Portfolio
Clean Energy & Engineering Masterpieces
A showcase of key projects I have led, engineered, and optimized. Classified by my direct individual leadership and strategic team management.
Major Project • Individual Lead
Baumschulenweg Crematory Modernization, Berlin
Led the complete technical waste-heat-to-cooling modernization of the facility, utilizing process waste heat recovery for absorption cooling integrated with a direct district heating grid connection to eliminate the local boiler.
STAR Case Study:
Situation: Outdated energy systems inside the architecturally protected landmark building resulted in high operational costs. The technical goal was to recover and recycle waste heat from the cremation process to provide clean cooling.
Task: Direct the complete end-to-end engineering modernization, building automation overhaul, and subsidies administration as the primary Project Manager.
Action:
- Innovative Clean Tech: Integrated process waste heat recovery with a new absorption cooling machine (backed by a redundant compression cooling chiller) and established a direct connection to the local district heating grid (BTB Berlin), cutting out the local boiler entirely and enabling excess heat feedback.
- Systems Renovation: Upgraded the HVAC systems, measurement and control automation (Mess- und Regelungstechnik), energy monitoring systems, and cremation lighting.
- Subsidies & Bureaucracy Management: Acted as the primary contact for public funding bodies; compiled all reports, and structured planning documentation ("Bauplanungsunterlagen") according to Berlin's public building guidelines (ABAu), keeping the Senate and funding stakeholders in the loop regarding claims and variations.
Result: Delivered a highly optimized, fossil-free, and fully automated heating/cooling system that achieved major CO2 emission reductions and energy savings. Successfully handed over the operational plant to the client.
Major Project • Individual Lead
Ruhleben Crematory Modernization, Berlin
Replicated Baumschulenweg's waste-heat-to-cooling modernization at the Ruhleben facility, but engineered custom thermal storage arrays and a backup auxiliary boiler due to the lack of a local district heating grid connection.
STAR Case Study:
Situation: Outdated energy structures inside the Ruhleben crematory faced high energy losses, and a local grid connection to district heating was unavailable, requiring a different energy buffering design.
Task: Oversee the complete engineering modernization and subsidies administration as Project Manager, resolving the lack of local district heating through custom thermal storage.
Action:
- Thermal Engineering: Designed and implemented a waste heat recovery absorption cooling system integrated with a custom auxiliary backup boiler and expanded thermal heating storage arrays to buffer energy during operational gaps.
- Funding Administration: Handled the rigorous public grant documentation, ABAu building code compliances, and senate alignments, keeping all public funding stakeholders informed of budget states.
- Systems Renovation: Modernized HVAC components, building automation, and energy monitoring, maintaining high execution standards.
Result: Realized substantial CO2 emission reductions and energy savings. Successfully delivered and handed over the fully operational facility to the client.
Team Leadership • Advisory
Quartier Buckower Felder, Berlin
Fostering team execution for an innovative, fossil-free residential quarter, providing senior leadership support and conflict resolution.
Key Contributions & Scope:
- Team Empowerment: Provided strategic direction and technical guidance to team members executing the low-temperature geothermal grid integrated with raw wastewater thermal heat recovery.
- Executive Oversight: Stepped in to resolve grid coordination conflicts and supported negotiations with public development bodies.
- Autonomous Progress: Enabled self-organized project engineering by establishing streamlined point-of-contact documentation workflows.
Team Leadership • Advisory
Quartier Haus der Statistik, Berlin
Supporting the technical project team deploying a multi-source renewable heating and cooling network in central Berlin.
Key Contributions & Scope:
- Strategic Advisory Support: Supported the direct project managers, offering technical advice on complex heat pump arrays, geothermal storage, and sewer wastewater heat recovery integration.
- Decision Authority: Facilitated critical executive decisions regarding grid boundaries and municipal funding alignments.
- Process Optimization: Guided the team to utilize automated digital reporting tools to maintain progress clarity with development partners.
Major Project • Individual Lead
Rollberg Quarter, Berlin
Executing a circular local heating and cooling grid utilizing solar thermal collectors, three heat pumps with distinct thermal sources (HVAC exhaust air, ambient air, and underground seasonal storage), a CHP unit, and a peak-load boiler.
STAR Case Study:
Situation: An ambitious residential district development in Berlin required a local clean energy heating and cooling grid with high circular efficiency, constrained by strict public tendering guidelines and complex technical system integration.
Task: Direct the entire engineering implementation, subsidies administration, contract management, and system integration as the individual Project Manager—leading the project single-handedly from contract signing through execution and final operational handover.
Action:
- Multi-Source Heat Pump Design: Engineered a multi-source heat pump array utilizing three distinct energy sources: building exhaust air flows via an HVAC heat pump, ambient outdoor air via a reversible heat pump (providing active cooling in summer), and a brine-water heat pump connected to seasonal underground thermal storage.
- Solar & Cogeneration Integration: Connected solar thermal collectors to feed the seasonal storage and integrated a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit for simultaneous power and heat generation, backed by a conventional gas boiler for peak-load demands.
- Tendering & Lifecycle Management: Managed the entire public bidding, contracting, and tendering lifecycle under VOB guidelines, securing public environmental grant subsidies and managing contract variations.
- Operational Handover: Handled the testing, commissioning, and final seamless operational handover of the centralized heating and cooling energy center to the operating division.
Result: Delivered a fully functional, highly automated local heating/cooling energy grid on schedule. Successfully managed the complete lifecycle from contract to operational handover alone, achieving massive long-term carbon reductions.
Major Project • Co-Lead
Friesenstraße Police Headquarters
Co-managed the entire engineering implementation and centralization of the heating system for the secure, operational police headquarters.
STAR Case Study:
Situation: Outdated open heating and distribution networks caused frequent downtime across the massive operational police headquarters complex. If a single radiator broke, the entire building went cold, presenting severe security and comfort risks.
Task: Actively co-manage the complete design, centralized implementation, and system-separation modernizations to ensure full resilience and eliminate building-wide heating failures.
Action:
- Technical Division: Personally directed the structural planning and physical construction of the new centralized main heating station on site, supporting my co-lead on the distribution networks and house station renewals with system separation.
- Operational Logistics: Aligned major street excavation pipelines with the police's 24/7 emergency response routes, ensuring emergency cars could always deploy without delay while opening streets for the distribution network.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Chaired all primary communications with the public client and supervised shared supplier contractors under VOB/B parameters.
Result: Delivered a fully modernized centralized heating grid with complete house system separations, yielding zero emergency dispatch delays, zero building-wide heat failures, and full operational security.
Hydrogen & Winds
Wind-Hydrogen Predicted Storage
Modeling the integration of industrial electrolysis and hydrogen storage into wind farms using MATLAB forecasting algorithms.
Key Contributions & Scope:
- Developed mathematical configurations analyzing high-capacity electrolyzer output profiles.
- Modeled battery storage sizing under varying wind power predictions (P90, P50, and P10 exceedance probabilities).
- Evaluated optimal system sizes for integration into major wind farm locations in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia.
Marine Clean Tech
West Coast Wave Initiative (WCWI)
Simulating a hydraulic power take-off wave energy converter buoy and participating in offshore marine deployment in Canada.
Key Contributions & Scope:
- Created a custom mathematical model in Simulink capturing buoy motions under real ocean wave data.
- Simulated wave-to-electric conversion efficiency of hydraulic fluid pumps inside the buoy.
- Joined the marine expedition team deploying the physical Wave Energy Converter system off Vancouver Island, B.C.
Solar & Materials
Flat Plate Collector Durability
Thermal simulations using Heat2 and material durability stress testing of edge seals in glazed solar thermal flat plate collectors.
Key Contributions & Scope:
- Conducted heat loss analysis on highly insulated flat plate solar collector assemblies.
- Set up physical testing frameworks simulating decades of European climate thermal cycles.
- Calculated degradation rates of edge seal rubbers to increase solar panel operational lifespans.
Mechanical Design
International Industrial Drying Systems
Designing, planning, and commissioning massive thermal drying plants for chemical and food processing factories globally.
Key Contributions & Scope:
- Calculated industrial fluid dynamics and structural configurations for custom international dryer machinery.
- Managed suppliers and estimated cost margins, ensuring strict budget compliance.
- Coordinated international client points of contact, traveling to project sites to lead commissioning and handovers.