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| Shell Technology Centre | |
|---|---|
  Location within Cheshire | |
| Former names | Shell Research Centre |
| General information | |
| Type | Automotive and Chemical Research Centre |
| Location | Cheshire, CH2 4NU |
| Coordinates | 53°16′26″N2°49′41″W / 53.274°N 2.828°W /53.274; -2.828 |
| Elevation | 90 m (295 ft) |
| Current tenants | University of Chester |
| Construction started | 1941 |
| Completed | 1948 |
| Inaugurated | 20 May 1948 |
| Client | Shell Research |
| Owner | Royal Dutch Shell |
| Dimensions | |
| Other dimensions | 66 acres |
TheShell Technology Centre was a chemical and oil products research institute in northern Cheshire, nearStanlow, owned by Anglo-DutchShell.
The site was first set up, in 1941, by Shell for theMinistry of Aircraft Production as theAero Engine Research Laboratory.
It tested aBMW 801 engine with different octane ratings of fuel in the early 1940s.
It returned to Shell ownership in April 1947.[1] The site had 70 scientists, and around 250 technicians working on quartz combustion tubes, direct fuel injection, butane fuel and the atomisation of fuel. It claimed to be the largest oil research centre in theBritish Empire. The site was 30 acres and 730,000 square feet, with 900 staff. The site had developed synthetic rubber, paint, varnish and soap.[2] A new 85-acre chemicals plant was to open in 1948 (the Stanlow refinery).[3]
Stanlow made around 24,000 tons of chemicals per year. The neighbouringoil refinery opened in 1949, although a smaller plant had been there since 1924. The Shellhaven plant, inEssex, would make 30,000 tons of chemicals.[4] It opened officially on Thursday 20 May 1948 as Shell Research Centre, by George Legh-Jones.[5] Also attending the opening was Lt-GenJimmy Doolittle, known for his strategy of bombing Germany,John Cunningham (Royal Navy officer), First Sea Lord, andAir Chief MarshalArthur Barratt[6]
In the 1950s it was one of three main Shell research sites in the UK, the others being in Kent and Buckinghamshire.
In 1962, Shell spent £25m on research, with 19 worldwide research centres, 8 in Europe, and 11 in the US.[7] Pre-ignition was prevented by Ignition Control Additive (ICA), developed at the centre, which was added to Shell petrol, in the UK, from Monday 11 January 1954. ICA containedtricresyl phosphate.
Vehicle testing was conducted at the formerRAF Poulton, but in 1957, this was moved to the formerRAF Hooton Park, when flying operations ceased.[8] The site had 1000 staff, with 200 graduates in 1957.[9]
In October 1960 a three-day international symposium held entitledWear in the gasoline engine. ProfFrank Philip Bowden FRS spoke at the meeting.[10]
Testing work in the 1960s took place at theAutodrome de Linas-Montlhéry in France, andMIRA inLeicestershire.
By the early 1960s Shell also had its Central Laboratories in Surrey (which opened in 1956), the Tunstall Laboratory, and Chemical Enzymology Laboratory atSittingbourne in Kent. Shell X-100 was Europe's top selling motor oil (lubrication).
North Sea oil was produced from 1975.
In the mid 1970s Shell had around 5,000 worldwide research staff. In 1975 it closed two of its four British research sites, and one inDelft in the Netherlands. The Surrey research site closed with its 430 employees, with its work transferred work to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Cheshire with the centre's 850 employees. Before the closures, Shell had 2080 employees at British research centres.
The main Dutch research sites were at Amsterdam (Royal Shell Laboratory Amsterdam) and Rijswijk.[11]
It has had much contact with local schools. In the 1960s it worked informally with Ellesmere Port County Grammar School for Boys[17] In the 1990s it worked with Stanney High School (nowEllesmere Port Church of England College),Pensby High School,[18]andHelsby High School.[19]
Shell closed its research centres in the UK in 2014, moving the research to Germany. Shell had sold the neighbouring oil refinery. 280 staff moved to London and Manchester, with 170 to northern Germany.
The site was largely an automotive engineering research facility.[20] Work was carried out ondirect fuel injection and butane-powered engines.
A 5 kWfuel cell had been first demonstrated at Cambridge in 1959 byFrancis Thomas Bacon; the site looked into fuel cell technology. A methanol fuel cell was demonstrated in December 1964.[21] The world's first liquid fuel cell in 1964 was made by the Surface Reactions Division, with K.R. Williams; it was adirect methanol fuel cell, with a sulphuric acid electrolyte, with apalladium-silver membrane.
Work was also conducted at the Koninklijke Shell Laboratorium (now called theEnergy Transition Campus Amsterdam). Theproton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) took over in the late 1980s.
In 1972 it made the world's first fuel cell car, a convertedDAF 44.
The site had worked on early jet engines in the war, on work for theComet, and would work on lubrication and fuel forConcorde. By 1961 around 500 scientists and 350 technicians.[22]
In 1977 made a record-breaking vehicle that did 1141 mpg, with bicycle wheels. In 1977 it was predicted that oil would run out by 1990.[23]A competition run by the centre for fuel efficient vehicles took place on 5 July 1977 atMallory Park, with teams from 23 universities - theShell Mileage Marathon. The Shell vehicle had a Honda 50cc engine, and consumed 1252 mpg.
At a Deutsche Shell Mileage Marathon atHockenheim, it managed 1373 mpg, but three German vehicles consumed less, with one managing 1904 mpg.[24] Shell now run theShell Eco-marathon, which largely the only international event of its kind.
In 1994, Shell decided to invest £70m in new buildings at the site, when it moved out from its Kent site at the end of 1995, so environmental research and 140 scientists moved to Cheshire.[25]Alfred McAlpine started construction in August 1994.[26] In 1997, Shell took fuel additive research away from Cheshire, when it undertook joint research work with Esso.[27]
Its scientists researched lubrication with theUbbelohde viscometer. In 1949 Britain's first diesel train, with anEnglish Electric engine, had Shell lubricating oil. Two-thirds of the lubricating oil made in UK was Shell, with Shell conducting £6m of research in 1949. The centre researched tyres, paint, textiles, and detergents.[28] BEA airliners only had Shell lubricants.
In the 1960s automotive companies from Europe would test automotive engines there.[29]
In May 1985, an automated £14m lubrication oil laboratory opened, called ELMA - Engine Laboratory Modernisation and Automation, with sixteenengine test beds, for differentdriving cycles.[30][31] With ELMA, it developed the petrol known as Formula Shell, sold from 19 May 1986.[32]
The site conducted work withBritish Leyland on pollution in the late 1960s, due to increasing legislation in the US, costing £100,000 a year, overlooked by Morris Sugden.[33] BP conducted similar research at itsSunbury Research Centre.
The site researched fuel for the Ferrari F1 team (Scuderia Ferrari).
The site is 66 acres. It was situated north of theM56, north-west of junction 14, at theHapsford services (a Shell services), to the north of theA5117. It is directly east of the large oil refinery, south of the neighbouringHooton–Helsby line.
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