Doctoral theses

IFP Energies nouvelles is recruiting a student for a PhD in the field of wind energy. The thesis work will mainly take place at the IFPEN site in Rueil-Malmaison within the Department of Mechanics of Solids, interacting with the Department of Mechanics of Fluids; and collaborating with the MEMPHIS team from INRIA Bordeaux.

As part of the public-interest mission, IFPEN focuses on providing solutions to take up the challenges facing society in terms of energy and the climate. In particular one of the major concern of IFPEN is to reduce the cost and the environmental impact of the energy processes involving multiphase flows.

Transport of chemical species in polymeric materials is met in many industrial applications in the energy sector. It is often related to the performance of a process or an equipment.

Cost reduction strategies for wind energy are leading to the development of increasingly large wind turbines (today nearly 300m for the tallest), located in offshore environments with favorable wind conditions.

Lithium ion batteries are today the most realistic solution to answer the ever-increasing demand for electrochemical energy storage devices. The two main requirements for such systems are a higher gravimetric capacity and an increased safety, both can be solved using a solid electrolyte instead of the liquid ones in the current technology.

Emulsions are systems present in many industrial processes and products. Their stability depends on the density difference between the dispersed and continuous phases and on their rheology (creaming or sedimentation), on the interactions between the drops (coalescence) and on their polydispersity (Oswald ripening).

To support the development of electricity production from wind power, IFP Energies nouvelles is involved in the energy transition as a research and training player, especially in emerging technologies such as floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT). 

The proposed PhD is taking place in the general context of the development of hydrogen-powered electric vehicles and more specifically aims to improve the tools for modelling and characterizing polymer membranes used in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC).

Recycling plastic materials is essential for reducing the amount of waste, but currently used mechanical recycling processes have very important limitations (sorting control, color). Chemical recycling will allow a more complete material recovery and this PhD thesis aims at contributing to its development.

Understanding and modeling trace gas emissions from tundra soils to the atmosphere is critical to predict surface-atmosphere feedbacks on current and future global warming. Tundra soils are underlain by permafrost, a thermal condition of the ground which remains at or below 0 °C for two or more years throughout the high latitudes.

A better understanding of the processes resulting in geothermal and/or biogenic gas emissions at the seafloor is crucial in order to quantify gas evolution in the deep ocean and better assess its contribution to global warming.

The Rock-Eval® (RE) thermal analysis was developed at IFPEN during the 1970’s as a standard benchmark tool in oil exploration, and became more and more frequently used during the last 20 years in soil science in order to characterize soil organic matter and its thermal stability.