Energy and Automotive Research Laboratories

Engineering Research Complex South

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824

(517) 355-1789

The new $10 million facilities for energy and automotive research at Michigan State University College of Engineering provides a world-class environment for faculty and students to address some the world’s most urgent problems.

The Energy and Automotive Research Lab at MSU has as its primary focus the development of new ideas and technology that will lead to environmentally friendly transportation and decreased dependence on foreign energy sources. This comes through development of new bio-derived fuels which do not compete with the food supply and improvements in the efficiency of the machines that convert these fuels to work.

Our collaborations across engineering disciplines and organizations are extensive. At MSU the Chemical and Mechanical Engineers work to find biofuels and their blends with petroleum that will enhance diesel combustion both in efficiency and in the reduction in noxious emissions. The Electrical and Mechanical Engineers work to develop hybrid systems that will utilize the kinetic energy that would otherwise be wasted in braking an converting it to stored electrical energy and useful mechanical work
The recently constructed EARL houses four engine dynamometer sites and a powertrain test facility capable of independently controlling six dynamometers and with 1MW absorption capability. A fundamental combustion lab, a spray laboratory, a controls lab and a thermoelectric generator fabrication facility is also part of the activity.