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Jefferson W. Tester

David Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow and Professor

R.F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Jefferson W. Tester
Jefferson W. Tester
Graduate Field Affiliations
Chemical Engineering
Geological Sciences
Sustainable Energy (minor)
Systems Engineering

Biography

Dr. Tester is a professor of sustainable energy systems in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. He also serves as principal scientist for Cornell’s Earth Source Heat project. Dr. Tester is a Croll Energy Fellow and a Fellow in the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. Prior to his appointment at Cornell in 2009, Dr. Tester was the H.P. Meissner Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he served as Director of MIT’s Energy Laboratory (1989-2001) and Director of MIT’s School of Chemical Engineering Practice (1980-1989). His research on geothermal and biomass energy extraction and conversion and environmental control technologies has resulted in over 300 scientific publications and 13 co-authored books. Dr. Tester is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and was a member of the IPCC’s Working Group on Renewable Energy Sources, and advisory boards of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the American Council of Renewable Energy, and Idaho National Laboratory.

Research Interests

Energy/Resource Related Problems – Thermal-hydraulic processes for geothermal energy extraction in subsurface rock reservoirs – Geothermal reservoir engineering (tracer transport and rock–water interactions in fractured geothermal reservoirs) – Geothermal heat pumps for integrated cooling and heating applications – Deep drilling in hard rock using chemical-assisted hydrothermal jets – Recovery of critical energy materials using supercritical fluid extraction – Thermochemical liquefaction and gasification processing of waste biomass feedstocks – Integrated energy systems analysis of renewable biomass and geothermal including life cycle and technoeconomic assessment

Applied Thermodynamics and Kinetics – Chemical kinetics and phase equilibria in hydrothermal and supercritical media – Molecular simulations of condensed matter – Thermodynamic and transport properties of aqueous organic and electrolyte mixtures for thermal energy recovery and storage and power cycle applications –

  • Energy materials
  • Sustainable Energy Systems
  • Transport
  • Statistical Mechanics and Molecular Simulation

Teaching Interests

Energy systems analysis methods, renewable energy and fossil energy technologies, emphasis on applying quantitative methods using thermodynamic, kinetic and transport fundamentals in the context of scalable practical energy processes operating under environmental and economic constraints. Focused emphasis on geothermal, solar, bioenergy and energy storage technologies that highlight collaborative research with several groups in engineering and agriculture at Cornell.

Select Publications

  • Tester, J.W., S. Beyers, J.O. Gustafson, T.E. Jordan, J.D. Smith, J. Al Aswad, K.F. Beckers, R. Allmendinger, L. Brown, F. Horowitz, D. May, T.M. Khan, and M. Pritchard, “District geothermal heating using EGS technology to meet carbon neutrality goals: A case study of earth source heat for the Cornell University campus,” Proceedings of the World Geothermal Congress 2020, Reykjavik, Iceland (April 26 – May 2, 2020).

  • Tester, J.W., K.F. Beckers, A.J. Hawkins, and M.Z. Lukawski, “The evolving role of geothermal energy for decarbonizing the United States,” Energy & Environmental Science 14, 6211-6241 (December 2021).

  • Kassem, N., M. Pecchi, A.R. Maag, M. Baratieri, J.W. Tester, and J.L. Goldfarb, “Developing decision-making tools for food waste management via spatially explicit integration of experimental hydrothermal carbonization data and computational models using New York as a case study,” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, (December 2022).

  • Sudibyo, H., and J.W. Tester, “Probing elemental speciation in hydrochar produced from hydrothermal liquefaction of anaerobic digestates using quantitative X-ray diffraction,” Royal Society of Chemistry, Sustainable Energy Fuels 6, 5474-5490 (October 2022).

  • Beckers, K.F., N. Rangel-Jurado, H. Chandrasekar, A.J. Hawkins, P.M. Fulton, and J.W. Tester, “Techno-economic performance of closed-loop geothermal systems for heat production and electricity generation,” Geothermics 100, 102318 (March 2022).

Jefferson William Tester's Google Scholar

Select Awards and Honors

  • Elected to National Academy of Engineering 2021
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, College of Engineering, Cornell University 2013
  • Special Achievement Award, Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) 2011
  • Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry 2010
  • Outstanding Faculty Member Award, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2001, 2004

Education

  • B.S., Chemical Engineering, Cornell University 1966
  • M.S., Chemical Engineering, Cornell University 1967
  • Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1971

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