Udall Congratulates CSU on $700,000 Competitive Grant for Innovative Natural Gas Technology
Mark Udall congratulated Colorado State University for its receipt of $700,000 in U.S. Energy Department competitive grant funds to develop a system that will allow consumers’ cars to use clean-burning compressed natural gas as a fuel.
“Colorado is a leader in energy innovation and one of the nation’s top natural gas producers,” Udall said. “These competitive grant funds will help Colorado State University leverage one of our most abundant natural resources and take an important step toward making cheap, clean-burning compressed natural gas accessible to consumers.”
The grant, announced today and funded by Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, is one of 13 similar projects aimed at expanding the use of natural gas as a consumer fuel source.
These grant-funded projects are aimed at overcoming the current limitations of compressed natural gas technology. Current natural gas vehicle technologies require tanks that can withstand high pressures, which are either too large or too expensive for smaller passenger vehicles. The CSU-Fort Collins project will develop a vehicle-based natural gas refueling system that uses the car’s own engine to compress natural gas to both power the vehicle and compress natural gas for storage. The system will allow consumers to refuel their cars using any natural gas line.
Udall has been a vocal supporter of an all-of-the-above energy strategy that utilizes natural gas alongside wind, solar and