Doctoral theses

The increasing use of hydrogen (H₂) in industry and transport poses problems in terms of the safety of industrial installations. Indeed, H₂ is a volatile and flammable molecule which can cause destructive explosions.

The rapid growth in the use of electric vehicles has led to a strong demand for batteries. Lithium-Ion batteries are currently the dominant technology, as they offer good performance, in particular high energy density. Nevertheless, these batteries can be subject to thermal runaway, potentially leading to the destruction of the vehicle.

This project is part of an ERC funded Synergy, one of the laureates of an ERC synergy grant. The overall goal consists of developing a predictive flow model in an entire karst net- work. It will be necessary to simulate water flows possibly marked with tracer in networks that may be described with millions of nodes.

In many industrial control problems, several agents interact in a shared environment and may be subject to certain constraints. These constraints are often imposed to guarantee the safety of the physical system.

The underground resources valorization is becoming a pragmatic strategy for sustainably meeting renewable energy, minerals, and water needs.

Lithium-sulfur batteries have a five times higher theoretical energy density than state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries. In addition, sulfur is abundant, inexpensive, and low in toxicity. However, the solubility of lithium polysulfides in liquid electrolytes limits the sulfur utilization rate, as well as the number of charge/discharge cycles.

Over the last years, the energy transition has been related with a diversification of technical options, particularly for the mobility of people and the transport of goods.

The PhD project is proposed in the context of the transformation and upgrading of lignocellulosic biomass into platform molecules for the chemical industry. The goal of the project is to prepare new, purposely designed bifunctional zeolite catalysts suitable for the conversion of biomass-based sugars into chemicals.

In geothermal energy, water remediation and underground hydrogen storage, biochemical processes due to bacteria and microbes have a strong impact on the production of pathogens and must be taken into account in the evaluation of contamination risks. This is achieved through the integration of dedicated modules in porous media flow simulators.

Hydrogen production recently became of major interest thanks to the global decarbonation effort lead by transport and energy industries. Methane pyrolysis is a new process competing with the more conventional electrolysis technology. Its main advantages are its lower energy cost and the potential use of its black carbon byproduct.