre of excellence. The facility boasts test laboratories, environmental chambers and over 2,200 acres of proving grounds.

As well the engine test beds, engineers can observe engines in vehicles on power trains and test tracks. There are over 70 km of specialist tracks and surfaces to replicate almost all driving conditions required for real-time and accelerated life-cycle tests. These include hill routes, high speed areas and challenging off-road courses. Professional drivers and engineers perform repeatable tests on all types of vehicles in a secure and safe environment.

Innospec’s scientists are in a unique position to refine the chemistry of their fuel additive packages in real time thanks to their permanent base at UTAC. The company has its own laboratories located on-site. Results from a wide range of vehicle testing programmes can be fed back to the lab to see how subtle changes to fuel additive chemistry can affect fuel economy, emissions, engine performance and reliability.

Working alongside UTAC’s experienced project managers allow Innospec’s own expert team of scientists and engineers to create solutions that not only meet a fuel specification but go above and beyond a customer’s requirement.

This flexibility allows Innospec to create stand out products that can be differentiated in a highly competitive market. What’s more, these solutions are independently verified at UTAC’s proving grounds. This work also supports OEMs in their efforts to design and develop the best possible engines that deliver on performance, emissions, fuel consumption and engine efficiency.

UTAC’s iconic UK Proving Ground is a world-renowned independent engine testing and validation facility. Teams of experienced engineers carry out top secret tests on everything from tanks to the latest luxury cars. The location is also regularly used as a highly secure film location, featuring in the James Bond film “Casino Royale” for both a driving scene and complex car crash. Fireworks, action vehicles and aerial teams are not an unusual sight for the resident scientists and engineers who work there daily.

The facility recently celebrated its 50th anniversary since it was first opened by General Motors in 1970. Favoured for having both naturally flat and hilly sections, the Proving Ground took two years to construct and involved moving nearly two million cubic metres of earth and laying more than 100,000 cubic metres of aggregate, hardcore, sand and cement.

Today UTAC is acknowledged as a global provider of independent vehicle test and validation services and systems. Innospec has benefited from having its own laboratories and team of chemists and engineers on site for more than ten years.