Publications related to Carbon footprint

An explorative method to support design decisions based on carbon constraints and daylight sufficiency needs

The global construction industry contributes to 37% of carbon emissions associated to both building operations and construction. To help achieve the net-zero targets set by 2050, it is mandated to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. As we ...

EPFL2024

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

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

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

Mesh-based topology, shape and sizing optimization of ribbed plates

In this paper, we present a new parameterization and optimization procedure for minimizing the weight of ribbed plates. The primary goal is to reduce embodied CO2 in concrete floors as part of the effort to diminish the carbon footprint of the construction ...

Springer2024

Global emergent responses of stream microbial metabolism to glacier shrinkage

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Massimo Bourquin, Nicola Deluigi, Tyler Joe Kohler, Michail Styllas

Most cryospheric ecosystems are energy limited. How their energetics will respond to climate change remains largely unknown. This is particularly true for glacier-fed streams, which interface with the cryosphere and initiate some of Earth's largest river s ...

Nature Portfolio2024

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

Energy-Efficient Particle Accelerators for Research

Mike Seidel

Particle accelerators are the drivers for large-scale research infrastructures for particle physics but also for many branches of condensed matter research. The types of accelerator-driven research infrastructures include particle colliders, neutron, muon ...

2024

Optimal Design Operation Strategies of a Hyperloop Transportation System

Denis Tudor

In the last decades, transportation demand growth has played a major role in the increase of global CO2 footprint. At the same time, a number of countries have scheduled measurable and substantial cutback of CO2 emissions by 2050. As the transportation sec ...

EPFL2023

Toward Superior Hydroisomerization Catalysts through Thermodynamic Optimization

Berend Smit

The need to reduce the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of fuels and lubricants has renewed interest in hydroisomerization processes. Here it is shown how recognizing the signature of individual alkane hydrocracking pathways enables delineating changes t ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

AIDRES: A database for the decarbonisation of the heavy industry in Europe

François Maréchal, Luc Girardin, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Ivan Daniel Kantor, Shivom Sharma, Julia Granacher, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Rafael Amorim Leandro De Castro Amoedo, Yi Zhao

The AIDRES database aims to support the long-term objective of a fully integrated industrial strategy in the EU 27, providing a service to the European Commission and a catalogue for industries to understand the effectiveness, efficiency and cost of potent ...

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria2023

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

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

Design of New Low-Carbon Floor Systems by Reusing Cut Cast-in-Place Concrete Pieces

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer

As floors typically account for the largest share of a building embodied carbon footprint, new strategies to build low-carbon floors must be developed and implemented. Among these strategies, the reuse of existing components is a promising circular approac ...

Novus Press2023

Action Levers towards Sustainable Wellbeing: Re-Thinking Negative Emissions, Sufficiency, Deliberative Democracy

Sascha Nick

Systems theory defines leverage points as places to intervene in order to change a system. Points with high impact on system behavior are notoriously hard to act upon, and indeed most policy intervention is based at the lowest level (#12 in Donella Meadows ...

EPFL2023

Decision support for the design of integrated biorefineries

Julia Granacher

A shift from fossil-based energy and products to more sustainable alternatives is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and associated climate change impacts. Biomass represents a promising alternative for providing fuels and carbon-based products w ...

EPFL2023

Integrated production of urea and nitric acid in the pulp industry: techno-economic and environmental analysis of black liquor gasification-based processes

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

The pursuit of alternative energy sources for the nitrogen fertilizers sector has recently earned renewed interest due to increasing concerns regarding the world dependence on non-renewable energy resources and also motivated by the more stringent environm ...

2022

River ecosystem metabolism and carbon biogeochemistry in a changing world

Tom Ian Battin, Enrico Bertuzzo, Luis Gómez Gener

River networks represent the largest biogeochemical nexus between the continents, ocean and atmosphere. Our current understanding of the role of rivers in the global carbon cycle remains limited, which makes it difficult to predict how global change may al ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2023

Molecular simulation on two-dimensional nanoporous material for energy-efficient separation

Mohammad Tohidivahdat

The energy-consumption by the chemical and petrochemical industry in the European Union (EU) accounts for about quarter of its energy footprint. Approximately half of this energy goes toward chemical separation, currently dominated by thermally-driven pro ...

EPFL2023

Metabolic Performance and Fate of Electrons during Nitrate-Reducing Fe(II) Oxidation by the Autotrophic Enrichment Culture KS Grown at Different Initial Fe/N Ratios

Natalia Jakus

Autotrophic nitrate-reducing Fe(II)-oxidizing (NRFeOx) microorganisms fix CO2 and oxidize Fe(II) coupled to denitrification, influencing carbon, iron, and nitrogen cycles in pH-neutral, anoxic environments. However, the distribution of electrons from Fe(II ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023