Thomas Deetjen
Research Associate
Center for Electromechanics
Webber Energy Group
The University of Texas
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering
The University of Texas
B.S., Mechanical Engineering
Texas A&M University
My Work
I enjoy connecting the components of complex systems in novel ways that benefit society. This drives my fascination with energy systems and my goal to improve global energy sustainability. I pursue that goal by combining engineering and operations research methods to explore problems at the intersection of energy, economics, and policy. My current work uses system modeling techniques to explore large-scale opportunities for decarbonization via power sector transformation, electrification, and hydrogen economies.
Current Projects
Roadmap for Texas Hydrogen Economy
Hydrogen offers the potential to decarbonize sectors where long-term storage is needed and/or electrification is difficult—e.g., transportation, marine shipping, and long-term storage for the power sector. The Texas Gulf Coast has the largest existing network of hydrogen producers and pipelines in the U.S. This study uses a techno-economic market model to develop pathways for expanding the Texas hydrogen system into a large-scale, multi-sector hydrogen economy. It explores the barriers to achieving that and the economic, investment, and policy solutions to overcoming those barriers.
Pathways to Texas Decarbonization by 2050
Texas has a variety of resources, opportunities, and challenges to reducing carbon emissions in its economy. This study uses economy-wide energy and emissions analysis tools to explore multiple pathways for guiding Texas toward net zero carbon emissions. It considers the economic impacts on the transportation, power, industry, and building sectors.
Private and public costs and benefits of U.S. residential heat pump adoption
Heat pumps are a high-efficiency technology for electrifying heating. When a homeowner retrofits a furnace or boiler with a heat pump, they increase their electricity consumption but reduce their fossil-fuel combustion. The cost, emissions, and electric grid implications of these retrofits varies based on the house’s construction quality, its climate, and its regional electric grid. This project simulates the private economics behind residential heat pump adoption and quantifies the public cost and benefits of large-scale heat pump adoption. The project also studies how adding thermal energy storage to a heat pump system might increase its net private and public value.