Kevin W Knehr

Kevin Knehr is a chemical engineer in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Kevin focuses on the research and development of advanced battery systems for applications in electric vehicles, commercial electronics, and the electric grid. His work includes the use of physical and techno-economic models to understand the factors controlling performance and cost in these systems.

Kevin’s background includes both experimental and modeling efforts on a wide range of battery chemistries (i.e., lithium-ion, redox flow, lead-acid, and sodium metal-halide batteries). His core competencies lie in electrochemical characterization, continuum-level modeling, and techno-economic analyses. Prior to joining Argonne in 2021, Kevin was an advanced R&D engineer at Honeywell UOP. He also served as a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Education

• Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2016
• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Drexel University, 2012

Honors and Awards

• U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Assistant Secretary Award, 2024
• Argonne Commercialization Excellence Delivering Impact Award for the Lead Battery Science Research Program, 2024
• R&D 100 Award Winner, The Battery Performance and Cost Model (BatPaC), 2022
• Columbia University Department of Chemical Engineering Pesco Fellowship, 2012
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2012
• National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, 2012
• Barry M. Goldwater Congressional Scholarship, 2011

Selected Publications (see google scholar for full list)

• Kevin W. Knehr, Joseph J. Kubal, Dennis W. Dees, Shabbir Ahmed, ​“Simplified calculation of the area specific impedance for solid-state battery design,” Journal of Power Sources, 631, 236286 (2025).
• Mohammed B. Effat, Kevin W. Knehr, Timothy T. Fister, Crystal Ferels, Nikhil Chaudhari, Pietro Papa Lopes, ​“Modeling the Nucleation and Growth of Lead Sulfate Particles on Lead Electrodes,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 172, 010524 (2025).
• Kevin W. Knehr, Joseph J. Kubal, SeungRyeol Yoon, HyeongRyul Jeon, Whan Jin Roh, Shabbir Ahmed, ​“Energy consumption of lithium-ion pouch cell manufacturing plants,” Journal of Cleaner Production, 468, 143050 (2024).
• Kevin W. Knehr, Joseph J. Kubal, Abhas Deva, Mohammed B. Effat, and Shabbir Ahmed, ​“From material properties to device metrics: a data-driven guide to battery design,” Energy Advances, 2, 1326-1350 (2023).
• Kevin W. Knehr, Joseph J. Kubal, Paul A. Nelson, and Shabbir Ahmed, ​“Battery Performance and Cost Modeling for Electric-Drive Vehicles: A Manual for BatPaC v5.0”, ANL/CSE-22/1, July 2022.
• Joseph J. Kubal*, Kevin W. Knehr*, Naresh Susarla, Adam Tornheim, Alison R. Dunlop, Dennis D. Dees, Andrew N. Jansen, Shabbir Ahmed, ​“The influence of temperature on area-specific impedance and capacity of Li-ion cells with nickel-containing positive electrodes,” Journal of Power Sources, 543, 231864 (2022). *These authors contributed equally
• Juhyun Song, Zhe Liu, Kevin W. Knehr, Joseph J. Kubal, Hong-Keun Kim, Dennis W. Dees, Paul A. Nelson, Shabbir Ahmed, ​“Pathways towards managing cost and degradation risk of fast charging cells with electrical and thermal controls,” Energy & Environmental Science, 14, 6564-6573 (2021).
• Zhe Liu, Juhyun Song, Joseph Kubal, Naresh Susarla,Kevin W. Knehr, Ehsan Islam, Paul Nelson, Shabbir Ahmed, ​“Comparing total cost of ownership of battery electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles, Energy Policy, 158, 112564 (2021).
• Kevin W. Knehr, Thomas Hodson, Clement Bommier, Greg Davies, Andrew Kim, and Daniel A. Steingart, ​“Understanding Full Cell Evolution and Non-Chemical Electrode Crosstalk of Li-ion Batteries,” Joule, 2, 1146-1159(2018).
• Kevin W. Knehr, Shaurjo Biswas, and Daniel A. Steingart, ​“Quantification of the Voltage Losses in the Minimal Architecture Zinc-Bromine Battery using GITT and EIS,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 164, A3101-A3108 (2017).
• K. W. Knehr, Nicholas W. Brady, Christina A. Cama, David C. Bock, Zhou Lin, Christianna N. Lininger, Amy C. Marschilok, Kenneth J. Takeuchi, Esther S. Takeuchi, and Alan C. West, ​“Modeling mesoscale transport of lithium-magnetite electrodes using insight from discharge and voltage recovery experiments,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 162, A2817-A2826 (2015).
• K. W. Knehr, Christopher Eng, Yu-chen Karen Chen-Wiegart, Jun Wan, and Alan C. West, ​“In situ transmission x-ray microscopy of the lead sulfate film formation on lead in sulfuric acid,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 162, A255-A261 (2015).
• K.W. Knehr, Ertan Agar, C. R. Dennison, A. R. Kalidindi, and E. C. Kumbur, ​“A transient vanadium flow battery model incorporating vanadium crossover and water transport through the membrane,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 59, A1446-A1459 (2012).