Energy and Environment Research Division (ENE).

Research at PSI comprises all aspects of human energy use, with the ultimate goal of promoting development towards a sustainable energy supply system. Technologies are being advanced for the utilization of renewable energy sources, low-loss energy storage, efficient conversion, and low emission energy use. Experimental and model-based assessment of these emissions forms the basis of a comprehensive assessment of economic, environmental and social consequences, for both present and future energy supply systems.

Division Head: Prof. Dr. Thomas Justus Schmidt

Scientific Highlights

23 October 2018

Breakthrough - electron crystallography for everyone

Recent advances in electron crystallography published in Angewandte Chemie and highlighted by Science, Chemical & Engineering News and ScienceNews!Under the lead of LSK member, "Rapid structure determination of microcrystalline molecular compounds using electron diffraction", published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.201811318 has attracted great attention in the chemistry community.

17 October 2018

Why the Little Ice Age ended in the middle of the 19th century

Media Releases Energy and Environment Enviroment

In the first half of the 19th century, a series of large volcanic eruptions in the tropics led to a temporary global cooling of Earth's climate. That Alpine glaciers grew and subsequently receded again during the final phase of the so-called Little Ice Age was due to a natural process. This has now been proven by PSI researchers on the basis of ice cores.

29 June 2018

Brennstoffzellen zum Durchbruch verhelfen

Wasserstoff gilt als vielversprechende Alternative für eine Zukunft ohne fossile Energieträger. Um Brennstoffzellen weiterzuentwickeln und für einen Markteintritt vorzubereiten, verstärkt die Empa die Zusammenarbeit mit der H2 Energy Holding AG und dem Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI).

26 September 2017

In the experimental chamber, a very thin vertical jet of water can be seen, which flows downward in the middle of the picture from a small tube. During the experiment, the chamber contains a gas mixture including ozone, which reacts on the surface with bromide in the water and produces bromine. As an intermediate step in the process, a short-lived compound of bromide and ozone is made, which was detected for the first time ever with the help of X-ray light from SLS. For this proof, the X-ray light knocked …

Light from the particle accelerator helps to understand ozone decomposition

PSI researchers have developed an experimental chamber in which they can recreate atmospheric processes and probe them with unprecedented precision, using X-ray light from the Swiss Light Source SLS. In the initial experiments, they have studied the production of bromine, which plays an essential role in the decomposition of ozone in the lower layers of the atmosphere. In the future, the new experiment chamber will also be available for use by researchers from other scientific fields.

21 September 2017

Coexistence of Physisorbed and Solvated HCl at Warm Ice Surfaces

The interfacial ionization of strong acids is an essential factor of multiphase and heterogeneous chemistry in environmental science, cryospheric science, catalysis research and material science. Using Near Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron (NAPP) spectroscopy, we directly detected a low surface coverage of adsorbed HCl at 253 K in both molecular and dissociated states and interpret the results as physisorbed molecular HCl at the outermost ice surface and dissociation occurring upon solvation deeper in the interfacial region. This study gives clear evidence for nonuniformity across the air−ice interface and questions the use of acid−base concepts in interfacial processes.

13 July 2017

Gasoline cars produce more carbonaceous particulate matter than modern filter-equipped diesel cars

In contrast to nitrogen oxides, modern gasoline cars emit much more cancerogenic primary soot (black carbon + primary organic aerosol) and lead to more toxic secondary organic aerosol than modern diesel vehicles.

22 February 2017

Ice-core evidence of earliest extensive copper metallurgy in the Andes 2700 years ago

Although copper (Cu) was essential for the wealth of pre- and post-colonial societies in the Andes, the onset of extensive Cu metallurgy in South America is still debated. Based on a 6500 year ice-core Cu record from Illimani glacier in Bolivia we provide the first complete history of large-scale Cu smelting activities in South America. Earliest anthropogenic Cu pollution was found during the Early Horizon period ~700-50 BC. We attribute the onset of intensified Cu smelting in South America to the activities of the central Andean Chiripa and Chavin cultures ~2700 years ago. This study provides for the first time substantial evidence for extensive Cu metallurgy already during these early cultures.

5 January 2017

Nanotechnology enables new insights into chemical reactions

Media Releases Energy and Environment Research Using Synchrotron Light Micro- and Nanotechnology

Eighty percent of all products of the chemical industry are manufactured with catalytic processes. Catalysis is also indispensable in energy conversion and treatment of exhaust gases. Industry is always testing new substances and arrangements that could lead to new and better catalytic processes. Researchers of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in Villigen and ETH Zurich have now developed a method for improving the precision of such experiments, which may speed up the search for optimal solutions.

27 October 2016

The substances that brighten up the clouds

Media Releases Energy and Environment Enviroment

Clouds consist of tiny droplets. These droplets form when water condenses around so-called aerosols – small particles in the atmosphere. To understand how in turn aerosols come into existence scientists have now created a comprehensive computer model simulation based on profound experimental data. This simulation revealed that in addition to sulphuric acid, two other substances are crucially involved in the formation of aerosols: organic compounds and ammonia. These results have now been published in the renowned journal Science.

General Contact

Research Div. Energy and Environment
Paul Scherrer Institut
5232 Villigen-PSI
Switzerland

Head
Prof. Dr. Thomas J. Schmidt
Telephone: +41 56 310 57 65
E-mail: thomasjustus.schmidt@psi.ch

ENE Staff
Dr. Jörg Roth
Telephone: +41 56 310 53 96
E-mail: joerg.roth@psi.ch

M.Sc. Agnieszka Hamburger
Telephone: +41 56 310 27 92
E-mail: agnieszka.hamburger@psi.ch

Assistant
Ursula Ludgate
Telephone: +41 56 310 20 92
E-mail: ursula.ludgate@psi.ch

ENE Events

The Energy and Environment Research Division (ENE) hold a department seminar typically once a week during the semester on Thursdays at 11.00am.

ENE Open positions

current opening at Research Division Energy and Environment

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