BioRocket presented at the Aerospace Innovation Hub’s Industry Showcase on November 6, where the team walked attendees through their bioethanol liquid engine program and custom valve development. The session underscored the group’s innovation and ingenuity and made a strong case for what comes next. With iterative ground tests underway and a clear roadmap to flight, they left the room with momentum and a future that looks increasingly promising.
When mechanical engineering student Lukas Kobler set out on his University of Calgary capstone last fall, the goal sounded audacious: design, build, and test a liquid-fuel rocket engine that runs on bioethanol; and build the test stand and flight vehicle to go with it.
“We set out to do that in September 2024…building the engine, the entire test infrastructure, and a rocket to fly it in,” said Kobler.
That capstone became BioRocket, a student-led effort that’s now evolving into a venture rooted at Innovate Calgary’s Aerospace Innovation Hub (AIH).
The throughline is Kobler’s undergraduate experience on UCalgary’s rocketry team, which won an international competition in New Mexico in 2024 and pushed him toward liquid propulsion after industry feedback. Liquid engines, he notes, are the standard for vehicles that “actually put things in space” because of their higher efficiency.
BioRocket’s twist is fuel.
The team chose bioethanol, a renewable propellant, to cut pollutants and future-proof supply as launch cadence rises. In early prototyping, they sourced corn-based bioethanol from a Lloydminster plant and benchmarked it against conventional kerosene. While biofuels can carry a performance penalty, Kobler believes reusability and larger vehicles are changing the cost equation, making propellant choices “incredibly important.”
Today, BioRocket’s sub-scale vehicle is designed for 10,000-foot demonstrations – enough to validate key parameters and guide investors toward the next phase. Ground testing has already begun. The first static fire in August surfaced issues (as first tests often do), and the team is rebuilding the engine for a follow-up campaign while advancing the flight article toward a debut.
A pivotal step in BioRocket’s transition from classroom to company was joining the Aerospace Innovation Hub. Initially, Kobler needed access to AIH’s prototyping facility – two CNC machines and a makerspace set up for aerospace-grade work with minimal red tape for experienced users. He quickly discovered the real multiplier: the network.
“There’s a lot more to the hub than just the prototyping lab,” he says, pointing to events and relationships that open doors to early adopters and industry mentors.
Along the way, the team uncovered a commercial opportunity beyond the rocket itself: an ultralight, high-performance valve. Off-the-shelf options were too big, too heavy, or simply too expensive, so they built and tested their own.
Now Kobler is applying to Innovate Calgary’s Aerospace Accelerator Program to validate the market and chart the right path, from patent licensing to becoming an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
The timing of BioRocket’s rise mirrors Calgary Innovation Week, when the city’s tech community spotlights ventures moving research to market. In aerospace specifically, Kobler sees momentum across aviation and space: major carriers and manufacturers have a presence here, UCalgary spinouts are emerging, and a skilled hobbyist community routinely launches to 20,000-30,000 feet, often mentoring student teams.
What enabled his own student-to-founder leap? Hands-on team projects and strong university support, specifically with workspaces, makerspaces, and technical services, all paired with the AIH’s equipment, advisors, and community.
“Learning things in class is one thing, but if you don’t have that hands-on project, you don’t realise what actually matters,” he says.
For Innovate Calgary and UCalgary’s engineering community, BioRocket’s story is a familiar, and welcome, pattern: talented students tackling ambitious problems, finding product opportunities in the hard edges of R&D, and choosing to build in a city where the aerospace ecosystem is active, collaborative, and very much on the rise.