Rate My Professor Steven Metcalf

Dr. Steven Metcalf is an Assistant Professor (Research and Teaching) in Sustainable Thermal Energy Technologies within the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, and a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). He earned a first-class MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Warwick in 2004, receiving the IMechE best student award, followed by a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the same university in 2009. His research specializations encompass thermal energy storage and modelling—particularly for large commercial and industrial applications—thermochemical and phase change material heat storage, low-temperature heat networks, electric and thermally driven heat pumps, refrigeration cycles, vehicle air conditioning, and thermal management systems. Currently, he leads two projects with Jaguar Land Rover aimed at decarbonizing their R&D sites in Whitley and Gaydon, as well as an industrial collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric on domestic electric heat pumps. He supervises three PhD students focusing on thermal energy modelling, thermal storage, and thermally driven heat pumps.

Metcalf's academic impact is evidenced by his extensive publication record in adsorption and resorption heat pump technologies, sorption materials, and related thermal engineering topics. Notable publications include "MnCl2-MnBr2: New tailored sorbents for thermal transformation, heat pumps and thermochemical storage" (Journal of Energy Storage, 2025), "Binary salt mixture barium bromide-barium chloride for sorption applications" (Applied Thermal Engineering, 2025), "Design and manufacture of a proof-of-concept resorption heat pump using ammonia-salt chemisorption reactions" (Cleaner Energy Systems, 2023), "Design and large temperature jump testing of a modular finned-tube carbon-ammonia adsorption generator for gas-fired heat pumps" (Energies, 2021), and "Experimentally measured thermal masses of adsorption heat exchangers" (Energies, 2020). He has contributed to international reports such as the IEA Annex 43 Final Report: Fuel Driven Sorption Heat Pumps (2020) and the UK Summary Report on IEA Heat Pump TCP Annex 43 (2019). In teaching, he delivers modules on applied thermodynamics, engines and heat pumps, covering refrigeration, engine cycles, gas turbines, combustion, and heat transfer.