The Little Engines Lab That Could
CSU’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory works to make the world a better, greener place
By Rebecca Boyle, (Bio) rboyle@fortcollinsnow.com
1:05 a.m. MT Feb 24, 2008
A tank full of a few delicate fish is something you would expect in a dentist’s waiting room or an accountant’s office, not an industrial space devoted to studying chemical combustion.
You also might not expect to find a three-wheeled, two-stroke taxi vehicle from India across the room from a tattered tin stove from central Africa.
But that’s sort of the M.O. at the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University. Behind its walls is a convergence of things that seem unconnected on their surface, but with closer examination, are wholly interrelated.
On a given day, the lab’s unassuming facility and friendly staff of researchers are hard at work testing small wood-burning stoves for use in developing countries; figuring out how to retrofit three-wheeled taxis to cut pollution in the Philippines; and cultivating various strains of algae to find a way to grow biofuel sources without compromising food supplies.
Morgan DeFoort, the lab’s associate director, took a break from attaching a paper-thin gauge to the bottom of a saucepan on a recent morning to describe the lab’s groundbreaking work.
A walk through the building shows the progression of the lab’s mission. The first thing you see is a massive natural gas compression engine, which could help transport natural gas—old energy—more efficiently.
A few feet away is a small—relatively speaking—electricity generator that could be used as a hospital’s backup power source, or used in conjunction with renewable energy sources to power homes.
And behind another generator is the tank holding at least 100 gallons of water, a clear plastic bag being tested for its capability in cultivating and protecting algae, and a few small fish—not to help the algae grow, as any home aquarist might assume, but “for zen,” as DeFoort put it. The tanks were there, so why not fish?
Their tank is beside a makeshift greenhouse outfitted with a wiggling tray of Erlenmeyer flasks full of algae, which are swished so each organism gets enough sunlight and carbon dioxide.
All the technology could conceivably provide more efficient, cleaner power for the world.
Dr. Bryan Willson founded the lab, ironically housed in the city’s old coal power plant off North College Avenue, 15 years ago. Since then, he and his team of researchers have seen the lab’s mission morph from seeking greater efficiency and lower emissions—a noble enough goal—to seeking a healthier world overall, through mass access to clean technology.
About seven years ago, Willson was involved in designing a direct-injection engine system for two-stroke snowmobiles, which are notoriously dirty. That research led to the idea of a similar retrofitting kit for high-polluting vehicles in the developing world.
In that process, one of the researchers’ most important discoveries was the notion that technology solutions need practical economics to make a difference.
It’s not easy selling green, especially in the developing world, where cheap and fast is more important than clean and efficient.
“You can develop the technical solution, but it’s not valid if you can’t get it to the people,” DeFoort said.
To that end, the lab joined forces with CSU’s business school to find a way to bring the technology to market. In the fall of 2003, Envirofit was born.
The local Bohemian Foundation, billionaire Pat Stryker’s philanthropic organization, pledged $500,000 to get Envirofit off the ground. The technology went commercial in 2006.
Envirofit estimates there are 100 million two-stroke engines in Southeast Asia, which DeFoort said produce 50 times the pollution of an average automobile. Drivers of the open-air vehicles skip work an average of six days a month because they are so sick from the fumes. That’s more money lost, on top of the high cost of fuel for the inefficient engines.
“Even though this is a huge global problem as far as air pollution and human health, there hasn’t been a lot of people working on it,” DeFoort said.
Until Envirofit, whose retrofitting kit can reduce emissions and, DeFoort estimated, increase profits by 40 percent—the kit pays for itself in fuel savings within six to nine months. It can be hard to convince a driver to invest large sums up front to make more money later, but educating people about a return on investment is part of the non-profit company’s goal.
With well-designed technology successfully being introduced for small-vehicle engines, Envirofit recently started looking to the air inside.
Because the energy conversion lab has some of the best testing equipment available, researchers were doing some informal data collection on new stove prototypes from several sources. Eventually, they decided to start tinkering with their own designs, and last year Envirofit received a major windfall: a $25 million grant to develop and market clean-burning, more efficient cookstoves.
It is important work—acute respiratory infections, often due to indoor air pollution, are the leading killer of children under 6 in developing countries, and a second leading cause of death among women, according to the World Health Organization.
Two-thirds of the world still uses some form of biomass for cooking, be it wood, dung or agricultural waste; burning those materials releases noxious fumes into a home’s air.
Envirofit’s improved stoves, which will come in an array of bright colors, would use less wood and release less smoke. The stoves’ first market will be in India, where the Shell Foundation has already distributed some cleaner-burning stoves. Using the foundation’s $25 million grant, Envirofit plans to distribute 10 million stoves around the world in the next five years.
DeFoort said that in the United States, research and design money is being spent on incremental emissions reductions.
“Meanwhile, in the developing world, there’s just buckets of pollution ... and very low-cost, very effective technologies sitting on the shelf that can have a big impact,” he said.
The CSU engineers do think locally as well as globally: Researchers are working with EnCana, an oil and gas company with assets in Weld County, on cleaner drilling engines and gas compressor engines; with Woodward, a manufacturer of generator controls; and even with New Belgium Brewing Co., which hopes to help cultivate carbon-hungry algae.
“So this is both global reach and local reach,” DeFoort said.
At New Belgium, algae can be grown using carbon dioxide left over from the beermaking process.
Algae consists largely of lipids, or fats, which can be refined into a bio-crude oil and then biodiesel. They only need carbon dioxide, water and sunlight, and because of their potential volume and smaller field footprint, are more promising than other forms of biofuels like corn ethanol or biodiesel from soybeans.
Plus, algae cultivation could be a way to “sequester” carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, because the microorganisms will use it up.
It’s certainly heady, chest-puffing stuff.
But while the engineers and researchers are aiming for a proverbial 30,000-foot view, true success will come when the products are the best they can be, DeFoort said.
“It’s very fun to work here, and we’re proud of what we do, but the devil is in the details in some of these things. If they were easy, someone would have done them already,” DeFoort said.
True efficiency, in the most complete sense, requires a longer view of the whole process, he said.
“How do we go from doing the research all the way to having an impact?”
