IUPUI renewable energy center named after Lugar

INDIANAPOLIS – Sen. Richard Lugar, who has pushed for renewable-energy development for years both in Indiana and in Congress, now has an energy research center named after him.\nIU-Purdue University at Indianapolis Chancellor Charles R. Bantz announced Monday that the Indianapolis school has named its laboratory the Richard G. Lugar Renewable Energy Center to recognize the Indiana Republican’s long-running support and leadership on renewable-energy issues.\n“Senator Lugar’s strong support for renewable-energy research has had an immeasurable influence on our nation’s collective thinking about the need for energy security,” Bantz said in a news release.\nLugar hosted a summit on alternative fuels last August at Purdue University that focused on ways to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.\nHe said the center dedicated to freeing the nation from its foreign-energy reliance creates an opportunity for Indiana “to lead the nation to a new energy future.”\n“Renewable-energy research and commercialization of new energy technologies present unbelievable possibilities to strengthen U.S. national security and bolster the economy,” Lugar said in a statement.\nThe new center will enlist faculty from IUPUI’s schools of engineering and technology, science, public and environmental affairs and medicine. Faculty members from the IU-Bloomington campus and IU-South Bend campuses also will take part on that work.\nAlready, the center’s researchers are at work on a project to develop fuel cells powered by ethanol that could be used to operate military equipment such as cell phones, radios, laptops and vehicles. The center has obtained $300,000 in research funds for that project.\nCenter director Andrew Hsu said some of the work could yield results within a few years, such as converting renewable fuels like ethanol into gasoline.\n“If we can convert ethanol into gasoline, then we have a 100 percent renewable-energy source for vehicles,” said Hsu, a professor of mechanical engineering at IUPUI.\nThe center’s projects include efforts to generate hydrogen from renewable-energy sources, creating ethanol fuel cells and developing clean combustion of renewable fuels.