Greener chemistry for the planet

Bio Inspir' studies the depolluting qualities of certain land and aquatic plants. This start-up is especially interested in water mint, a small plant native to the southern French Occitanie region that has exceptional capacities for purifying water containing metallic and organic elements. Used in the form of a powder or alive, this plant can purify contaminated water directly at industrial sites. #BioInspir' finds industrial applications for the research conducted by the laboratoire de Chimie…

To control the massive use of chemical pesticides in France, a team of researchers believes they have found an alternative in micro-algae. As a result of samples taken from the French coast, several strains of micro-algae showed surprising capacities. Based on a defence mechanism common to many living beings, RNA silencing, researchers have demonstrated the ability of plants to ramp up their immune system. Extract D, a micro-algae discovered in Brittany, has revealed its ability to directly…

In Isabelle Rico-Lattes ' laboratory, researchers use the green chemistry concepts which revolutionize, among others, the pharmaceutical drugs sector.

In this short film, Gérard Férey and his team, who have developed hollow sphere-shaped molecules in which we could notably trap the greenhouse gases, explains this process.

In this short film, Nathalie Karpel Vel Leitner, from the Laboratory for “Water Chemistry and Microbiology” (LCME), exposes different innovative processes concerning the cleaning up of water, as the electron gun or the use of a catalyst… Indeed, most of the industrial sectors use water in their process of production, which has for consequence pollution. Many innovative processes are being studied…

In this short film, Isabelle Rico-Lattes from the IMRCP (Laboratory for Molecular Interactions & Chemical and Photochemical Reactivity) explains what the green chemistry is. It consists in a chemistry resolutely turned to the future, cleaner, using catalysts which can be recycled and less solvent and reagents.

How can we fight the increasing levels of pollution plaguing our cities? A surprising solution could come from luminous textiles. Indeed, a group of researchers has just combined fiber optics with a powerful photocatalyst in a device that cleans both air and water.

Some plants could clean up the dirty soils and the wastewaters. Alain Manceau, a CNRS biomineralogist explains in this film what is the principle of phytoremediation and talks about its collaboration the Phytorestore company.

To face the last of the fossil fuels stocks, Franck Dumeignil, a chemist, coordinates the Eurobioref project. It gathers research centers and manufacturers from fourteen countries. Its concept is based on the principle of an integrated and flexible biorefinery, which allows to link the preoccupations of agriculture and chemical industry.

Plants and bacteria combined with sunlight have the ability to breakdown or absorb various molecules from our waste water. If nature knows how to effectively purify water, we can use this as inspiration to create purification facilities which themselves become natural areas of beauty!

To grow, plants need nutrients that they draw from soil, especially nitrogen. Pulse crops (the UN declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses (IYP)) have developed a cunning strategy: they partner up with bacteria able to metabolize nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. Researchers are very interested in this phenomenon, and hope to apply it to develop therapeutic applications or use atmospheric nitrogen in agriculture.

Breton pig production represents 56% of French national production. One of the consequences of this intensive livestock farming on a restricted territory is the excessive production of fertilizer products which causes environmental pollution, unbalances ecosystems and pollutes groundwater. The ecological pig farm located in Guernevez has set up, thanks to the work of researchers from the CNRS, INRA and the Chamber of Agriculture of Brittany, a system for recycling pig droppings by reproducing…

Effluents from industrial pig farms cause an environmental challenge. While being good fertilizers, they pollute rivers and groundwater when overused on arable land. The ecological piggery of the Guernévez experimental station in Brittany, developed by researchers from the CNRS, the INRA and the chambers of agriculture of Brittany, has two particularities: it is equipped with a flushing system and it recycles the mixture of water and slurry which is daily evacuated from the building. This…

Microalgae can produce food, fuel and capture carbon dioxide in the process. These tiny organisms seem to meet many of humanity's development challenges. Yet scaling up the technology from a lab environment to industrial capacity is no easy task. The AlgoSolis research platform, inaugurated this year on the West coast of France, will provide scientists the tools they need to develop and test the next generation of technologies for a mass production of microalgae.