From the desk of research engineer
Stiffness and Implicit Integration — Working Notes
Field notes on why combustion ODE systems are stiff, what stiffness actually means numerically, and how implicit integrators handle it in practice.
Notes
Notes is my working desk in public: a place for ideas in progress, learning traces, partial synthesis, and smaller pieces of understanding that have not yet become formal writing. It is distinct from Writing in being more provisional and exploratory, and it is for readers who enjoy process, not just polished outcomes.
From the desk of lifelong learner
Magnesium and the Lightweighting Path to Decarbonization
Transportation is ~30% of global emissions. One underappreciated lever is lightweighting — and magnesium, the lightest structural metal, is getting a second look as seawater-based production makes clean manufacturing feasible for the first time.
From the desk of lifelong learner
Matching Energy Storage to Application: The Ragone Perspective
Not all storage technologies are interchangeable. The Ragone plot — power density vs energy density — reveals why capacitors, electrochemical batteries, and chemical/mechanical storage occupy distinct niches, and why mismatching technology to application is expensive.
From the desk of lifelong learner
EROI: Why the Comparison Between Fossil Fuels and Renewables Is Usually Wrong
Energy Return on Investment is the right metric for comparing energy sources — but most popular comparisons measure EROI at the point of extraction rather than point of use. When you account for the full chain, the picture looks very different from the conventional wisdom.
From the desk of lifelong learner
Round-Trip Efficiency of Energy Storage: What the Numbers Actually Mean
RTE tells you how much electricity you recover from a storage system compared to what you put in. The numbers vary dramatically across technologies — from 85% for lithium-ion to 25% for hydrogen — and understanding why reveals the physics of each approach.
From the desk of lifelong learner
The Thermodynamic Limits of Direct Air Capture
DAC is a fight against entropy. The second law of thermodynamics sets an absolute energy floor of 120 kWh per tonne of CO₂ — and current technology is only 7–8% efficient against that floor. The numbers matter for how seriously we should take DAC as a climate solution.