Active Research Programs
ThermoFlow is currently conducting two independent, early-stage research programs that apply the same surface-science foundation to distinct thermofluid challenges.
Mobile Fog-Harvesting Harp
Fog harvesting offers access to atmospheric water in regions where liquid water is scarce, but existing collectors suffer from poor performance under low-wind conditions and significant losses due to droplet retention and re-entrainment.
The Mobile Fog-Harvesting Harp investigates a surface-enabled fog-collection mechanism that integrates aerodynamic conditioning of fog-laden airflow with patented slippery hydrophilic surface technology developed through the founder’s prior academic research. These surfaces promote dense droplet nucleation while enabling rapid droplet shedding with minimal pinning, reducing re-entrainment and fouling relative to conventional wire or mesh collectors.
The research evaluates whether combining controlled airflow interaction with low-hysteresis, surface-engineered drainage can deliver measurable improvements in net water yield per frontal area, particularly under low-wind fog conditions where existing collectors are most limited.
Current focus: feasibility-scale modeling, benchtop fog testing, and durability evaluation of surface-engineered wire arrays.
PhaseJump™ Micro Cooler
As power densities in electronics continue to rise, passive thermal-management technologies are increasingly constrained by capillary limits, orientation sensitivity, and slow liquid return.
PhaseJump™ explores a surface-driven thermal-management mechanism in which condensation is transformed into a controlled droplet-generation and ejection process. The concept builds on prior academic advances in surface-engineered droplet coalescence and ballistic ejection, extending these principles into compact, sealed device architectures suitable for micro-scale thermal management.
Engineered condensation surfaces are used to control where droplets nucleate, grow, merge, and eject, enabling rapid liquid recycling without pumps, wicks, or gravity dependence. By replacing capillary-limited condensate return with surface-mediated droplet transport, PhaseJump™ aims to establish a new pathway for passive, orientation-independent hotspot cooling.
Current focus: fabrication and experimental validation of condensation-surface architectures at feasibility scale.