In past columns, I’ve talked about how “green solutions” and a sense of urgency about climate change can be the calling that will motivate more young students to become engineers. One exciting incubator for new clean technologies, and for students finding great opportunities in the field, is Colorado State University. Engineering TV recently visited CSU’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory where I was blown away by both the exciting research projects and the fantastic opportunities for young engineers.
CSU has several startup companies coming out of the EECL labs. Envirofit International is a nonprofit that is taking two-stroke conversion kits to motor-trike drivers throughout the third world. The kits drastically cut particulate pollution and at the same time save drivers huge amounts of fuel, thus increasing their standard of living by making their taxi services more profitable.
Envirofit is also working on clean cook stoves, bringing cleaner burning stoves to the millions of people who cook with unvented indoor wood fires. Currently, there are more than 1.5 million premature deaths each year caused by indoor air pollutants.
Another start-up, Solix Biofuels, is creating biofuel from algae. The company has found through its research the most energy-dense algae strains and the best ways to grow them via a “photo-bioreactor.” As an added benefits, because the algae reactors consume large amounts of carbon dioxide, they can be collocated next to power plants to directly absorb waste CO2. As part of the development process, CSU is talking to a local brewery about collocating next to their facility to pull the carbon dioxide from the fermentation process.
A third start up from the lab, Spirae Inc., is working on smart grid technology. It was truly inspiring to visit the EECL labs and to meet the students involved in green engineering—many who go straight from being CSU students to employees at these exciting new companies.
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