Ph. D defense – Ahmed Omran – Zeolitic Ice for Energy Transition

In the context of energy and economic crisis, the smooth energy transition will require a proper combination of energy efficiency and integration of renewables to achieve the optimum trade- off between the increasing energy demand and environmental commitments according to Paris Agreement. In that context, the environmental friendly gas hydrates or “zeolitic ice” can play a key role in areas such as methane storage, hydrogen storage and combined carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Gas hydrates are non-stoichiometric nanoporous crystalline compounds that are mainly composed of 3D water cages encapsulating gases. Using a combination of experimental and computational techniques, this work aims to promoting the slow hydrate formation kinetics, increase the energy content to enable their scale up, as well as enhance fundamental understanding of the gas diffusion in hydrates.

Keywords: zeolitic ice, methane hydrates, hydrogen storage , zeolites , DFT.