Publications related to Toward Sustainable and Cost-Effective CO2 Conversion Processes to Propylene Carbonate Based on Ionic Liquids

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

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

Functionalized Å-scale Pores in Graphene for Carbon Capture

Kuang-Jung Hsu

Single-layer graphene, hosting a high density of functionalized molecular-sieving atom-thick pores, is considered to be an excellent material for gas separation membranes. These functionalized atom-thick pores enable the shortest transport pathway across t ...

EPFL2024

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

Readiness evaluation of SOFC-MGT hybrid systems with carbon capture for distributed combined heat and power

Jürg Alexander Schiffmann, Jan Van Herle, Michele Gaffuri, Victoria Xu Hong He

The aggravation of climate change calls for the timely development and implementation of highly efficient, renewable, zero- or negative-emission energy solutions with high technological readiness and feasibility levels. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) consti ...

Elsevier2023

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

Selection and Optimal Use of Nanoporous Materials for Adsorption Energy Technologies

Emanuele Piccoli

Due to the large waste of heat in the power and industrial sectors, our use of energy is inefficient. Moreover, it relies on rapidly depleting and greenhouse-gas-emitting sources such as fossil fuels. While the scarcity of energy resources is a relevant so ...

EPFL2023

Quantitative Design of a New e-Methanol Production Process

Alfred Rufer

In the context of the need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from personal transportation, a new process for the production of e-methanol is presented. It is a CO2 hydrogenation process, powered mainly by renewable energy sources such as pho ...

MDPI2022

Prospective study on the cost evolution for key energy technologies

François Maréchal, Xiang Li

Drastic variations of energy costs are witnessed in past decades, especially for low-carbon technologies, where decreasing and increasing trends co-existed. Estimating the cost evolution in the future is hence essential in long-term energy planning. Despit ...

2022

Evaluating CO2 breakthrough in a shaly a caprock material: a multi-scale experimental approach

Lyesse Laloui, Eleni Stavropoulou

The potential of underground CO2 storage relies on the sealing efficiency of an overlaying caprock that acts as a geological barrier. Shales are considered as potential caprock formations thanks to their favourable hydro-mechanical properties. In this work ...

Nature Research2022

The capture technology matters: Composition of municipal wastewater solids drives complexity of microbial community structure and volatile fatty acid profile during anaerobic fermentation

Pierre Rossi, Arnaud Michel Gelb

The production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) represents a relevant option to valorize municipal wastewater (MWW). In this context, different capture technologies can be used to recover organic carbon from wastewater in form of solids, while pre-treatment ...

2022

Engineering of PEM-PEC photocathodes for solar-driven hydrogen production

Marina Caroline Michèle Caretti

Earth has always been in perpetual evolution, but today we must face its rapid change due to human activity. The intensification of industrial activities and transportation to support our modern lifestyles are the main causes of climate change and the adve ...

EPFL2022

Techno-Economic Evaluation of Biological and Fluidised-Bed Based Methanation Process Chains for Grid-Ready Biomethane Production

Oliver Kröcher, Andreas Gantenbein, Tilman J. Schildhauer

Three different power-to-methane process chains with grid injection in two scales (1 MWel and 6 MWel) were analysed regarding their investment and operation cost. The process chains were based on biological or catalytic bubbling fluidised bed methanation i ...

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2022

Gas Separation Membranes with Atom-Thick Nanopores: The Potential of Nanoporous Single-Layer Graphene

Deepu Joseph Babu, Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Luis Francisco Villalobos Vazquez de la Parra, Kuang-Jung Hsu, Cédric Karel J Van Goethem

Gas separation is one of the most important industrial processes and is poised to take a larger role in the transition to renewable energy, e.g., carbon capture and hydrogen purification. Conventional gas separation processes involving cryogenic distillati ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

Decreasing the Stability of Borohydride with Ionic Liquids for Hydrogen Storage and Carbon Dioxide Conversion

Loris Giovanni Lombardo

The world needs to move from a fossil fuel to a renewable energy based society. With the increasing electricity production from wind and PV, short and long term energy storage are becoming one of challenge of the 21st century. While batteries are the prefe ...

EPFL2021

An analysis of the impacts of green mobility strategies and technologies on different European energy system

François Maréchal, Tuong-Van Nguyen, Jonas Schnidrig

A successful decarbonization of the European Union, coupled with a high integration of renewable energy and ambitious targets for energy efficiency, can only be reached with a significant contribution from transport. This sector currently represents a quar ...

2021

Techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment of a biorefinery utilizing reductive catalytic fractionation

Jeremy Luterbacher

Reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) is a promising approach to fractionate lignocellulose and convert lignin to a narrow product slate. To guide research towards commercialization, cost and sustainability must be considered. Here we report a techno-eco ...

2021

Combined exergy analysis, energy integration and optimization of syngas and ammonia production plants: A cogeneration and syngas purification perspective

François Maréchal, Shivom Sharma, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego

Modern ammonia production plants are equipped with efficient energy integration networks able to recover an important fraction of the waste heat exergy available throughout the chemical system. However, in order to drive the endothermic reforming reactions ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2020

Production of Algae for Biomaterials and Bioenergy: Closing the Nutrient Cycle and Enhancing the Light Utilisation Efficiency

Eya Nicodeme

Microalgae are small organisms that live in water and use solar energy or artificial light to grow. They are emerging to be one of the most promising long-term, sustainable sources of biomass for fuel, food, feed, and other high valuable co-products. Like ...

EPFL2020

Strategies for Semiconductor/Electrocatalyst Coupling toward Solar-Driven Water Splitting

Xile Hu, Lichen Bai, Lei Liu

Hydrogen (H-2) has a significant potential to enable the global energy transition from the current fossil-dominant system to a clean, sustainable, and low-carbon energy system. While presently global H-2 production is predominated by fossil-fuel feedstocks ...

2020

Cyclometalated Ir(III) complexes as tuneable multiband light sources for optical multisensor systems: Feasibility study

Anastasia Gitlina

Development of novel analytical devices complying with modern requirements of simplicity and cost-effectiveness is an important task. Multisensor systems based on various types of chemical sensors are promising tools in this respect. Herein the development ...

2020