Spinoff Companies
AVA Technologies | Envirofit International | Solix Biofuels
AVA Technologies
AVA Technologies was founded by Professor W. S. Sampath, an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. The company is developing technology to mass produce cadmium telluride photovoltaic solar panels.
The technology used in the manufacturing process is physical vapor deposition, and was developed and refined in the department’s Materials Engineering research laboratory.
Envirofit International
Envirofit's Nathan Lorenz tests conversion options on two-cycle motorcycle.
Envirofit addresses major environmental problems in the developing world through the development and commercialization of innovative technologies and progressive business models. The company was spun out of research undertaken at the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory (EECL), a world leader in designing energy efficient, low emission engines and environmental solutions. Established in October 2003 as a U.S. tax- exempt corporation, Envirofit’s goal is to build and operate self- sustaining businesses as an independent, entrepreneurial non-profit organization. Envirofit’s long-term goals center on the three air quality issues with the greatest impact on global health: pollution from two-stroke engines, pollution from indoor cooking, and pollution from low-tech diesel engines. For the past four years, Envirofit has focused on solutions for two -stroke engines. Our solution to two-stroke engine pollution (2-stroke direct injection retrofit kit) has been extensively tested and proven to drastically reduce pollution and increase fuel efficiency. Envirofit is next looking to bring into commercialization research on Clean Cookstove technology currently underway at CSU’s Global Innovation Center.
Envirofit has been repeatedly recognized as both innovative and highly successful -- named a 2005 Environmental TechAward Laureate by Silicon Valley's Tech Museum of Innovation for its use of technology to benefit humanity, named by Stanford Social Innovation Review as one of the "Top 10 Most Innovative Technologies for Creating Social Change", named a World Bank Development Marketplace finalist, and selected by Plenty Magazine as one of the "Plenty Twenty -- Twenty Companies that will Change the World” - joining companies such as General Electric, Toyota and Goldman Sachs on the list. In June 2007, Envirofit was honored in Switzerland as a winner, in the Transport and Mobility Category of the World Clean Energy Awards.
Solix Biofuels
Engines and Energy Conversion Lab (EECL) researchers introduce first algae colony to the Solix bioreactor.
Solix Biofuels is a direct intellectual descendant of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Aquatic Species Program started in 1978 to explore ways to produce biodiesel from algae. When the program concluded in 1996 at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, the final program close-out report concluded that, in spite of many impressive accomplishments — especially in the biological sciences — “the high cost of algae production remains an obstacle”. The key barriers in 1996 were:
- Low cost of conventional fuel (diesel prices were hovering around $1.10 per gallon).
- No monetary value for carbon mitigation capability of biodiesel.
- Higher than expected cost of the production system.
- Lower than expected productivity of outdoor open pond system.
A decade later the world is different: Diesel is selling decisively at or above the $2.50 mark; the monetization of carbon is well underway in Europe with the US expected to follow soon; and a robust market for renewable biofuels had emerged.
Solix and CSU researchers began exploring the technology associated with Algae growth in 2005.
In April 2006, the algae-based biodiesel gauntlet was taken up by a proven team of engineers and entrepreneurs armed with a breakthrough design for a closed algae growth system that is cost competitive with open systems. With initial funding in hand, Solix Biofuels came on stage, ready to turn the promise of research into commercial reality.
By August 2006 a first generation prototype had been built, tested, and analyzed, and a second generation prototype was launched. Solix is focused on large-scale, low-cost production of algae-based Biofuels. Research continues strong among the staff of 25, including 12 CSU students and faculty members from Mechanical, Chemical, and Electrical Engineering, Microbiology and Biochemisty.