The Paris Agreements (COP21) plan to achieve global carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, we need to build new a new infrastructure of energy production, storage, transport and use, which will consume many raw materials. To be produced, these raw materials require large quantities of energy and other resources such as e.g. water. Raw materials and energy issues are therefore inseparable and the evolution towards low-carbon energies must take place in a context of rapidly increasing demand due to the rapid emergence of developing countries, increasing urbanization and the development of new technologies. Future requirements for raw materials to ensure the development of renewable energies to be significant in comparison with the technologies representative of the current French electricity mix. At the global level, the needs are also important compared to the potentials of both primary production and recycling. In order to better appreciate the criticality of the studied raw materials, the needs will be confronted with the physical and economic supply potential and risks envisaged on a global scale.

The proposed thesis includesthe compilation of data and dynamic and technico-economic modeling. The compilation of data will be partly based on a data management and query tool developed at the Grenoble Institute of Earth Sciences (ISTERRE), which aggregates databases of physical and monetary flows with raw material inventories derived from life cycle analyses. The modeling part will be based on dynamic material-energy models in development at ISTERRE and on the partial equilibrium model POLES developed at the Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory (GAEL).

Contact : Olivier Vidal : olivier.vidal@univ-alpes-grenoble.fr
Tel: +33670576940