Final Technical Report

The Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Center at Colorado State University (CSU IAC) has been helping manufacturers in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region save energy, reduce waste, and save money while helping to produce highly-trained and highly-capable energy engineers since 1984. The most recent four-year contract continues that trend. This contract ran from September 1, 2002 through May 31, 2007 and included assessments conducted from September 1, 2002 through August 31, 2006. During this contract, the CSU IAC served 77 manufacturers in six Rocky Mountain States and recommended about 311,800 MMBtu/yr in energy savings, 12.6 million gallons of waste water reduction per year, nearly 650,000 pounds of solid waste reduction per year, and more than 5,600 gallons of hazardous solid waste per year, saving more than $9.54 million dollars per year in utility, waste disposal, raw material, and labor costs. Total expenditures for the period were about $814,000 for the period or about $203,500 per year. Thus, the CSU IAC generated almost 12 times more recommended cost savings than the project cost. In addition, the program employed 24 undergraduate mechanical and civil engineering students and seven graduate mechanical engineering students. Of these students, more than 75% have gone on to successful careers in energy engineering or manufacturing, where they continue to provide additional energy and cost savings for industry and the country