Daniel Kraemer

For the majority of my time as a Senior Thermal Mechanical Engineer I led and supported the development of advanced thermal-mechanical & electrical systems for next-generation energy technologies, with a focus on thermal pyrolysis reactors. Thermal Pyrolysis Reactors for Hydrogen & Carbon Production: o Led ideation, design optimization, and proof-of-concept testing of multiple reactor concepts o Conducted multiple experimental studies with an electrically heated pyrolysis reactor to increase our understanding of carbon deposition & removal which guided the operation conditions of a full-scale reactor. o Led the thermal-mechanical design of large-scale reactor vessels (up to 38 modules) with advanced cooling and sealing systems for safe operation. o Supported the full-scale single-module test stand development, instrumentation, and operational safety protocols. Throughout my tenure, I combined hands-on design, fabrication, and testing with system-level integration and cross-functional collaboration, driving innovations in clean energy technologies and contributing to the commercialization of hydrogen and carbon production from natural gas and thermionic power solutions.

For the majority of my time as a Senior Thermal Mechanical Engineer I led and supported the development of advanced thermal-mechanical & electrical systems for next-generation energy technologies, with a focus on the development of Thermionic Converters (TEC) and their integration with home heating appliances: o Designed, fabricated, and tested refractory metal- and superalloy-based TECs for high-temperature operation (up to 1300 °C). o Developed high temperature hermetic metal-to-ceramic joints, high-temperature heat exchangers, and cesium-pressure-control strategies. o Spearheaded system integration of combustion-based TEC modules, including co-generation hot-water heaters and a 30 kW home-heating furnace prototype with commercial partners. o Innovated new burner concepts and cooling strategies to optimize converter performance.

My research was mostly focused on fundamental energy transport, radiative heat transfer, solar power conversion, solid-state power conversion based on thermoelectric, photovoltaic, and thermionic effects and the manipulation of thermal transport properties of polymers. Some Research Highlights: • Developed and tested solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs) with record-high efficiencies --> Vacuum tube STEG design with large thermal concentration for rooftop co-generation application achieved 4.6% peak efficiency at 1 sun (7 times improvement over previous work) and 5.2% at 1.5 suns --> Concentrating STEG (CSTEG) design with segmented thermoelectric legs and high-temperature spectrally-selective solar absorber for concentrating solar power applications achieved temperature differences of up to 575 °C and peak efficiencies of 9.6% at 211 suns and 7.6% at 38 suns (~3 times improvement over previous work) --> CSTEG with high-temperature black paint solar absorber and a specularly reflective optical receiver cavity achieved similar peak efficiency • Demonstrated a record-high thermoelectric conversion efficiency of 8.5% at relatively low temperature difference of 225 °C for a novel MgAgSb-based material with hot-pressed silver contacts • Developed a novel steady-state method to measure the thermal conductivity of bulk samples; method is significantly simpler while maintaining high accuracy (error <5%) compared to existing steady-state methods • Developed a calorimetric method to measure the total-hemispherical emittance and solar absorptance of surfaces at temperatures from 100 to 600 °C with an error <5% • Involved in the design of high-temperature (600 °C) spectrally-selective solar absorbers with solar absorptance of ~0.91 and record-low emittance of ~0.15 measured at 500 °C. • Demonstrated record-high in-plane thermal conductivity for pure ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene

Continued the work on experimental demonstration of solar thermoelectric generators

Studied solar thermoelectric power conversion and design, built and performed proof of concept experiments of solar thermoelectric generators in the NanoEngineeing Group at MIT under the supervision of Prof. Dimos Poulikakos (ETH) and Prof. Gang Chen (MIT)

Conducted a theoretical study on the aerodynamics of a deformable blimp with fish-like propulsion mechanism at the Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies (LTNT) in collaboration with the Institute of Fluid Dynamics (IFD) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) under the supervision of Prof. D. Poulikakos (LTNT), Prof. L. Kleiser (IFD) and Dr. S. Michel (EMPA)

Performed a thermogravimetric analysis of and modeled the gas-solid carbonation reaction for a carbon dioxide capturing process at the Institute of Energy Technology (Advisor: Prof. Aldo Steinfeld)

As process engineer intern I analyzed onsite chemical production processes to find and evaluate energy and cost saving potentials in different chemical plants under the supervision of Scott van Wagener

Performed my dissertation research for my Dipl. Ing. in process engineering at BASF: Studied the fluid mechanics of fluidized bed reactors using a fiber-optical probe and performed drying experiments on a vacuum paddle dryer.

Planning of wind parks ( on- and offshore ) and Energy Management

Major/Minor: Energy Science and Engineering/Applied Quantum Physics Thesis: Solar Thermoelectric Power Conversion: Materials Characterization to Device Demonstration

Major: Energy Science and Technology Group: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies (LTNT)

Majored in Energy, Flows, and Processes

2 Majors: Energy Technologies and Rubber/Plastic Technologies