The 2009 Northern Illinois University (NIU) Clean Snowmobile Team will be competing in the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge. The team will be sponsored by the Illinois Corn Marketing Board (ICMB). This year’s competition’s theme will be “Flex Fuel” and NIU’s snowmobile will run on ethanol.

The annual SAE Challenge began in 2000 and tests the engineering and design capabilities of students from schools across the country. The “challenge” of each competition has been for students to modify a stock snowmobile to meet a series of requirements, including air pollution levels.

NIU ran their snowmobile last year on E85, and won 6th place overall and rookie of the year. This year’s competition will be held March 16-21 at Michigan Technical University in Houghton, Michigan.