FULL STEAM AHEAD
CSU startup electrifies steam for industry
By Coleman Cornelius | Photography by Vance Jacobs | May 4, 2026
TODD BANDHAUER STOOD outside New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins as the fragrance of warm grains and freshly brewed beer filled the air. He surveyed a network of copper pipes running into and out of four large compressors, all built on a bay the size of a shipping container. The innards of this distinctive system whirl refrigerant so incredibly fast that its vapor rises above 300 degrees Fahrenheit – hot enough to efficiently boil water and generate one ton of steam per hour.
Steam, in turn, heats ingredients and sterilizes equipment needed to brew the beer that has made New Belgium a well-known brand across the country – and has helped put Fort Collins on the map as a hub of craft brewing.
Yet breweries aren’t the only companies to rely on steam; not by a long shot. Food and beverage producers, distilleries, hospitals, and pharmaceutical, textile, paper, and chemical manufacturing all depend on steam for their processes. It is ubiquitous in the creation of products we use every day.
“Steam is the workhorse of industry,” Bandhauer said. “It drove the Industrial Revolution, and we’re still using it.”
Cyrus Johnston, who will earn his master’s degree in mechanical engineering this spring, has gained skills working as a research assistant for Bandhauer; he built a test bed for the electric heat pump at CSU’s Powerhouse Energy Campus.
New Belgium’s system is a commercial pilot, designed to prove the effectiveness of a patented heat pump that Bandhauer invented with his colleagues and research team in his role as a mechanical engineering professor at Colorado State University. The heat pump – a new-fangled boiler – is revolutionary: The system is powered by electricity rather than by natural gas, oil, or coal, which historically have been the energy sources used to generate steam. In fact, Bandhauer’s ultra-efficient system can use half the energy needed by standard electric boilers, which represent next-generation technology to produce steam.
The significance is immediately clear: If Bandhauer’s novel heat pump gains traction in the marketplace, it could dramatically reduce carbon emissions and particulates from steam production, resulting in cleaner air and helping a wide range of manufacturing companies reduce their carbon footprints to meet climate goals. The technology could have wide-ranging impact, given that 8 percent of the world’s energy is used to make steam for industry, Bandhauer said. In fact, if the electricity used to power it comes from clean energy sources, such as sun and wind, this electric heat pump could help eliminate carbon associated with steam production.
“We’re working on the re-industrialization of America by making a product that people want, that supports jobs and helps businesses make a profit, and that makes people’s lives better by improving air quality,” he said.
Bandhauer and his partners are betting on the technology’s future. In 2022, they launched a CSU startup company called AtmosZero, based in an industrial park in Loveland, Colorado, to further develop and commercialize the electric heat pump. Investors also see the potential, contributing more than $28 million to kick-start AtmosZero.
For his work, Bandhauer was recently recognized by TIME100 Climate 2025 – the rare university innovator and only person from Colorado honored in an international vanguard of policymakers, researchers, and corporate executives driving climate solutions through business channels. Bandhauer earned his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and spent time in industry and at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before coming to CSU in 2013.
Left: Cyrus Johnston works on test equipment. Right: Bandhauer consults with engineering student Matias Valencia, seated, and research associate Derek Young, a CSU graduate. Training engineering students is a core aspect of Bandhauer’s research at CSU’s Powerhouse Energy Campus.
Top: Cyrus Johnston works on test equipment. Bottom: Bandhauer consults with engineering student Matias Valencia, seated, and research associate Derek Young, a CSU graduate. Training engineering students is a core aspect of Bandhauer’s research at CSU’s Powerhouse Energy Campus.
As it gears up to manufacture and sell its systems on a large scale, AtmosZero has nearly 30 employees, many of whom are CSU graduates who took engineering classes with Bandhauer, who is chief technology officer for the startup. With this crew, AtmosZero aims to produce dozens of units per year within the next four years – incrementally scaling up from there.
“We intend to become the default boiler solution for the next industrial revolution. We want to redefine how the boiler is powered,” said Addison Stark, AtmosZero co-founder and chief executive officer.
Stark and Bandhauer have two key reasons for such confidence: Their system is competitively priced, with an estimated three-year payback on capital investment, and it is designed to drop into a manufacturer’s existing system, causing no interruptions or changes to other processes.
At New Belgium’s flagship facility in Fort Collins, the 650-kilowatt pilot system built in partnership with AtmosZero can supply 30 percent of the brewery’s steam needs, a spokesperson said. The technology, if it becomes a permanent fixture at the brewery, could move New Belgium toward its climate goals. The company, which is well-known for its focus on sustainability, plans to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and supply chain and to use 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. But even if AtmosZero’s electric heat pump were not the right fit at New Belgium, the company considers it a “massive win” to help prove and commercialize the technology, the spokesperson said.
“Carbon reduction work is a story of innovation and is inherently full of stops and starts. New Belgium’s commitment to reducing our carbon footprint means investing in emerging technology that doesn’t always have a clear outcome,” Shaun Belongie, New Belgium’s chief executive, said in an article in Forbes magazine about the AtmosZero partnership. “Our pursuit of a sustainable business, as it continues to grow, means taking a leap of faith into new tech and working with partners that allow us to run our operations at the scale we need at a lower carbon intensity.”
“We’re trying to solve a big problem with the know-how to translate it into a practical solution. We want to make real impact.”
Solving energy challenges while supporting business profitability is the driving concept behind AtmosZero. “We’re trying to solve a big problem with the know-how to translate it into a practical solution,” Bandhauer said. “We want to make real impact.”
Before co-founding the startup, Stark led energy innovation policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C. With advanced mechanical engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he earlier worked with the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, Stark was at home baking sourdough bread and “grinding my axe against the concept that industry is too hard to decarbonize,” he said.
He called his friend Bandhauer. “If you can design an airsource, drop-in electric heat pump to produce steam, I’ll quit my job and start a company with you to commercialize it,” Stark said.
“Let me do some math,” Bandhauer replied.
Then he returned to his partner. “Yep, we can do it,” he said, “and here’s how we’ll do it.”
So Stark quit his job, and Bandhauer set to work building a prototype at CSU’s Powerhouse Energy Campus. The campus is home base for the university’s Energy Institute, which teaches students while researching and developing scalable energy and carbon innovations for industry. AtmosZero still relies on the facility to further perfect its technology.
Nick Roberts, senior application engineer for AtmosZero, was involved in developing the startup’s electric heat pump after graduating from CSU with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. He had met Bandhauer while studying heat transfer with the professor, then asked to join his lab. Before long, Roberts was working at the Powerhouse Energy Campus to evaluate the heat pump’s performance. After graduating, he became AtmosZero’s first employee.
“That was what I wanted from grad school. I wanted to see a project through research and development to commercialization,” said Roberts, who earlier earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from CSU. “To see it evolve out of the lab is very exciting. I’m starting my career seeing each step of the process.” Now, he functions as a liaison between AtmosZero customers and the startup’s tech team to guide product development and to make sure its design is something the market needs.
Bandhauer is shown by the AtmosZero commercial pilot system installed at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins. The heat pump, the size of a shipping container, is protected by orange panels.
Cyrus Johnston has had a similar experience. He will graduate from CSU this spring with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, having earlier earned a bachelor’s degree in the field. Johnston has worked as a research assistant for Bandhauer, creating virtual models of the heat pump system, as well as a test bed, to gain insights into its performance and potential improvements.
“The most rewarding part of this work has been understanding scalable and deployable climate solutions,” Johnston said. “Developing the technology is one thing, but making it producible and deployable is a completely separate thing. Getting hands-on experience with energy problems is inspiring – not just having a concept, but also creating a product.”
That’s the embodiment of CSU’s land-grant mission, Bandhauer noted. Education, research, and service aimed at solving local and global problems. “It’s nice to be in a lab, but your work doesn’t make an impact until it’s out in the community,” he said. “This is part of the university ecosystem that people often don’t understand – we have the potential to make everybody’s life better.”
That process of innovation seemed astonishing even to Bandhauer as he stood outside New Belgium looking at the equipment he invented. It was installed last year.
“To go from a clean sheet of paper to a working pilot system in 12 months, it’s incredible,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about and building to this point in my career for 20 years. This was an idea in my head, and it’s the best realization of a team effort in my professional career. It’s pretty dang fun.”
Photo at top: Todd Bandhauer, a professor in CSU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, is co-founder and chief technology officer of AtmosZero, a startup that is commercializing an electric heat pump to decarbonize steam for industry. For his work, he was recognized in TIME100 Climate 2025.
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