Doctoral theses

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.

Development of a symbolic regression method for the formulation of wall laws in CFD

Cold plasma-assisted catalysis is a promising alternative to thermal catalysis, particularly for the activation of poorly reactive gases whose conversion is limited by thermodynamic equilibrium.

Many applications at IFPEN rely on computationally expensive simulators which take scalar variables as inputs, but also functional variables representing, for example, the geometry of mechanical pieces, or spatio-temporal environmental conditions (such as wind).

In the context of growing interest in circular economy solutions, chemical recycling by pyrolysis is a promising way of converting plastic and tyre waste into pyrolysis oil and then back into monomers and/or chemical bases in steam cracking or refining processes.

Lithium-ion batteries are today the most interesting 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.

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) represent a major step forward in the energy transition, with a particularly promising impact in the transport and mobility sector. ASSBs offer increased efficiency and a solution to current challenges in terms of energy density and safety.

As plastic waste defines the Anthropocene, efforts towards the development of recycling technology are ramping up. For polyolefins (PO), common packaging materials, the available technologies of mechanical recycling and of pyrolysis (thermal conversion) have several drawbacks and can process only a fraction of waste.

Offshore wind turbines are an important component of the energy transition underway in France and around the world. IFP Energies nouvelles studies in particular the technology of floating wind turbines, which can be deployed in relative deep sea.