Colorado State University Clean Energy Supercluster Announces First Seed Grants
The Clean Energy Supercluster has distributed its first set of seed grants to further significant research into the development of market-driven alternative energy sources and the policies and implications of those sources.
A total of 18 grants averaging about $20,000 were awarded mostly to multidisciplinary research teams.
"We had 42 proposals with 110-plus investigators and overall, a very strong set of proposals," said Bryan Willson, director of the Clean Energy Supercluster at Colorado State and director of the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory. "The quality and diversity of these proposals bodes very well for the future of the Supercluster. The projects and investigators are widely distributed across campus."
President Larry Edward Penley in March unveiled the university’s new enterprise arm of the Clean Energy Supercluster, called Cenergy. The Superclusters will greatly enhance the ability of university scientists and business partners to speed clean and renewable energy research to the marketplace. Cenergy will directly enhance Colorado’s leadership in building a new energy economy as well as improving quality of life for people around the globe.
More than 100 researchers across campus participate in the academic side of the Clean Energy Supercluster on everything from economics and policymaking to new energy sources.
The 2008-2009 seed grants:
– Biofuels and Emerging Technology
Topic: Developing and Sponsoring a Workshop/Conference on Cultivating Clean Renewable Energy from Understanding and Using Synthetic Biology
Researchers: June Medford, Department of Biology; Ken Reardon, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; and Jan Leach, Department of Bioagricultural Science and Pest Management
Topic: Multi-disciplinary Work Group for Biofuel from Oilseed Crops in Colorado
Researchers: Jerry Johnson, Patrick Byrne, Gary Peterson, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; Shawn Archibeque, Department of Animal Sciences; Craig Bond, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics; Neil Hansen, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; Alan Helm, CSU Extension; John McKay, Department of Bioagricultural Science and Pest Management; Dan Olsen, Department of Mechanical Engineering; and Meg Wilson, CSU Extension.
Topic: Lignin Degradation in Plant Cell Walls by Expressing a Fungal Laccase
Researchers: A.S.N. Reddy and Gul Shad Ali, Department of Biology
Topic: Identification of Genes that Control Biomass Production using Rice Mutants
Researchers: Jan Leach, Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management and Dan Bush, Department of Biology
Topic: Development of Oilseed Crops for Biofuel Production in Colorado
Researchers: Patrick Byrne, Jerry Johnson, Neil Hansen, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, and John McKay, Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management
Topic: Catalytic Membrane Bioreactor for Simultaneous Transesterification and Glycerol Removal
Researchers: Xianghong Qian, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Ranil Wickramasinghe, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Topic: Engine Durability Testing of Camelina Sativa Derived SVO
Researchers: Daniel Olsen, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Jerry Johnson, Nicolas Enjalbert, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; and Syndi Nettles-Anderson, Department of Mechanical Engineering
– Solar, Wind and Efficiency
Topic: Development of Aerodynamically Optimized Photovoltaic Sun-Tracker
Researcher: Bogusz Bienkiewicz, Department of Civil Engineering
Topic: Synthesis of Chromium (III) Polypyridyl Complexes: Toward Control of Interfacial Hole-Transfer Photochemistry
Researcher: Matthew Shores, Department of Chemistry
Topic: Optimizing Cu2ZnSnS4-based Photovoltaic Devices through Chemical Control of Structures and Stoichiometry
Researcher: Amy Prieto, Department of Chemistry
Topic: The Impact of Improved Cook Stoves on Pollution Levels, Health Status, and Global Warming Potential in Nicaragua
Researchers: Jennifer Peel, Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences and Morgan DeFoort, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Topic: Fulleride Salts: Decoupling Thermal and Electrical Conductivity for Thermoelectric Applications
Researchers: Michael Elliott and Amy Prieto, Department of Chemistry
Topic: Combustion Chemistry and Pollutant Emissions from Algae-Derived SVO, FAME and HTRD
Researchers: Anthony Marchese, Azer Yalin, Daniel Olsen, Department of Mechanical Engineering; John Volckens, Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, and Jeffrey Collett, Department of Atmospheric Sciences
– Cross-Cutting Topics
Topic: Capacity Building Proposal for the Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future
Researchers: Kyle Saunders, Michele Betsill, Department of Political Sciences; Michael Carolan, Department of Sociology, and Robert Kling, Department of Economics
Topic: Clean Energy Capacity Building
Researchers: Morgan DeFoort, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Tom Dean, College of Business
Topic: The Intellectual Property Landscape of Alternative Biofuel Technologies
Researcher: Gregory Graff, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Topic: A Field-Gate to Factory-Gate Biofuel Offset Assessment System
Researchers: Keith Paustian, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; Richard Conant, Stephen Ogle, Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory; and Ken Reardon, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Topic: Demography, Economics, and Politics of Household Solar Energy Use in the United States
Researchers: Sammy Zahran, Michael Lacy, Department of Sociology, and Craig Trumbo, Department of Journalism and Technical Communication
For more information about the Clean Energy Supercluster, visit http://energy.colostate.edu/.
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