CSU lab is ‘solutions-oriented’

The Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory has spent 20 years helping the energy industry solve some of its most daunting problems.

The lab, founded in 1992, began researching ways to improve engine efficiency and reduce harmful engine emissions. The large natural gas engines that power pipelines needed to be retrofitted so they could pass Environmental Protection Agency performance standards, said Morgan DeFoort, co-director of the lab.

Energy companies ”needed someone to help develop new technologies and test technologies for engines for the industry,” he said. The lab, housed in an old Fort Collins power plant, has since grown and expanded to include research into how renewable energy technologies can safely attach to the electric grid and how different biofuels work with different engines. The lab has focused much of its attention on the emissions of biodiesels made from locally grown vegetable oils such as soybean, canola, Camelina sunflower and algae.

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”We have specialists in biofuels and power systems, but really, the lab is a place where people collaborate in the field of energy and develop specific solutions,” DeFoort said. ”It is very industry focused. We receive more funding for work from private industry than federal or state grants. It keeps us very solutions-oriented.”

— Paula Aven Gladych