Yankee Scientific: The Practice of Ingenuity
President
Dr. Guyer founded Yankee Scientific in 1988 with David Brownell.
Eric's educational background includes a Doctor of Science degree in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree from what is now the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and AirConditioning Engineers; Sigma Xi; and the Tau Epsilon Honorary Engineering Society.
Dr. Guyer has spent his most of his career in the development of energy technology and related enterprises. Early in his career he became interested in smaller scale energy systems of all types, particularly building energy systems. With the founding of Yankee Scientific in 1988, he has led the development of important new products for the HVAC industry. In the year 2000, Dr. Guyer brought together the international industry team to form Climate Energy, LLC, the North American leader in micro-combined heat and power systems. He has guided technical projects for several branches of the US military, including DARPA, and for a number of industry trade and research organizations.
As editor of the Handbook of Applied Thermal Design he has contributed significantly to the methods and practical perspectives of energy system design. His technical expertise is in the application of thermodynamic principles, materials, thermal power devices, and instrumentation and controls to the engineering solution of heat flow and temperature problems in product and process design.
Dr. Guyer has served as the Director of Energy Technology for the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (WADE) and is a member of the Clean Energy Venture Group. He is the author of a number of patents and technical articles and he is engaged in the public debate of the technology and policy options for our energy future.
Vice-President and Technical Director
David Brownell co-founded Yankee Scientific with Dr. Eric Guyer in 1988 and now serves as the Technical Director for the Company.
David has been developing real world engineering solutions for clients for over 30 years. David's core expertise is in thermal, fluid and mechanical systems design and analysis but he also brings a broad range of interdisciplinary know how to our engineering programs.
David has been the principal investigator for many of Yankee's prototype development projects. David has developed prototypes for the first USA manufactured monoblock cast aluminum boiler, a gas fired water distillation appliance, a cyclone separation method for pharmaceutical manufacturing and a liquid fueled absorption refrigerator. David has managed our programs to develop scroll expander-based power generation systems operating with both steam and refrigerants as the working fluid. David also developed the micro-combined heat and power prototype systems that eventually evolved into the Climate Energy freewatt® product.
David has undertaken dozens of projects for military customers focused on the application of heat transfer, thermodynamics and advanced technologies to address specific equipment needs. Examples of technologies that Mr. Brownell has developed include compact JP-8 fueled water heaters, compact sanitation centers, thermoelectric power sources and multi-stage flash-distillation equipment for the dewatering of blackwater.
Mr. Brownell has supported major utilities with an assessment of technologies for compact compressors used in residential compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle refueling appliances. He has also designed an advanced liquid piston hydrogen compressor for hydrogen vehicle refueling stations.
David is proficient in the application of advanced modeling tools including SolidWorks based FEA and CFD programs and has developed models of supersonic nozzles, diffusers and ejectors. David has developed dozens of analytical models characterizing the operation of devices such as drip coffeemakers, airborne COIL laser effluent ejectors, the firing rate for pulse combustion systems and the transient heating capacity of indirect water heaters.
Mr. Brownell received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University in 1978 (with high honors) and is a registered professional engineer in Massachusetts.
In his spare time David enjoys amateur astrophotography and woodworking.
Engineering Laboratory Manager
Jim Lozouski joined Yankee Scientific in 2018 and now serves as our Engineering Laboratory Manager. In the laboratory, Jim is responsible for the design and fabrication of many of Yankee's prototype systems. Beginning with the design of equipment, Jim has received certification in SolidWorks and has 20 years of design experience. Jim is also proficient with all aspects of mechanical equipment fabrication, including welding, electronics and mechanical assembly, and inspection. Jim supports our in-house and field-testing programs as well.
While at Yankee, Jim has been the lead designer on the Compact Sanitation Center program for the US Army. This work included the design and fabrication of low-pressure steam generators with integration of JP-8 burners, nesting sink assemblies, and auxiliary equipment. Jim has also played a key role in the development of a laboratory prototype and then a field demonstration prototype of a Blackwater Reduction Systems utilizing a Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSFD) process.
Prior to joining Yankee, Jim worked for AMTI on a number of advanced technology programs. This included the development of a series of military field kitchen systems.
In his spare time, Jim enjoys photography and restoring classic automobiles.
Engineering Manager of Electrical and Electronic Systems
Alex Stevenson joined Yankee Scientific in 2003, and has designed control and safety systems in support of DARPA and US Army projects. Alex completed the design and implementation of Internet-enabled, high reliability control systems and logic-controlled Automatic Transfer Switches for a family of residential-scale Micro-Combined Heat and Power HVAC products, known as ‘freewatt’. These products were installed in homes throughout the Northeast. Alex also designed the automated test equipment used in the production of the ‘freewatt’ control modules.
Previously, Alex was at Intel Corporation and accumulated 14 years experience in Sales and Marketing of Intel's extensive catalog of semiconductor, board, microprocessor development tools and OEM system products. Alex supported the design efforts of many of Intel's largest OEM customers securing ‘design wins’ at Dell Computer, Sun Microsystems, EMC, ModComp, Lucent, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, and many others.
As a new grad, Alex joined computer maker Prime Computer, Inc. doing digital hardware and systems design, software and microcode development, hardware architecture analysis, and Engineering Management over a 14 year tenure.
In addition to his broad Computer Engineering skills, he has a passion for mechanical and automotive technologies. Alex holds five US Patents in the areas of digital archival storage, digital audio, and DSP-based musical instrument audio processing. Alex received his Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1978.
Alex is a longtime rock musician in his spare time.
Principal Engineer
Howard is a career product designer and brought his extensive firmware and electronic prototyping expertise to Yankee Scientific in 2006. He specializes in making tiny, inexpensive processors do jobs that are normally done by larger, more expensive options. He is worked on Yankee's joint venture with ECR International (Climate Energy) on controls, firmware and telemetry support for the freewatt® cogenerating heating system. Prior to joining Yankee, he was a senior product design engineer at LCS/Telegraphics, one of the contributing companies to the original USB specification. Over his 12 years there Howard's work included FM radio transmitters, assorted handheld electronics, network server security devices, unique musical instrument control panels, medical devices, psychology lab test equipment and some rather unusual computer mice, keyboards and joysticks.
As Testing Editor at McGraw-Hill's BYTE Magazine in the early 90's he wrote monthly reviews and articles in addition to designing custom test equipment and procedures for evaluating personal computer performance. One of Howard's creations is 'Thumper II', a robotic controller that converted a folding card table into a battery life testing station for 8 notebook computers. Thumper used R/C car servos as both power and force sensors to press keys while watching for screen activity using optical sensors. His career also includes designing and building the first publicly displayed tablet-style computer (Hindsight's Letterbug), system architecture, firmware and application software for the Coleco ADAM, and the first touch-sensitive, speech-recognizing automatic teller machines. For a time he designed science fair project ideas for Science Buddies, a non-profit organization that encourages kids to explore the sciences and enter local science fairs.
Howard has an S. B. (1982) from MIT's School of Architecture and Design where he did original research at the Architecture Machine Group (now the Media Lab) in lip synchronization. He is currently a Director on the board of the New Hampshire Science and Engineering Expo, the ISEF-affiliated state fair for the state of NH.
Senior Engineer
Phil LaFond is a Senior Engineer with over a decade of experience in electric power generation. Phil earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nuclear Engineering at MIT and started his career as a Nuclear Plant Reactor Operator at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. In 2006, Phil traded gigawatts for kilowatts when he joined Yankee Scientific to head the field trial of the Climate Energy developed freewatt® Micro-Combined Heat and Power System. Following the successful field trial, Phil managed the field operations of the Climate Energy Home Dealership. Phil led the development and continuous improvement of a multi-day dealer certification program for new freewatt dealers.
Phil's expertise includes operations and logistics, diagnostics and troubleshooting, remote monitoring implementation, data collection, and analysis, and hydronic system design.
Senior Project Engineer
Mark joined Yankee Scientific in 2000. Mark’s early projects included the design and testing of a mono-block cast aluminum heat exchanger for residential heating, the design and testing of several small-scale steam engines as well as engineering support on several US Army and DARPA projects.
Mark was directly involved with the development and commercialization of a residential-scale micro-combined heat and power system called the freewatt system. As the Director of Product Engineering, Mark was a contributor in the research of engines for this application and led the design, engineering and major vendor support for the freewatt product family. Mark also led the engineering team responsible for the laboratory, field and certification programs at a state and federal level before providing production and sustaining engineering support. Mark’s experience in the residential heating and power market allowed for a seamless application of the freewatt system into the heating market.
Previously, Mark worked at ITT Industries and accumulated eight years of domestic and international experience in the design, sales, production and operation of custom-engineered aeration systems. As a regional sales engineer, Mark supported the design and sales efforts of sales representatives in the US, Canadian, European, Australian, Middle Eastern and Far Eastern markets. Mark has an M.S. and B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. While Mark is actively involved with his children’s interests, he also finds time to fish, kayak and hike.
Consulting Engineer
As consulting engineer at Yankee Scientific, Karl is involved in the design and testing of energy related products. These have included a number of self-powered kitchen and space heating appliances for the US Army, as well as a unique power generator for DARPA. Before joining Yankee, he was director of engineering at Holometrix, a small manufacturer of scientific instruments for heat transfer experiments and the measurement of material properties. Responsibilities included mechanical design of test chambers, system design of PC-controlled test equipment that included data acquisition devices, temperature controllers, lasers, high vacuum equipment, and mechanical refrigeration equipment. He was in charge of software development, production, documentation, and customer support. Karl received an R&D-100 Award in 1989 for the development of a thermal conductivity analyzer, and in 1990 for the development of a gas permeability analyzer.
Earlier in his career, as manager of the Thermal Instruments Group at Dynatech Corporation, Karl was responsible for the development and sale of the company's product line consisting of instruments for measuring thermophysical properties. Karl has an M. S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Hogere Technische School in the Netherlands.
In his spare time, Karl tends to the many needs of his extended family and contributes to the public discussion of energy.
Consulting Engineer
Henry has been involved for three decades in analysis and design of systems involving transfer of energy between fluids and mechanical motion, including thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, machine dynamics, structural analysis, and transient analysis. He has been with Yankee Scientific for ten years. There he has been part of a team that developed a compact portable steam powered generator for DARPA. He also managed a project to develop a lightweight rapid inflation machine for the U. S. Army, and analyzed the performance of several small-scale cogeneration systems. Prior to that Henry was with Northern Research and Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of Ingersoll-Rand. He managed and worked on numerous projects, involving design, assembly, and test of prototype energy conversion devices. These included a reciprocating expander for an organic Rankine bottoming cycle, a high performance fan to replace a helicopter tail rotor, an air turbine powered submarine torpedo ejection pump, an air turbine powered engine starter, a performance upgrade kit for a large turbocharger, and a hydroelectric turbine that is less destructive to fish.
Prior to his doctoral studies, Henry worked in the aeronautical industry in the areas of airframe structural analysis, computerized preliminary design of airplanes and helicopters, noise reduction for helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft, and airline fleet planning. Henry has a Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an M. S. in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT, and and a B.A from Harvard University.
Henry is an active instrument rated pilot and enjoys hiking in the hills of New Hampshire and the Grand Canyon.