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Research Fund: Our group received funding from the NSF CBET TTP Program with the project entitled "Understanding Reactive Particle Based Granular Flows and Thermal and Chemical Transport in Thermochemical Energy Storage", 2026-2029, $399,207. Aug. 2026. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2549535
Postdoc Fellow and GRA Openings: Our group has fully funded openings for: one (1) Postdoc Research Fellow (immediate opening), and three (3) PhD students to start in Spring or Summer 2027. Please contact Dr. Li for details.
Dr. Li served as General Conference Chair for the 20th International Conference on Energy Sustainability - ES 2026 of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in Bellevue, WA, Jul. 2026.
https://event.asme.org/ESPhD Dissertation Defense: Mahbubur Rahman successfully defended his dissertation “Design, Modeling, and Testing of Packed and Moving Bed Reactors for Thermochemical Energy Storage”, Jul. 2027.
Student Graduation: Zachary Monem graduated with MS degree from UCF and will be joining Georgia Tech for PhD program in Fall 2026. Best wishes to Zach! Jul. 2027.
MS Thesis Defense: Zachary Monem successfully defended his thesis “Experimental Demonstration of a Laboratory Scale Packed Bed Reactor for Thermochemical Energy Storage Using Embedded Heating Elements”, Jul. 2027.
Student Graduation: Mihir Patel graduated with MS degree from UCF and will be going to the job market, in the meantime, he is continuing his research work in our lab. Best wishes to Mihir! Jul. 2027.
Student Graduation: Brandon Castellano graduated with MS degree from UCF and will be going to the job market. Best wishes to Brandon! Jul. 2027.
Student Graduation: Trent Rax graduated with BS degree from UCF and will be going to the job market. Best wishes to Trent! Jul. 2027.
Student Graduation: Matthew Thinh-Pham graduated with MS degree from UCF and will work for the US Navy starting Summer 2026. Best wishes to Matthew! Jun. 2027.
Outreach Activities: Dr. Li and his group participated in the UCF Camp Connect Advanced organized by the Center for Initiatives in STEM, and hosted 5 local high-school students: L. Amarini, L. Bennett, S.D. Abreu, C. Herbert, and Z. Roberson, for a whole week full of various activities including: material synthesis & TGA/DSC testing, TCES reactor design & testing, CFD modeling & simulation, and scientific presentation, Jun. 2026.
Student Internship: Matias Campos-Tejera will be working as an intern at our industrial partner Tempo Innovations Inc. (formerly RedoxBlox Inc.) in San Diego, CA in Summer 2026. Jun. 2026.
Student Award: David Polacek was awarded the UCF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF, $2,000). May 2026.
Student Award: Daniel Cordero was awarded the UCF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF, $2,000). May 2026.
Student Award: Noah Elledge was awarded the EXCEL/COMPASS URE Research Funding ($2,000). May 2026.
Student Award: Zachary Monem was recognized by the 2026 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) with Honorable Mention. Apr. 2026.
New Publication: New paper "Thermomechanical analysis and modeling of a high-temperature light trapping planar cavity solar receiver" was published in Solar Energy, Apr. 2026.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2026.114377New Publication: New paper "Existence of a low cooling rate martensitic transformation into the metastable ferrimagnetic τ-phase in the MnAlCu system" was published in Journal of Alloys and Compounds, through collaboration with Prof. Piotr Kulik at UCF, Mar. 2026.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2026.186938New Publication: New paper "Measurement and Characterization of Electrical Conductivity of Metal Oxides for High-Temperature Thermochemical Energy Storage and Electrodes" was published in ACS Applied Engineering Materials, Mar. 2026.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaenm.5c01102Student Award: Matias Tejera was awarded the Student Research Grant (Undergraduate Research) Funding for Spring 2026. Dec. 2025.
New Publication: New paper "Conversion of stored thermochemical potential into high quality heat in a continuous flow reactor/heat exchanger" was published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, through collaboration with Prof. Nick AuYeung at Oregon State University, Dec. 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1039/d5ta04802hNew Publication: New paper "Design and Scale-Up of Direct-Contact Continuous Oxidation Reactors for High-Temperature Thermochemical Storage Using Concentrated Solar Energy" was published in Energy & Fuels, through collaboration with Prof. Nick AuYeung at Oregon State University, Dec. 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5c02623New Publication: New paper "A unified and scalable design framework for multilayer insulation in thermal energy storage systems" was published in Applied Thermal Engineering, through collaboration with Prof. Ben Xu at the University of Houston, Dec. 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2025.129576New Publication: New book chapter "Mesoscale Dendritic Solidification Modeling with a Coupled Finite Difference—Lattice Boltzmann Phase-Field Model" was published in Book: Metal Additive Manufacturing: Methods, Materials and Applications, Springer Nature, Oct. 2025.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-96-8162-4_18New Publication: New paper "Thermochemical energy storage in a lab-scale packed-bed reactor using MgO supported BaO2/BaO redox system" was published in Journal of Energy Storage, Oct. 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2025.117917Dr. Li served as Technical Program Chair for the 19th International Conference on Energy Sustainability - ES 2025 of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in Westminster, Colorado, Jul. 2025.
Dr. Li moderated the "Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Panel" in ES 2025 with panelists from Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) representing the LDES National Consortium. Jul. 2025.
https://event.asme.org/ES/Program/Panels
New Publication: New paper "Flow structures in two-dimensional lid-driven cavity flow: Benchmark numerical results for steady flows" was published in European Journal of Mechanics - B/Fluids, Jun. 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euromechflu.2025.204313
Dr. Li served as Technical Program Chair for the 10th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference of the American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) in George Washington University, Washington, DC, Mar. 2025.
https://www.astfe.org/tfec2025/
New Publication: New paper "Engineering design of a kW-scale continuous reactor-heat exchanger for high temperature discharge of particle-based thermochemical energy storage" was published in Energy Conversion and Management, Mar. 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2025.119546
New Publication: New paper "Heat and mass transfer model for a counter-flow moving packed-bed oxidation reactor/heat exchanger" was published in ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Oct. 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4065040
Research Fund: Our group received $75,000 fund from our industry partner Duke Energy and the The Florida High Tech Corridor for the proposed Project "Electrically-heated Thermochemical Energy Storage (E-TCES) for Long-Duration Storage and Grid Decarbonization"! Sept. 2024.
Read the UCF News: https://www.ucf.edu/news/industry-innovation-program-at-ucf-distributes-inaugural-awards-to-fund-research-in-sustainable-energy-and-energy-grid-resilience/
New Publication: New paper "Rapid prediction of grain boundary network evolution in nanomaterials utilizing a generative machine learning approach" was published in Extreme Mechanics Letters, through collaboration with Prof. Shengfeng Yang at Purdue, Aug. 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eml.2024.102172
Research Fund: Our 3-year $3.89M DOE SETO-22 Project "Reactive Particle Based Thermochemical Energy Storage System for Concentrating Solar‐thermal Power " (PI: Like Li) was officially started. Jul. 2024 !
Read the UCF News: https://mae.ucf.edu/ucf-researcher-receives-3-8-million-grant-to-develop-a-solar-energy-storage-system/
Student Award: Zachary Monem was awarded the UCF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship ($2,000). May 2024.
New Publication: New invited review paper "Particle-based high-temperature thermochemical energy storage reactors" was published in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science (IF: 32.0), May 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecs.2024.101143
New Publication: New paper "Continuum modeling of high-temperature (> 1000° C) heat extraction from a moving-bed oxidation reactor for thermochemical energy storage" was published in Journal of Energy Storage, Feb. 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2024.110579
New Publication: New paper "Heat transfer model for moving packed-bed particle-to-sCO2 heat exchangers integrated with metal foams" was published in Applied Thermal Engineering, Feb. 2024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2023.122062
Congratulations to Dr. Jian Zhao, a previous postdoc in our group, for starting his tenure-track Assistant Professor position at Mississippi State University. Jan. 2024.
Dr. Li joined the University of Central Florida (UCF) as a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and a core faculty member of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research (CATER), Dec. 2023.
Student Graduation: Ashreet Mishra defended his PhD dissertation and graduated in Dec. Congrats to Dr. Mishra! Dec. 2023.
Student Graduation: David Korba defended his PhD dissertation and graduated in Aug. Congrats to Dr. Korba! Aug. 2023.
New Publication: New paper "Experimental demonstration of high-temperature (> 1000° C) heat extraction from a moving-bed oxidation reactor for thermochemical energy storage" was published in Applied Energy, Nov. 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121625
New Publication: New paper "Heat Transfer Characteristics of Particle and Air Flow Through Additively Manufactured Lattice Frame Material Based on Octet-Shape Topology" was published in ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Apr. 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4062196
New Publication: New paper "Prediction and Validation of Flow Properties in Porous Lattice Structures" was published in ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering, Apr. 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4056524
New Publication: New book chapter "Thermochemical thermal energy storage" was published in Book: Future Grid-Scale Energy Storage Solutions (Publisher: Academic Press), Jan. 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90786-6.00014-5
Dr. Li was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, effective Aug. 2023. Thanks to all the current & previous group members, internal & external collaborators, and sponsors for ongoing & completed projects!
Postdoc and GRA Openings: Our group has immediate openings for fully funded (1) one postdoc research associate, and (2) two PhD students to start in Spring or Summer 2024. Please contact Dr. Li for details.
Student Award: David Korba was awarded the Bagley College of Engineering (BCoE) Graduate Student Research Award. This is a very prestigious award with only one grduate student selected each year in the entire College of Engineering at MSU. Apr. 2023.
Research Fund: Our group received a $150,000 award from Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for the FY23 University Research Project "Thermochemical Energy Storage Reactor Design and Demonstration to Accommodate Renewable Energy Intermittency"! We will be designing, building up and testing a packed-bed reactor for thermochemical energy storage. Apr. 2023.
Research Fund: We are excited to share that MSU has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO-22 Program) to receive a $3.89M award for our work in Reactive Particle Based Thermochemical Energy Storage System for Concentrating Solar‐thermal Power (PI: Like Li)! This project will help speed deployment of concentrating solar-thermal power for industrial decarbonization and electricity generation and storage to support an equitable transition to a decarbonized energy system. This also marks our group's fourth project funded by SETO (SETO-19, -20, -21, -22). Read more about our project below. Sept. 2022.
GRA Openings: Our group has two immediate openings for fully funded PhD students to start in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023. Please contact Dr. Li for details.
Research Fund: Our group received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office SETO-21 Program. The project entitled "Light Trapping, Enclosed Planar-Cavity Receiver for Heating Particles to Enable Low-Cost Energy Storage and Chemical Processes" is led by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Dr. Li is the University PI at MSU. This project team will design, develop, and test a 100 kilowatt solar-thermal receiver that will deliver energy to particles at temperatures greater than 700°C. The project duration will be 3 years (2022 - 2025) with a total funding amount of $3,750,000. July 2022.
https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/seto-fy21-concentrating-solar-thermal-power
New Publication: New paper "Effects of pore scale and conjugate heat transfer on thermal convection in porous media" was published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Jun. 2022.
https://www.doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2022.491
Student Graduation: Oliver Wang defended his PhD dissertation and graduated in May. Congrats to Dr. Wang! May 2022.
Student Graduation: Nirmal Bhatt graduated with an Honors Thesis and was accepted into the technology and policy graduate program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Congrats to Nirmal! May 2022.
Student Award: Nirmal Bhatt was one of the eight newest inductees into Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering Student Hall of Fame in 2022. Apr. 2022.
Student Award: David Korba was awarded the 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) fellowship. NSF GRFP is one of the most prestigious and competitive programs in the nation. Huge Congrats to David! Apr. 2022.
https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList
New Publication: New paper "A continuum model for heat and mass transfer in moving-bed reactors for thermochemical energy storage" was published in Applied Energy, Feb. 2022.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192200280X
New Publication: New paper "Modeling of vapor-liquid interactions in condensing ejectors" was published in Applied Thermal Engineering, Jan. 2022.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359431122000758
New Publication: New paper "Thermochemical reduction modeling in a high-temperature moving-bed reactor for energy storage: 1D model" was published in Applied Energy, Jan. 2022.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306261921013106
New Publication: New paper "Thermochemical heat recuperation for compressed air energy storage" was published in Energy Conversion and Management, Oct. 2021.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890421010657
New Publication: New paper on phase-field-lattice Boltzmann method for dendritic growth with melt flow and thermosolutal convection–diffusion was published in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Jul. 2021.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045782521003571?via%3Dihub
New Publication: New paper on lattice Boltzmann model for conjugate heat transfer across thin walls was published in Physical Review E, Apr. 2021.
https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.103.043304
New Publication: New paper on phase-field modeling of layer-by-layer powder densification during metal laser sintering was published in Materials & Design, Feb. 2021.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127521001684
News Report: Our NSF RII-Track 4 project makes the news in the Bagley College of Engineering (BCoE) and the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at MS State. Mar. 2021.
https://www.bagley.msstate.edu/news/mechanical-engineering-professor-earns-nsf-grant/
https://www.cavs.msstate.edu/story.php?d=976
Research Fund: Our group received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office SETO-20 Program. We will be collaborating with our partners at Sandia National Laboratories and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop a novel metal-foam-based heat exchanger to enhance particle-to-sCO2 heat transfer. The project duration will be 1 year and 3 months (2021 - 2022) with a total funding amount of $375,000. Mar. 2021.
New Publication: New paper on prediction and validation of effective thermal conductivity of porous structures (e.g., additively manufactured metal foams) was published in Applied Thermal Engineering, Jan 9, 2021.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359431121000156
Student Award: Nirmal Bhatt was selected to receive the Undergraduate Research Stipend Award from the Bagley College of Engineering, Dec. 2020.
Work Presentation & Student Award: Eric Million presented the work "Macroscopic Modeling of Solid-State Thermochemical Fuel Reactors for Solar Thermal Energy Storage" at the MSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, and won the 1st place (top 1 of the 21 presentations in the Physical Sciences and Engineering Division). Oct. 29, 2020.
Research Fund: Our group was awarded for a new project "RII Track-4: Understanding Reaction-Transport Coupling in High-Temperature Thermochemical Energy Storage Systems" with funding from NSF (PI: Dr. Li)
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2031701&HistoricalAwards=false
News Report: Our DOE SETO-19 project makes the news in the Bagley College of Engineering (BCoE) and the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at MS State.
www.cavs.msstate.edu/story.php?d=934
Research Fund: Our group received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO-19 Program). We will be collaborating with our partners at Michigan State University (lead), Oregon State University, and Purdue University Northwest to develop a novel solid-state solar thermochemical fuel for long-duration storage of concentrating solar power (CSP). The project duration will be 3 years (2020 - 2023) with a total funding amount of $2.5 million.
New Publication: New paper on accuracy of interface schemes for conjugate heat and mass transfer in the lattice Boltzmann method was published in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, May 16, 2020.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0017931019360715
Position Opening: There are immediate openings for 2 PhD students in our group with full Research Assistantship with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The preferred start date is Summer or Fall 2020.
Student Award: Eric Million was selected to receive the Undergraduate Research Stipend Award from the Bagley College of Engineering, May 2020.
Faculty Award: Dr. Li was selected to receive the 2019 MSU Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award . Apr. 2020.
https://www.me.msstate.edu/2019-mechanical-engineering-faculty-awards-recipients/
Position Opening: The TFEC group is looking to hire a Postdoc Associate immediately for a US DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) funded project on high-temperature thermochemical energy storage. Modeling experience with thermal/chemical transport and energy transport in reactors is required. Jan. 2020.
Dr. Li was invited to attend and participate in the Workshop on Fundamental Needs for Dynamic and Interactive Thermal Storage Solutions for Buildings organized by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at LBNL, Berkeley CA , Nov. 19-20, 2019.
New Publication: The patent "Method for the Generation of Power" was granted and published on line, Oct. 18, 2019.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10266420B2/en
Research Fund: The TFEC group received funding from NuVision Engineering Inc. and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a collaborative project: Dynamic Natural Convection-Passive Cooling for the LWR Fleet.
Work Presentation: Dr. Li was invited by Dr. Nick AuYeung to visit the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering and the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University, and gave a seminar "Modeling of thermochemical processes from porescale to prototype reactors", July 19, 2019.
Work Presentation: Dr. Li presented the work "Multiple-time-scaling lattice Boltzmann model for conjugate heat transfer" at the ASME 2019 Summer Heat Transfer Conference Co-located with the 13th International Conference on Energy Sustainability in Bellevue, WA in July 2019.
New Publication: New paper on multiple-time-scaling lattice Boltzmann method for the convection-diffusion equation was accepted in Physical Review E, May 20, 2019.
https://journals.aps.org/pre/accepted/
f6076Y5dP601177c14a710a8d94a93a6e5171768f
New Publication: Book chapter on review of interface treatment for conjugate conditions was published in IntechOpen, May 14, 2019.
Work Presentation: David Korba presented the work "Modeling of Thermal and Chemical Transport between Different Materials Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method" at the MSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, Apr. 16, 2019.
New Publication: New paper on magnesium-manganese oxides for high temperature thermochemical energy storage was published in Journal of Energy Storage, Dec 31, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2018.11.024
Student Award: David Korba was selected to receive the Undergraduate Research Stipend Award from the Bagley College of Engineering, Sept. 2018.
New Publication: New paper on the gray lattice Boltzmann equation method for fluid flow in porous media was accepted in Journal of Statistical Physics, Mar 6, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-018-2005-1
Dr. Li will chair the session of Heat and Mass Transfer in Concentrated Solar Power Track of the 2018 ASME Power and Energy Sustainability Conference, June 24-28, Lake Buena Vista, FL.
New Publication: New paper on optimizing micromixer surfaces to deter biofouling was accepted in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Feb 9, 2018.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.7b19845
New Publication: New paper on magnesioferrites material for solar thermochemical fuel production was published in Solar Energy, Feb 4, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.12.006
Position Opening: We have immediate openings for PhD students with full Research Assistantship in the TFEC group, please contact Dr. Li for details.
Work Presentation: Dr. Li presented the work "Lattice Boltzmann models for the convection-diffusion equation: D2Q5 vs D2Q9" at the ASME IMECE 2017 Conference in Tampa, FL in Nov. 2017
Aug. 2017 - The Thermal Fluids and Energy Conversion (TFEC) group is formed at Mississippi State University
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