Publications related to Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering

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

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

Reversible photo-electrochemical device for solar hydrogen and power generation

Sophia Haussener, Saurabh Yuvraj Tembhurne, Alexandre Dominique M. Cattry, 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

Stability and degradation of (oxy)nitride photocatalysts for solar water splitting

Sophia Haussener, Franky Esteban Bedoya Lora

Advancing towards alternative technologies for the sustainable production of hydrogen is a necessity for the successful integration of this potentially green fuel in the future. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting are promising concepts ...

2024

High-throughput parallel testing of ten photoelectrochemical cells for water splitting: case study on the effects of temperature in hematite photoanodes

Sophia Haussener, Isaac Thomas Holmes-Gentle, Roberto Valenza, Franky Esteban Bedoya Lora

High-throughput testing of photoelectrochemical cells and materials under well-defined operating conditions can accelerate the discovery of new semiconducting materials, the characterization of the phenomena occurring at the semiconductor-electrolyte inter ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Modeling, design and economics of PEC devices

Alexandre Dominique M. Cattry

Photo-electrochemical (PEC) devices allow for converting solar energy into chemical energy and for the production of energetically dense solar fuels. Light absorption, charge separation and transport, electrochemical reactions, and ionic transport are requ ...

EPFL2024

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

Phase-stable indium sulfide achieves an energy conversion efficiency of 14.3% for solar-assisted carbon dioxide reduction to formate

Michael Graetzel, Jing Gao, Jingshan Luo, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jun Li, Qixing Zhang

Tremendous efforts have been made in developing highly selective catalysts for electrochemical CO 2 conversion to formate. However, the rapid deactivation resulting from structural reconstruction and phase transition poses considerable challenges to the sy ...

Cell Press2024

Durable Perovskite Solar Cells with 24.5% Average Efficiency: The Role of Rigid Conjugated Core in Molecular Semiconductors

Michael Graetzel, Shaik Mohammed Zakeeruddin, Felix Thomas Eickemeyer, Peng Wang, Ming Ren

Efficient and robust n-i-p perovskite solar cells necessitate superior organic hole-transport materials with both mechanical and electronic prowess. Deciphering the structure-property relationship of these materials is crucial for practical perovskite sola ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

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

Perspective Alkaline electrolyzers: Powering industries and overcoming fundamental challenges

Hubert Girault

For the sustainable development of the renewable hydrogen sector, alkaline electrolysis appears to be a technology of choice. Nevertheless, despite its long history that showed its reliability in the industrial field and despite the traditional belief from ...

Cell Press2024

Membrane electrode assembly simulation of anion exchange membrane water electrolysis

Jan Van Herle, Suhas Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, Khaled Lawand, Zoé Mury

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) offers a green hydrogen production method that eliminates the need for platinum group metals (PGM) as electrocatalysts. This study employs a COMSOL (R) 6.0 model to simulate a 1x1 cm(2) Ni fibre - Raney (R ...

Elsevier2024

In Situ Synthesis of CuxO/N Doped Graphdiyne with Pyridine N Configuration for Ammonia Production via Nitrate Reduction

Sophia Haussener, Roberto Valenza, Jian Li

Electroreduction of nitrate to ammonia provides an interesting pathway for wastewater treatment and valorization. Cu-based catalysts are active for the conversion of NO3− to NO2− but suffer from an inefficient hydrogenation process of NO2−. Herein, CuxO/N- ...

2024

From PV to EV: Mapping the Potential for Electric Vehicle Charging with Solar Energy in Europe

Christophe Ballif, Alejandro Pena Bello, Noémie Alice Yvonne Ségolène Jeannin, Jérémy Dumoulin, Nicolas Würsch

The electrification of the transport sector is a key element in decarbonizing our societies. However, energy systems will have to cope with additional electricity demand due to the charging needs of electric vehicles (EVs) together with the integration of ...

2024

Identification and Mitigation of Degradation Mechanisms Induced by Heat and Light in NiOx-based Perovskite Solar Cells

Marion Solange Madeleine Dussouillez

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) offer an attractive solution to increase the efficiency of PV panels via perovskite/silicon tandems thanks to their potential cost-effectiveness and high efficiency. In inverted PSC architecture (p-i-n), commonly used hole con ...

EPFL2024

Stress tolerance of lightweight glass-free PV modules for vehicle integration

Christophe Ballif, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Antonin Faes, Jacques Levrat, Umang Bhupatrai Desai, Gianluca Cattaneo, Fahradin Mujovi, Matthieu Despeisse

Electric vehicles (EVs) currently dominate the sales in the automotive market. A big leap in this market can be made by developing a photovoltaic product that can be integrated to an EV, as it can boost the driving range of the EV while reducing the chargi ...

Edp Sciences S A2024

Computational fluid dynamics simulations of the heat transfer properties of graphene-based nanolubricants and application to hydrodynamic lubrication

Roberto Guarino

In this paper, we consider experimental data available for graphene-based nanolubricants to evaluate their convective heat transfer performance by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Single-phase models with temperature-dependent prope ...

Aip Publishing2024

Plasmonic Nanostructures for Photocatalysis: Material, Photonic and Electronic Effects

Fateme Kiani Shahvandi

Plasmonic photochemistry has a large potential to replace energy-intensive chemical processes with low-temperature, low-pressure light-driven chemical reactions. Plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as promising photocatalysts with exceptional and tunable ...

EPFL2024

Encapsulation strategies for mechanical impact and damp heat reliability improvement of lightweight photovoltaic modules towards vehicle-integrated applications

Fabiana Lisco

Lightweight modules are essential for next-generation vehicle-integrated photovoltaic (VIPV) applications, such as solar-powered cars, allowing integration of solar cells beyond the roof, and on the hood, boot and body panels, and thereby extending the dri ...

Elsevier2024

Tracking deep-level defects in degrading perovskite solar cells with a multifactorial approach

Vivek Subramanian

In this work, we provide a mechanistic understanding of the degradation of perovskite solar cells in operation by focusing on methylammonium lead triiodide (CH3NH3PbI3 or MAPbI3) and tracking the evolution of electronic defects via photo-induced current tr ...

Elsevier2024