Jeffrey Gifford is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory after completing his Ph.D. in the Advanced Energy Systems program at the Colorado School of Mines in May 2023. His dissertation research answered key questions about long-duration, particle-based thermal energy storage systems using a multi-method approach, including computational fluid dynamics, dynamic integrated system modeling, and mixed-integer linear programming for design and dispatch optimization. His overall research interest is energy storage systems for economy-wide decarbonization but mainly focuses on component, system, and techno-economic modeling of particle-based thermal energy storage for industrial heat and grid electricity applications. He has also worked on modeling hydrogen electrolysis and leakage.

Research Interests

Thermal energy storage

Computational fluid dynamics

Optimal design and dispatch of energy storage systems

Long-duration energy storage

Education

Ph.D., Advanced Energy Systems, Colorado School of Mines

M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado—Boulder

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University

Professional Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher, NREL (2023–Present)

Graduate Researcher, NREL (2018–2023)

Research Assistant, Colorado School of Mines (2020–2023)

Teaching Assistant, University of Colorado–Boulder (2018–2019)

Science Undergraduate Laboratory Intern Program, NREL (Summer 2018)

Featured Work

Modeling of Particle Thermal Energy Reservoir for Solar Industrial Process Heat: Final Technical Report, NREL Technical Report (2023)

Electric-thermal Energy Storage Using Solid Particles as Storage Media, Joule (2023)

Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis of a Novel Particle-to-air Fluidized-bed Heat Exchanger for Particle-based Thermal Energy Storage Applications, Journal of Energy Storage (2023)

Thermal Analysis of Insulation Design for a Thermal Energy Storage Silo Containment for Long-Duration Electricity Storage, Frontiers in Energy Research (2020)

Patents

Fluidized-bed heat exchanger for conversion of thermal energy to electricity, U.S. Patent No. 11,740,025 B2 (2023)

Electric charging particle heater for thermal energy storage, U.S. Patent No. 11,631,992 B2 (2023)