François Maréchal

• Ph D, Ms Chemical engineering
• Professor at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

Hydrogen, known for its high energy content and clean combustion, is promising in the energy transition. This study explores the environmental impact of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system. 1 kg of hydrogen production at 1 bar serves as the functional unit. The SOFC system generates hydrogen, electricity, and heat across five modes. Results indic...

In the context of the industrial shift towards carbon neutrality and electrification, high temperature heat pumps have emerged as feasible solutions for decarbonizing the heat supply at temperatures previously associated only to fired or resistive heating technologies (>100 C). The integration of high temperature heat pumps into industrial processe...

Traditional control approaches heavily rely on hard-coded expert knowledge, complicating the development of optimal control solutions as system complexity increases. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) offers a self-learning control solution, proving advantageous in scenarios where crafting expert-based solutions becomes intricate. This study investi...

The Paris Agreement is the first-ever universally accepted and legally binding agreement on global climate change. It is a bridge between today’s and climate-neutrality policies and strategies before the end of the century. Critical to this endeavor is energy system modeling, which, while adept at devising cost-effective carbon-neutral strategies,...

Industries are typically not aware of upgrading potentials due to limited technical information on existing and new processes lack of time or skilled personnel to conduct energy audits pay walled literature, and dispersed methods and proprietary tools An inclusive and sustainable energy transition requires a prevalent formation of highly qualified...

The NetZeroLab Valais was established as part of the commitment of Novelis Sierre to reduce scope 1&2 CO2 emissions by leveraging carbon neutral solutions for aluminium manufacturing. Together with the Swiss innovation and research hub in Energypolis ( HES SO) and the local energy distributor Oiken the NetZeroLab brings together experts in areas of...

The global transition to decentralized energy systems signifies a fundamental transformation toward sustainable energy paradigms. This study specifically focuses on the Swiss energy system, analyzing how dynamic pricing influences the strategic decisions of different actors. The main contributions include 1) a detailed examination of pricing models...

In the context of the industrial shift towards carbon neutrality and electrification, heat pumps have emerged as feasible solutions for decarbonizing the heat supply previously associated only with fired or resistive heating technologies. The integration of heat pumps into industrial processes reduces the cooling and heating demand, while it capita...

Current exergetic calculations do not associate an exergetic value to the green house gases (GHG) emissions, which directly neglects the effect of the change in the amospheric composition. Thus, in this article, a new methodology for calculating exergetic efficiency is proposed, incorporating a penalty for CO2 emissions. This method aims to encoura...

Aluminium is one of the most widely used metals in the world, but its production is highly energy intensive and largely dependent on the use of fossil fuels. A typical secondary aluminium production facility consumes 700 – 1,000 kWh of natural gas and 200 – 400 kWh of electricity per tonne of rolled aluminium sheets. Thus, in order to meet its glob...

The study examines the feasibility of integrating heat pumps (HPs) and renewable energy in the sugar industry to advance decarbonization. It explores different routes for energy supply, contrasting them with a natural gas (NG)-fired base-case route. The alternatives include bio-digestion of beet and pulp waste to produce biomethane (bio-CH4) used i...

The energy integration of the dairy processes promotes rational energy use and reduced environmental impact. Enhanced waste heat recovery and residues upgrading increase the revenues of this industrial sector. High temperature heat pump systems (HTHPs) proved to be crucial to reduce and capitalize on waste heat and other residual streams. In effect...

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 emissions from the remelting step becomes increasingly important. This research presents opportunit...

A systemic methodology was developed, employing key performance indicators (KPIs): specific total annual cost (TAC) (€/tglass), specific emissions (tCO2/tglass) and specific energy consumption (MWh/tglass) to analyse various energy transition routes for flat glass production, such as NG oxy-combustion, H2 and hybrid furnaces, and full electrificati...

Energy efficiency is crucial for the sustainable operation of industrial and urban sectors. However, practicing engineers seldom have access to open-source tools that can readily evaluate and compare scenarios. In this work, a novel web-based tool called ROSMOSE is developed and proposed for analyzing the energy efficiency of industrial and urban s...

Heat Pumping Technologies MAGAZINE Heat Pumps Unleashing Flexibility and Sector Coupling IEA Technology Collaboration Programme Non-Topical Article

The transition towards renewable and decentralized energy systems is propelled by the urgent need to address climate concerns and advance sustainable development globally. This transformation requires innovative methods to integrate stochastic renewable sources such as solar and wind power and challenging traditional energy paradigms rooted in cent...

This study contrasts two different approaches to inform European‐scale decision‐making to mitigate the environmental impacts of the end‐of‐life tires (ELT) management system. The first analysis is a traditional life cycle assessment (LCA) that compares the environmental performances of the 12 main available European end‐of‐life (EOL) technologies i...

The recent geopolitical conflicts in Europe have underscored the vulnerability of the current energy system tothe volatility of energy carrier prices. In the prospect of defining robust energy systems ensuring sustainableenergy supply in the future, the imperative of leveraging renewable indigenous energy sources becomesevident. However, as such te...

In the face of escalating climate concerns and the push for sustainable development, the global shift towards renewable and decentralized energy systems presents new challenges and opportunities. This study investigates integrating decentralized energy production, particularly photovoltaic (PV) systems, into national energy planning, aiming to opti...

Energy communities are key actors in the energy transition since they optimally interconnect renewable energy capacities with the consumers. Despite versatile objectives, they usually aim at improving the self-consumption of renewable electricity within low-voltage grids to maximize revenues. In addition, energy communities are an excellent opportu...

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 decarbonization of the nitrogen fertilizers sector might help not only improving its carbon footprint...

Energy communities are key actors in the energy transition since they optimally interconnect renewable energy capacities with the consumers. Despite versatile objectives, they usually aim at improving the self-consumption of renewable electricity within low voltage grids to maximize revenues. In addition, energy communities are an excellent opportu...

Heat pumps will play an important role in improving the performance of the industrial processes aiming to decarbonize their heating requirements. Yet, defining the best operating conditions of those devices may be a challenging task, as they are embedded in larger energy conversion systems and in direct competition with fired and electric heaters a...

Annealing furnaces are critical for achieving the desired material properties in the production of high-quality aluminum products. In addition, energy efficiency has become more and more important in industrial processes due to increasing decarbonization regulations and the price of natural gas. Thus, the current study aims to determine the opportu...

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-producing pulp and gaseous fuels, either hydrogen or synthetic natural gas, in order to expan...

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) has attracted huge scientific attentions lately, as it is a promising power production technology that can reduce user’s dependency on electricity-grid. SOFC system can generate electricity by using liquid or gaseous fuels. Small volume and external fuel storage make SOFC technology more compatible, and it can easily be...

Maritime transportation accounts for about 2.9% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the fourth International Maritime Organization (IMO) GHG study. In the period from 2012 to 2018, shipping emissions have increased by almost 10%. Facing growing political and societal pressure, the IMO has established GHG emissions reduction targe...

Energy efficiency is crucial for the sustainable operation of all industrial and urban sectors. However, practicing engineers have seldom access to open-source tools that can readily evaluate and compare scenarios in terms of energy consumption, cost, and environmental impact. In this work, a web-based tool called ROSMOSE is proposed for assessing...

Energy efficiency is crucial for the sustainable operation of all industrial and urban sectors. However, practicing engineers have seldom access to open-source tools that can readily evaluate and compare scenarios in terms of energy consumption, cost, and environmental impact. In this work, a web-based tool called ROSMOSE is proposed for assessing...

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 process. Enhanced waste heat recovery and renewable energy integration may play an important role in...

The transition towards renewable energy is leading to an important strain on the energy grids. The question of designing and deploying renewable energy technologies in symbiosis with existing grids and infrastructure is arising. While current energy system models mainly focus on the energy transformation system or only investigate the effect on one...

This study presents the techno-economic analysis of a 100 kW e Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) system for maritime applications fueled by methane, methanol, diesel, ammonia, and hydrogen. Two system configurations are considered for each fuel considering cathode off-gas recirculation (COGR) implementation to improve waste heat recovery both in terms o...

To meet “net zero” emission target for greenhouse gases in the year 2050, it is essential to retrieve most of the produced CO 2 from emission intensive activities and store it permanently underground. This study considers integration of a 10 kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system with vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA). In the integrated syste...

Suggested citation: Thees, O.; Erni, M.; Burg, V.; Bowman, G.; Biollaz, S.; Damartzis, T.; Griffin, T.; Luterbacher, J.; Marechal, F.; Nussbaumer, T.; Schildhauer, T.; Schweier, J.; Studer, M.; Kröcher, O., 2023: White paper-Wood fuel in Switzerland: energy potential, technology development, resource mobilization, and its role in the energy transit...

Ziel des White Papers Ziel dieses White Papers ist es, Entscheidungsträgern die aktuellen Forschungsergebnisse zur Verfügung zu stellen, um die optimale Nutzung der Bioenergie aus Holz sowie einiger anderer fester Biomassearten in der Schweizer Ener-giewende zu fördern. Zu diesem Zweck werden die Ergebnisse des Schweizerischen Kompetenzzentrums für...

This study proposes a multi-objective optimization methodology for planning multi-energy complementary distributed energy systems considering process synergy and thermal integration. The process integration technique is integrated into the Energy Hub model to deal with the multi-process synergy and temporal source-load matching. The system design a...

Energy communities are key actors in the energy transition since they optimally interconnect renewable energy capacities with the consumers. Despite versatile objectives, they usually aim at improving the self-consumption of renewable electricity within low voltage electricity networks to maximize the revenues of the community. In addition, energy...

Exploiting synergies between industrial biorefineries and residential districts allows to reduce emissions and fossil fuel dependency at reasonable economic compromises.

Intermittent renewables require hefty backup power sources that compensate for sudden generation shortfalls and ensure grid stability and balance, both across time and geographies. As a result, carbon emissions associated...

Correction for ‘Closing the balance – on the role of integrating biorefineries in the future energy system’ by Julia Granacher et al. , Sustainable Energy Fuels , 2023, 7 , 4839–4854, https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SE00473B.

BL gasification for chemicals/fuels production proves to be useful in reducing the exergy consumed and net CO2 emissions, whereas maintaining attractive the revenues of the integrated plant. The best alternatives of utility systems maximize the recovery of the available waste heat exergy. The exergy efficiencies of the conventional and integrated c...

A shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is essential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change effects. Biofuels represent a promising low-carbon alternative for sectors that are hard to electrify, such as freight transport or aviation. This work investigates possible pathways for increasing the value of biomass at...

The energy integration of industrial complexes and urban agglomerations has many benefits in terms of rational energy use and reduced environmental impact, especially during scenarios of supply chain uncertainty and volatile market prices. In fact, the diversification of the energy inputs along with the waste heat upgrading through the implementati...

Solid oxide fuel cell-gas turbine (SOFC-GT) hybrid system is an efficient and potential method for distributed energy supply. The system layout, component operating parameters, system-level heat integration, component selection and design, etc., determine the system performance. To further improve the performance and achieve zero CO2 emissions, a a...

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 environmental regulations. The decarbonization of this sector, responsible for 2% of the global energy...

Complex industrial processes are often modelled using flow-sheeting software, wherein any change in inputs may require significant computation time. For studying the integration of complex processes into industrial clusters and explore synergies among them, computationally inexpensive surrogate models proved to be a smart solution. This study devel...

Complex industrial processes are often modelled using flow-sheeting software, wherein any change in inputs may require significant computation time. For studying the integration of complex processes into industrial clusters and explore synergies among them, computationally inexpensive surrogate models proved to be a smart solution. This study devel...

In this work, the conventional scenario of the black liquor (BL) concentration and combustion is compared with the BL upgrading gasification process for ammonia production. The chemical processes synthesis, modeling and simulation are performed by using Aspen Plus® software. The determination of the heat recovery and the solution of the energy inte...

In this work, the conventional scenario of the black liquor (BL) concentration and combustion is compared with the BL upgrading gasification process for ammonia production. The chemical processes synthesis, modeling and simulation are performed by using Aspen Plus® software. The determination of the heat recovery and the solution of the energy inte...

When it comes to residential buildings, there are several stochastic parameters, such as renewable energy production, outdoor air conditions, and occupants' behavior, that are hard to model and predict accurately, with some being unique in each specific building. This increases the complexity of developing a generalizable optimal control method tha...

The conventional configuration of a pulp mill, in which black liquor is concentrated and burnt, is compared with the upgrading gasification routes for methanol (MeOH) or dimethyl ether (DME) co-production. To this end, various exergy-based and environmental impact indicators are assessed in the light of different utility supply scenarios. The combi...

Electricity markets are currently experiencing a period of rapid change. The intermittent nature of renewable energy is disrupting the conventional methods used in operational planning of the electrical grid, causing a shift from a day-ahead forecast policy to a real-time pricing of delivered electric power. A path towards a more renewable, robust...

The use of renewable energy sources has been promoted with concern about limited fossil fuels and increased environmental impact. Empty fruit bunch (EFB), which is a valuable biomass residual from palm oil milling processes, is one of the most promising renewable energy sources that can be used to increase the monetary value of EFB through the pyro...

A large deployment of energy storage solutions will be required by the stochastic and non-controllable nature of most renewable energy sources when planning for higher penetration of renewable electricity into the energy mix. Various solutions have been suggested for dealing with medium-and long-term energy storage. Hydrogen and ammonia are two of...

Integrated methanol synthesis and methanol-to-olefin systems are considered attractive and promising technologies to produce light olefins from syngas derived from biomass feedstock. In this study, a flowsheet model of a proposed system was developed and employed for system design and analysis. The system consists of four main parts: a methanol syn...