Functional materials for energy and environment

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The Functional Materials for Energy and Environment (MATEE) team conducts both experimental and numerical research activities on the development of high-performance bio-sourced materials and primary-secondary materials, and on the production of platform molecules and their use for industry decarbonization and treatment of liquid or gaseous effluents.

Research objectives

The main objective is to develop new high-performance materials with controlled properties to produce renewable energy carriers, to treat liquid or gaseous effluents or to elaborate high added value products. This includes in particular:

  • The development of adsorbents from bioresources (biochar, combustion ashes, etc.) or industrial by-products (bottom ashes, lime wastes, etc.) for use in the treatment of air and water pollutants
  • The development of solid catalysts for converting gas mixtures (syngas, biogas), biosourced or naturally available molecules (CH4, CO, H2, H2O, N2, etc.) into renewable energy carriers (H2 , methane, liquid fuels)
  • The development of high energy density monolithic ceramic materials for the recovery and storage of heat from industrial flue gases
  • The production or generation of specific materials such as graphene, carbon fibers, carbon black, etc.

Scientific challenges

The scientific challenges to be addressed can be summarized in the following questions:

  • How can we design and set up test benches that will enable the acquisition of the essential and sufficiently representative data necessary for the development of processes and the understanding of the phenomena and mechanisms involved?
  • How should thermodynamic, kinetic and transfer phenomena be integrated into process simulation and modeling? What accuracies are required to be sufficiently representative?
  • How can we dynamically monitor the microstructural evolution of materials based on complex matrices, such as ceramics based on clay mixtures or adsorbents based on combustion ashes or bottom ashes, during their development, often at high temperatures?
  • How can the formation, distribution and stabilization of sub-nanoparticles, and in particular isolated atoms, on the surface of a catalytic support be controlled?
  • How can processes be optimized to simultaneously control energy consumption and environmental impact?


Members: 

P. ARLABOSSE, C. COQUELET, M. GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Y. LALAU, N. LYCZKO, A. NZIHOU, V. ORIEZ, D. PHAM MINH, E. WEISS-HORTALA