The EECL has a 15 year history in developing products which improve engine efficiency and reduce harmful emissions from engines as small as 1 hp to as large as 2500 hp.  Our work is primarily focused on advanced ignition systems (laser, micropilot, pre-combustion chamber) and aftertreatment systems (SCR, 3-way catalysts, NSCR, oxidation catalysts).

Current research at the EECL in the area of biofuels includes a major R&D program with Solix Biofuels to develop photobioreactors for the mass production of algae as a biodiesel feedstock.  In addition, the EECL has worked with producer gas (wood smoke) in engine optimization studies.  We have also worked with many blends of biodiesel in industrial engines to understand how particulate and NOx formation differs in biodesel vs. conventional diesel fuels.

EECL research team members at events in the lab and around the world.


 

Through the EECL's Global Innovation Center (GIC), we are actively working with Envirofit International to design low cost, high performance cookstoves for the developing world.  Indoor air pollution from cookstoves causes over 1.5 million premature deaths each year.  Through support from the Shell Foundation, the EECL and Envirofit plan to disseminate 10 million improved cookstoves around the world in the next 5 years.

Through InteGrid, our test and development lab for power systems, the EECL is supporting research with Spirae which will help increase the amount of renewable and distributed power that our electric grid is capable of effectively utilizing. 

The Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory (EECL) has a 15 year history of innovation and entrepreneurship. The lab was established in 1992 through a partnership with the City of Fort Collins which provided Colorado State University access to the then vacant Fort Collins Power Plant. Originally constructed in 1936, the historic 24,000ft2 building has allowed the EECL to build unique facilities capable of conducting experimental research on engines ranging in size from 1hp to 2500 hp.