Meet Our Innovators

Todd Bandhauer, PhD

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Areas of Collaborative Interest

  • Thermal Energy Systems
  • Coupled Electrochemical Thermal Phenomena in Energy Storage and Conversion Systems
  • Microscale Phase Change Heat Transfer
  • High Flux Thermal Management of Electronics and Lasers
  • Thermal Activated Cooling Systems
  • Waste Heat Recovery
  • Nuclear Fuel Processing Systems
  • Licensing our technologies

The Research, End market, And Commercialization Hub (REACH) CoLab, established in 2013, is affiliated with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU) and located at the Powerhouse Energy Campus in Fort Collins, Colorado. The REACH CoLab seeks to advance thermal-energy systems beyond the current state-of-the-art.  Dr. Bandhauer’s expertise and interests include thermal energy systems, coupled electrochemical thermal phenomena in energy storage and conversion systems, microscale phase change heat transfer, high flux thermal management of electronics and lasers, thermal activated cooling systems, waste heat recovery, and nuclear fuel processing systems. He has ~6 years of experience in industry (Modine Manufacturing Co.) and at a national laboratory (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) developing components for energy systems, and his work has resulted in 8 refereed conference and journal papers and 21 issued and pending patents.

 

Families/concepts

  • Ultra Efficient Turbo Compression Cooling System: A low cost and highly efficient turbo-compressor system for recovery of waste heat. Applications include power plant cooling, commercial chillers, and general waste heat recovery.
  • Systems for the Conversion of Wastes to New Uses: Organic waste is converted to electricity, along with production of fertilizer. Sink wastewater is used for on-site toilet flush water.
  • High Efficiency Solid Oxide Fuel Cell: Use of an internal combustion engine hybrid power system
  • Turbo-Compression Cooling For Ultra Low Temperature Waste Heat Recovery: A system that converts low grade waste heat into cooling, and uses electricity and a compressor to boost performance.
  • Advanced Electronics Cooling: Advanced impingement cooling having surface area enhancement, low pressure drop manifolds, specialized packaging, and facility cooling.

*Assignee other than Colorado State University

Patent list generated using Google Patents; Last updated on June  9, 2020.