From Pau to Tarbes to Bayonne, TotalEnergies is actively involved in supporting and developing education through partnerships with academic institutions. These collaborations aim to promote innovation and research while preparing the younger generation for the energy challenges of tomorrow. Various scientific programmes run by the CSTJF and PERL teams are also developed with local structures specialising in a particular field. These joint efforts not only contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge, but also enable talented young people to develop essential skills in the field of energy. These collaborative research projects thus encourage the emergence of innovative solutions for a sustainable energy transition.
TotalEnergies and Biogas in Béarn
Biogas, the product of degraded organic waste, is a renewable gas mainly composed of methane. The market is essentially local, and one in which TotalEnergies has rapidly gained ground, particularly in southwest France. In the Béarn region, an R&D ecosystem focused on biogas and anaerobic digestion started to develop in the 2020s with the research teams of the TotalEnergies Site in Pau. The Company firmly believes that biomethane has a role to play in the energy transition, in terms of both the decarbonization of natural gas and mobility, and for this, the Béarn is the place to be: the local fabric is particularly conducive to synergies and collaboration.
Today, the PERL and the CSTJF represent a real R&D center of expertise dedicated to this sector: a team of 10 engineers and technicians conducts different programs covering all the technical aspects of methanization: new feedstocks, processing and marketing of the co-products including the digestate and biogenic CO₂.
The TotalEnergies Biogas R&D teams are drawing on the BioBéarn anaerobic digestion unit and the local ecosystem to foster interactions that encourage innovation. In addition to our historical partnerships with the UPPA (the University of Pau and the Adour region), particularly the departments of the IPREM (the Institute of analytical sciences and physico-chemistry for the environment and materials), we stepped up our partnership with the APESA and its sustainable development technical center in Montardon through a framework agreement effective in 2024. On the Montardon site, we will also benefit from the expertise of ARVALIS and the future MethAPlateforme, which will be running a 150-m³ methanization demonstrator.
There is currently very little data concerning the reproducibility and transferability of results obtained from a biogas laboratory pilot to an industrial unit. The three-year Methascale project will bring together key local players: the APESA (Association for the environment and safety in Aquitaine), ARVALIS - Institut du végétal (Plant institute), the INRAE (National research institute for agriculture, food and the environment) and our multi-energy Company. The aim of the project is to compare the upscaling of 5-30-liter laboratory pilots, using a 150-m³ experimental unit, through to an operational industrial unit (BioBéarn).
- To find out more: Read this brochure (in French)
TotalEnergies and the REASONS Chair
Our local commitment to the energy and environmental transition.Through the programs of the societal R&D team, the Company is continuously seeking to improve its activities, particularly by anticipating, performing integrated assessments of, and managing non-technical risks or conflicts inherent to operations. The REASONS (Renewable Energy Age: Social notices) industrial chair was created on April 4 on the campus of the University of Pau and the Pays de l’Adour (UPPA). The aim is to decipher debates on renewable energies on a global scale, in particular through social networks.
With the REASONS chair, our multi-energy company wants to understand how the different systems implemented to drive the energy transition are perceived by society and social stakeholders, to propose solutions that consider the population’s expectations. Eight technologies will be studied, starting with wind, agrivoltaic, lithium recovery and sustainable aviation fuels. For each one, we will study the obstacles and development opportunities, and try to understand the processes which result in one technology being accepted rather than another. In the long run these studies should help us produce informative communication so that the complex challenges of the transition are made objective and understood.
Spearheaded by Xavier-Arnaud de Sartre, Director of Research at the CNRS and Director of the Energy and Environmental Transitions laboratory at the UPPA, the REASONS chair will include two PhD students and two post-doctoral researchers to conduct the study internationally. It will analyze in particular the position of social organizations as regards renewable energies. How do they attack companies that make empty promises or practice greenwashing? And how are debates structured, in particular on social networks, which have become a major forum for expressing opinions. In France, China, Australia, Venezuela, Senegal, etc. A global tour of social networks that should help us understand how the technologies of the energy transition are perceived, and how the way the solutions are presented make them "accepted and acceptable", and meet the expectations of citizens as best as possible. Alongside this scientific study, the REASONS chair aims to make science more accessible. As part of the label “Science with and for society” (SPAS) awarded to the UPPA, it will create a comic strip on the deployment of renewable energies. Watch this space!
TotalEnergies and 3D Printing in Pau
Innovate with the expertise of local actors on 3D printing of heat exchangers: since 2018, the Jean Féger Scientific and Technical Center (CSTJF) has been conducting research on the 3D printing of heat exchangers* in close collaboration with its regional partners. This research strategy not only showcases expertise and local action, but also significantly reduces the costs generated by studies on additive manufacturing (AM).
Through a series of numerical tests, the R&D teams at the CSTJF and their partners are working on a new generation of heat exchangers, whose shape is the result of mathematical formulas to improve heat exchange: minimal surfaces starting with the Schwarz Diamond (Schwarz D) surface.
The CSTJF has an “innovation Booster” in Pau to lead this project and which operates in “maker” mode, using FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers to rapidly prototype PLA (Poly Lactic Acid, biosourced and bio-compostable materials) to iterate and validate the heat exchanger design.
The teams also relied on the specific competencies of their local partners:
- Chloé (a university department working on flow in porous media, funded by TotalEnergies) to produce the design and create the entire exchanger based on mathematical Schwarz D formulas, using the Matlab and Comsol software applications;
- The IUT in Tarbes, to print the exchanger using laser sintering on a “powder bed”. This produces a Polyamid exchanger to validate the homogeneity of the numerical model — a crucial step before the more costly manufacturing of the metal exchanger;
- The ENIT (The National Engineers’ School in Tarbes), for the aluminum printing that gives better heat transfer;
- The Pau IUT (UPPA) – Heat and Energy engineering to run tests on a test bed.
Such partnerships contribute to modernizing heat exchangers through 3D printing and to reduce the weight while maximizing efficiency. If the tests prove conclusive, TotalEnergies would be able to use less energy and thereby reduce its CO2 emissions.
- To learn more about: FabLab of CSTJF
*A heat exchanger is a system whereby heat energy from one fluid is transferred to another without them mixing.
