Publications related to Comparative Exergy and Economic Assessment of Fossil and Biomass-Based Routes for Ammonia Production

Industrial European regions at risk within the Fit for 55: How far implementing CBAM can mitigate?

The transition to a low-carbon economy can create new job opportunities but may cause job displacement in some sectors that heavily rely on fossil fuels. In order to gain a balanced appraisal in understanding the broader consequences of climate policies, t ...

2025

Renewable energy integration and waste heat valorization in aluminum remelting for co-producing kerosene and methanol

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Réginald Germanier

The aluminium sector relies on natural gas for the conversion of recycled scrap into new feedstock, which results in substantial atmospheric emissions. Hydric resources are also impacted, as they serve as heat sinks for the waste heat generated during the ...

Associazione Italiana Di Ingegneria Chimica2024

Design and assessment of an evaporating water-cooled methanation reactor for a SOE-based power-to-methane system

Philippe Aubin

The transition towards clean renewable energy sources, where wind and solar are prone to variation, requires adequate energy storage. Power-to-methane (PtM) systems can be part of the solution. Specifically, solid-oxide-electrolyser (SOE) based PtM systems ...

EPFL2024

Solar-assisted clean steam generator, a cleaner production approach for sustainable healthcare facilities

Fernando Porté Agel, Ahmad Arabkoohsar, Mohammad Jamshidmofid

Healthcare sector buildings, particularly hospitals, significantly contribute to global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Hospitals require a substantial amount of steam, including the essential hygienic or " clean steam, " that is currently ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Decarbonizing the fertilizers sector: an alternative pathway for urea and nitric acid production

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos

In order to alleviate the environmental impact that nitrogen fertilizers production is responsible for, several efforts have been addressed to incentivize the partial or total decarbonization of the supply chains of ammonia and its derivatives. The decarbo ...

2024

Fusing Pre-existing Knowledge and Machine Learning for Enhanced Building Thermal Modeling and Control

Loris Di Natale

Buildings play a pivotal role in the ongoing worldwide energy transition, accounting for 30% of the global energy consumption. With traditional engineering solutions reaching their limits to tackle such large-scale problems, data-driven methods and Machine ...

EPFL2024

Biodiesel from Bark and Black Liquor-A Techno-Economic, Social, and Environmental Assessment

Julia Granacher

A techno-economic assessment and environmental and social sustainability assessments of novel Fischer-Tropsch (FT) biodiesel production from the wet and dry gasification of biomass-based residue streams (bark and black liquor from pulp production) for tran ...

MDPI2024

Green hydrogen production using Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 bioanode and cuprous oxide-based photocathode

Michele Morgante

In recent years, many efforts have been made to find alternative renewable energy sources that can ideally replace the use of fossil fuels in all aspects. One of the new emerging energy technologies is the bioelectrochemical system, of which two types are ...

EPFL2024

CO2 Capture and Management Strategies for Decarbonizing Secondary Aluminium Production

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Réginald Germanier

The production of aluminium largely depends on the use of fossil fuels, resulting in the emission of significant amounts of greenhouse gases. As the aluminium industry is working towards decreasing its environmental burdens, the elimination of direct emiss ...

2024

Reliability and Long-term Performance of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Modules

Ebrar Özkalay

Solar photovoltaics (PV) is one of the most competitive renewable energy technologies in order to meet the increasing global energy demand and decrease CO2 emissions by competing effectively with fossil fuels. One of the important applications of PV energy ...

EPFL2024

Beyond the average consumer: Mapping the potential of demand-side management among patterns of appliance usage

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Matteo Barsanti, Selin Yilmaz

To support the decarbonisation of the power sector and offset the volatility of a system with high levels of renewables, there is growing interest in residential Demand-Side Management (DSM) solutions. Traditional DSM strategies require consumers to active ...

2024

Electrical and Optical Manifestations of Flat Band Physics in Van der Waals Materials

Gabriele Pasquale

The scientific progress is significantly transforming contemporary society with the introduction and widespread application of technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Despite their profound impact, these technologies necessitate en ...

EPFL2024

Design and Synthesis of Bio-based Amphiphiles from Lignocellulosic Biomass

Songlan Sun

In the pursuit of a carbon-neutral chemical industry, minimizing fossil feedstock consumption while integrating renewable carbon sources is imperative. Surfactants, inherently amphiphilic, pose challenges in separation and recovery processes. Given their e ...

EPFL2024

Identification of typical district configurations: A two-step global sensitivity analysis framework

François Maréchal, Jonas Schnidrig, Cédric Terrier

The recent geopolitical conflicts in Europe have underscored the vulnerability of the current energy system to the volatility of energy carrier prices. In the prospect of defining robust energy systems ensuring sustainable energy supply in the future, the ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Tailoring nanocatalysts and reaction interfaces for water- and CO2-electrolysis

Thi Ha My Pham

Renewable energy sources offer a promising solution for mitigating sustainability and CO2 emissions-related issues due to their vast energy generation capacity. They enable hydrogen production via water electrolysis, as well as carbon capture and utilizati ...

EPFL2024

Biomass screening for syngas production by flash photopyrolysis

Hubert Girault, Mathieu Soutrenon, Wanderson Oliveira Da Silva

A few seconds flash photopyrolysis is used as efficient screening tool for the investigation of selected biomass in producing syngas, hydrogen and biochar. This innovative approach allowed rapid pyrolysis of the biomass, which was followed by a precise gas ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Advanced control strategies to exploit the hydropower potential enhancing ancillary services provision to the power system

Francesco Gerini

The European Union's Green Deal aims for a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. To reach this goal, a massive integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) into the power grid is necessary. As RES become a large part of the electricity genera ...

EPFL2024

Self-catalysed frontal polymerisation enables fast and low-energy processing of fibre reinforced polymer composites

Véronique Michaud, Baris Çaglar, Jacobus Gerardus Rudolph Staal

Frontal polymerisation has the potential to bring unprecedented reductions in energy demand and process time to produce fibre reinforced polymer composites. Production of epoxy-based fibre reinforced polymer parts with high fibre volume content, commonly e ...

2024

Spatio-temporal patterns and drivers of CH4 and CO2 fluxes from rivers and lakes in highly urbanized areas

Alexandre Buttler

Gaseous carbon exchange at the water-air interface of rivers and lakes is an essential process for regional and global carbon cycle assessments. Many studies have shown that rivers surrounding urban landscapes can be hotspots for greenhouse gas (GHG) emiss ...

Elsevier2024

Multi-gas processing and transport system

François Maréchal

A gas processing and transport system comprising a natural gas pipeline (1), a plurality of gas conditioning stations (4) connected to the natural gas pipeline between an upstream main natural gas supply and a downstream consumer end, the gas processing st ...

2024