Publications de François Maréchal

Environmental implications of solid oxide fuel cell system for hydrogen sustainability

François Maréchal, Jan Van Herle, Shivom Sharma, Du Wen

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 un ...

2025

Advancing non-carbon energy: optimized and safely operated solid oxide fuel cell design for industrial feasibility

François Maréchal, Jan Van Herle, Stefan Diethelm, Shivom Sharma

As the world shift towards sustainable energy solutions, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) using non-carbon fuels like ammonia and hydrogen emerge as promising pathways to produce clean energy and enhance conversion efficiency. However, current implementation ...

2025

Reversible solid oxide electrolyser for energy storage: levelized cost of storage estimation

François Maréchal, Du Wen, Jingjing Liang

Reversible Solid Oxide electrolyser (rSOE) is a promising solution for long-duration energy storage due to its exceptional features such as inherent reversibility, co-electrolysis capability in electrolysis mode, high efficiency, adaptability to multiple f ...

2025

Decarbonizing the aluminium industry: A comprehensive review of pathways and process integration perspectives

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego

Aluminium is recognized as an essential material for the global energy transition. However, its production is extremely energy-intensive and largely dependent on fossil fuels. The aluminium industry emits more than 1.11 Gt CO2-eq annually. Multiple obstacl ...

Elsevier BV2025

A systemic study for decarbonizing secondary aluminium production via waste heat recovery, carbon management and renewable energy integration

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Manuele Domenico Margni

Secondary aluminium production relies on natural gas to transform both primary and recycled aluminium into semi-fabricated products, leading to significant atmospheric emissions, energy losses, and resource consumption. Despite the potential for waste heat ...

Elsevier2025

A trustworthy reinforcement learning framework for autonomous control of a large-scale complex heating system: Simulation and field implementation

François Maréchal, Luc Girardin, Amirreza Heidari

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 selflearning control solution, proving advantag ...

Elsevier BV2025

Data-driven systematic methodology for predicting optimal heat pump integration based on temperature levels and refrigerants

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego

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 ...

Elsevier2025

Optimal design and operation of a green ammonia production system considering multi-electrolyzer operation

François Maréchal, Bingqian Liu

This study focuses on the optimization of green ammonia production systems through a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) framework. The proposed model integrates both design decisions and detailed annual operational strategies, evaluated at an hourly r ...

2025

Internal pricing in integrated energy system design

François Maréchal, Julia Granacher, Jonas Schnidrig, Cédric Terrier

Environmentally sustainable and economically viable process and energy systems are imperative to a successful energy transition. Often, design configurations are derived from a global perspective, in which the individual needs and interests of actors withi ...

2025

Life cycle assessment and techno-economic comparison of methane production routes from sewage sludge: Incineration vs. Hydrothermal Gasification and Anaerobic Digestion

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Manuele Domenico Margni

The disposal of sewage sludge poses significant challenges due to storage difficulties and the presence of pollutants and pathogens. Conventional treatment methods, such as incineration and anaerobic digestion (AD), are compared to advanced technologies li ...

Elsevier2025