We have a postdoctoral position available on experimental thermal measurements, please check out details in Open Positions

Open positions

WELCOME!

​The TREE Lab at the University of Michigan aspires to address the defining dual challenges of the 21st century – providing access to affordable and secure energy resources and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by advancing the understanding of transport and kinetic processes for solar fuel generators, thermal energy storage and water treatment devices. 
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Our group performs multidisciplinary research in the areas of thermal and fluid sciences, solar energy conversion, multiscale computation, and electrochemical engineering. ​We apply the approach of developing computational models integrated with experimental analyses to probe the  interplay of heat and mass transfer, fluid flow and chemical reactions that play a central role in various thermal, thermochemical, and electrochemical energy systems. 

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Solar Fuels

Investigation of high-temperature thermochemical and low-temperature photoelectrochemical pathways for solar energy driven water and carbon dioxide splitting to produce hydrogen and syngas

Thermal Energy Storage

Fundamental understanding and evaluation of heat transfer performance of materials for thermal energy storage applications. We are specifically seeking to understand radiative transport for thermal energy storage applications and also thermochemical energy storage by exploiting energy changes in chemical reactions 

Wastewater Resource Recovery 

Exploration of photoelectrochemical approaches for wastewater nutrient and energy recovery. Specifically investigating the viability of solar-driven tertiary pathways for nitrogen-recovery from wastewater sources

Image: https://phys.org/news/2016-01-industry-additive.html

Metals Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing of metals and metal alloys can profoundly alter the production and time-to-market of various components and products. We are especially interested in the evaluation of the multimode heat-transfer processes involved in this process and how additively manufactured metals and metal alloys behave in supercritical carbon dioxide environments at high-temperatures (1100 C). 

Our Team

Principal Investigator

ROHINI BALA CHANDRAN

​Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Rohini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. She obtained her B.S. (2008) from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS-Pilani), India, an M.S (2010) and a Ph.D. (2015) from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, all in Mechanical Engineering. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory between 2015-2017 in the Energy Storage & Distributed Resources division.

Doctoral Students

LUISA BARRERA

MIKE MAYER

Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Candidate

Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Candidate​

Luisa obtained her Bachelor's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016. ​She is currently working on photoelectrochemical approaches for water splitting and wastewater treatment applications. 

BINGJIA LI

Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Candidate​

Bingjia earned his Bachelor's degree in Building Environment & Energy Application Engineering from China University of Mining and Technology (2018). Currently he is working on modeling radiative heat transfer for particulate media. 

BRYAN KINZER

Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Candidate​

Bryan earned his Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tulsa in 2017 and then headed off to Lesotho for a year helping electrify rural villages.  He is currently working on modeling high temperature alloys for next generation power plants and working on modeling and measurements for thermochemical energy storage 

ADITYA SUNDAR

Materials Science & Eng., Doctoral Candidate

Aditya earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) in India and Cornell University respectively. He is working on modeling the thermodynamics and kinetics of corrosion for high-temperature materials and is co-advised by Prof. Liang Qi in the Materials Science & Eng. department.

Mike received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018 and worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for one year before coming to Michigan to begin his PhD. He is working on experimental techniques to study high temperature radiative heat transfer in systems with flowing particles

ZIJIE CHEN

Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Candidate​

Zijie obtained her Bachelor's degree in Building Environment & Energy Application Engineering from Shandong Jianzhu University in 2018. She is currently working on developing physics-based and data-driven models for radiative transport in participating media.

RACHEL SILCOX

Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral Pre-Candidate

Rachel earned her Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Valparaiso University in 2019. She worked one year at a green hydrogen start-up company and as a statistics/environmental science teaching assistant at Pannasastra University of Cambodia - Siem Reap. She is currently a PhD student working on electrochemical methods for carbon dioxide concentration.

Masters & Sequential Undergraduate/Graduate (SUGS) Students

KATHERINE GIAMMALVO

Kate Giammalvo is matriculating SUGS student in Mechanical Engineering.  She is currently working on wastewater treatment applications of electrochemistry and studying life cycle analysis of carbon dioxide capture technologies.

Undergraduate Students

Alumni

1. Theo Rulko (Summer 2021 - Winter 2022), Undergraduate Student (SURE 2021, Research Assistant), University of Michigan; presently Graduate student at MIT, Aerospace Engineering
2. Xingze Dai (Fall 2020 -- Winter 2022), Undergraduate Student (Research Assistant, ME 490 Project), University of Michigan; presently at UM
3. James Abraham (Fall 2020 -- Winter 2021), M.S. Student (ME 590 Project), Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan; presently at Bosch Thermotechnology,  Michigan
4. Erika Brower (Summer 2018 -- Summer 2020), Undergraduate Student, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan; presently at ThermoLift, Livonia, Michigan
5. Connor Boerman (Fall 2018 -- Fall 2019), Undergraduate Student, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan; presently at Blue Origin 
6. Aishwarya Krishnan (Winter, Summer and Fall 2019), M.S. Student (ME 590 Project), Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan; presently CFD Engineer at Romeo Power, Los Angeles, California
7. Kory Nelson (Fall 2018 and Winter 2019), M.S. Student (ME 590 Project), Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan; presently at GE Renewable Energy in their Grid Solutions team, Seattle
8. Fawaz Ali (Summer and Fall 2018), M.S. Student (ME 590 Project), Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan; presently doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering at UM
9. Yudong Chen (Fall 2018), M.S. Student (ME 590 Project), Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan
10. Xingyu Zhou (Fall 2018), M.S. Student (ME 590 Project), Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan
11. Chisang Park (Summer 2018), M.S. Student, Research Volunteer, University of Michigan; presently doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering at UM