Publications related to Design and demonstration of a prototype 1.5 kWth hybrid solar/autothermal steam gasifier

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

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

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

Reversible photo-electrochemical device for solar hydrogen and power generation

Sophia Haussener, Alexandre Dominique M. Cattry, Saurabh Yuvraj Tembhurne, Matthieu Jonin, Mahendra Patel

A reversible photo-electrochemical device operating under concentrated irradiation could offer a stand-alone solution for producing solar fuel (in photo-driven electrolysis mode) and power (in fuel cell mode). This strategy would present the advantage of h ...

2024

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

Assessing the Charge Carrier Dynamics at Hybrid Interfaces of Organic Photoanodes for Solar Fuels

Kevin Sivula, Yongpeng Liu, Han-Hee Cho, Alexander Wieczorek

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have emerged as promising active layers for photoanodes to drive photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxidation reactions. Interfacing an OSC with an inorganic electron transport layer (ETL) is key to enabling both high performance and ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Biomass to energy: a machine learning model for optimum gasification pathways

Berend Smit, Kevin Maik Jablonka, Susana Garcia Lopez

Biomass is a highly versatile renewable resource for decarbonizing energy systems. Gasification is a promising conversion technology that can transform biomass into multiple energy carriers to produce heat, electricity, biofuels, or chemicals. At present, ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2023

Comparison of regression techniques for generating surrogate models to predict the thermodynamic behavior of biomass gasification systems

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

Biomass resources can play an important role in the energy transition, being a dynamic feedstock that can be transformed either into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels. The biomass gasification is a versatile way to convert wastes into energy. In this work, th ...

Elsevier2023

A systemic study for enhanced waste heat recovery and renewable energy integration towards decarbonizing the aluminium industry

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Réginald Germanier

The aluminium remelting industry relies on natural gas to transform recycled aluminium into aluminium feedstock, entailing significant atmospheric emissions. Hydric resources are also affected as they are used as sinks of waste heat from the casting proces ...

2023

Decarbonizing The Production of Primary Aluminium Using Renewable Resource

Aluminium is the second most widely used metal in the world, with a variety of applications ranging from transportation to food packaging and construction. While many aluminium producers target increased utilization of recycled aluminium to produce rolled ...

American Institute of Chemical Engineering2023

Investigation of Biomass Hydrothermal Conversion Products by HRMS

Daniil Salionov

The dependency on fossil fuels and their impact on the environment is a matter of great concern for the future sustainability of modern society. The development of the "green" technologies which utilize renewable energy sources is now under investigation. ...

EPFL2023

Kilowatt-scale solar hydrogen production system using a concentrated integrated photoelectrochemical device

Sophia Haussener, Saurabh Yuvraj Tembhurne, Clemens Gregor Suter, Isaac Thomas Holmes-Gentle

The production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from solar energy and abundant reagents offers a promising pathway to a sustainable fuel economy and chemical industry. For the production of hydrogen, photoelectrochemical or integrated photovoltaic and elec ...

2023

Design and operational guidelines of solar-driven catalytic conversion of CO2 and H2 to fuels

Sophia Haussener, Sha Li

Sunlight-powered catalytic conversion of CO2 and (green) H2 into fuels and chemicals via Sabatier and reverse water gas shift (RWGS) processes offers a promising solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase renewable energy utilization. The suc ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2023

Renewable Energy Integration and Waste Heat Recovery for the Production of Sustainable Jet Fuel and Decarbonization of Industrial Heating Applications

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

The process synthesis and optimization methods used in this work include simulation of biomass gasification, hydrogen and synthetic natural gas production, and jet fuel production via a Fisher Tropsch unit. An energy integration approach, carried out by th ...

American Institute of Chemical Engineering2023

Process modeling and integration of hydrogen and synthetic natural gas production in a kraft pulp mill via black liquor gasification

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

The black liquor gasification integrated to chemical plants has shown potential for reducing the process irreversibility and promoting the decarbonization of this industrial sector. In the integrated chemical plants proposed in this work, the purpose is co ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2023

Photoelectrochemical Cell Engineering for Solar Energy Conversion

Dan Zhang

Solar energy is the most abundant energy source, harnessing solar energy holds the solution to the challenge of increasing global energy demand and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Photovoltaics which directly convert solar energy into electricity ...

EPFL2023

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

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego

Due to the increasing concerns about the marked dependence on fossil resources and their intrinsic economic uncertainty, as well as motivated by more stringent environmental regulations, the pursuit of alternative energy resources for the synthetic fertili ...

Silesian University of Technology2023

Alternative energy supply approach for industrial complexes and district heating networks based on biomass integrated gasification

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

In this work, a systematic approach combining different energy solutions and the time-varying energy demands is used to identify the operating conditions and arrangements for industrial complexes. A kraft pulp mill integrated to an urban district heating n ...

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria2023

Thermodynamic modelling of hydrogen production in sorbent-enhanced biochar-direct chemical looping process

Hydrogen (H-2) has been widely considered the clean energy carrier of choice for emerging renewable energy generation technologies. However, H-2 is a secondary fuel mainly derived from natural gas. Over the past decades, research on developing H-2 producti ...

2022

Enhanced Solar-to-Fuel Efficiency of Ceria-Based Thermochemical Cycles via Integrated Electrochemical Oxygen Pumping

Sophia Haussener, Meng Lin, Clemens Gregor Suter

The solar thermochemical cycle based on ceria is a promising route for renewable fuel production. The solar-to-fuel efficiency of a thermochemical reactor is highly dependent on the oxygen removal during the reduction step. Conventional nitrogen sweeping ( ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

Photo‐Electrochemical Conversion of CO 2 Under Concentrated Sunlight Enables Combination of High Reaction Rate and Efficiency

Sophia Haussener, Silvan Suter, Mahendra Patel, Etienne Boutin

Photo-electrochemical production of solar fuels from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight is an appealing approach. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to scale despite encouraging demonstrations at low power input. Higher current densities require notable ...

Wiley2022