About the Biofuels Testing Lab
The Iowa Central Fuel Testing Laboratory began as an offshoot of the Biofuels Technology Program created at Iowa Central Community College in the fall of 2006. One of the cornerstone features of this program is the student teaching laboratory and its many state-of-the-art instruments used for performing biodiesel analyses according to ASTM methods.
We were approached in the fall of 2006 to assist in conducting the Two Million Mile Haul B20 biodiesel field trial with Decker Trucking of Fort Dodge, Iowa, employing both our instruments and students in the study. These efforts attracted the interest of several parties who collectively came up with the idea of creating an independent fuel testing laboratory on the campus of Iowa Central.
We secured initial funding through a state appropriation that provided funds for the laboratory casework and an initial round of instrument purchases. Long-term funding has been provided through a Department of Energy grant that has allowed for additional instrument purchases and will allow for further expansion into ethanol and petroleum distillate testing.
In the summer of 2007, Iowa Central successfully passed an $18 million referendum. With these funds, the College constructed the Biosciences and Health Sciences Building, a LEED Gold Certified building that houses several degree programs and the Iowa Central Fuel Testing Laboratory. Groundwork and construction on the new Biosciences building and adjacent geothermal pond began in the spring of 2008, and the Laboratory occupied its new space by the beginning of the fall 2009 semester.