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The Environment & Sustainable Development hub

The work done by the Environment & Sustainable Development hub aims to:

  • Keep the environmental footprint of industries as small as possible using innovative techniques, in compliance with regulatory requirements and the expectations of our shareholders.
  • Manage our impacts on water and soil.
  • Valorize water and soil resources as part of low-carbon energy production.

EXPERTISE

Processing and management of water resources

  • Develop new technologies for industrial water and groundwater: membrane processes, oxidation, absorption, adsorption, biotreatment.
  • Select and validate water management schemes for sites (Uganda, Kaombo, Solar farms, Carling, etc.).
  • Qualify processes and techniques: sea water, oily water, process water, produced water, groundwater.
  • Provide technical expertise to operating sites (TEPNL, Refineries, etc.).
  • Characterize groundwater dynamics (ORCAD) and improve physical-chemical and biological monitoring.

Hydrobiology and aquatic ecotoxicology

  • Anticipation of changes in regulations, in particular the “zero biodiversity impact” of discharged water.
  • Pertinent ecological characterization and monitoring techniques that can predict environmental impact.
  • Application of environmental DNA sequencing techniques (using DNA studies).
  • Work on the bioavailability of pollutants and the impact of climate change on watercourses.
  • Studies and validation of impact assessment techniques in controlled environments or mesocosms (Pilot Rivers).

Sustainable soil management  

  • Define agrivoltaic schemes: combining an agricultural activity with solar power production.
  • Maximize the carbon storage capacity of a soil depending on the vegetation covering it or the biological processes of its ecosystem. 
  • Valorize industrial wasteland to produce biofuels.
  • Remote sensing applied to soil quality and their capacity for long-term carbon storage.

Biomass for energy

  • Valorization of biomass and liquid effluents as biogas, thanks to anaerobic digestion.
  • Evaluation of the BMP (biochemical methane potential) of different organic liquid or solid resources (inputs).
  • Evaluation of the treatability or toxic effect of a potential input.
  • Development of anaerobic bacterial flora able to break down specific inputs.
  • Use and management of the digestate.
  • Culture and production of microalgae in open reactors to reuse CO2 and produce biomass or biofuels.
  • Separation techniques for microalgae concentration and reuse.

Ecosystem microbiology

  • Manage the latest molecular biology and bioinformatics analysis tools to use microbial communities as biomarkers.
  • Understand microbial ecosystems to inhibit or stimulate certain flora of interest.
groundwater monitoring

Groundwater monitoring

EXPERIMENTAL RESOURCES

 

  • Thirty or so pilots of variable size, from a few milliliters to several cubic meters.
  • A network of 16 pilot rivers, ADYCHATS, (Aquifer Dynamic CHAracterization Tools System), an experimental platform fitted with 20 piezometers over 5.5 ha to develop and validate field tools for the characterization, monitoring and remediation of groundwater.
  • A DNA sequencing and respirometry laboratory for soil diagnosis studies.
  • A 4-m3 raceway for cultivating microalgae in open basins.

MICROALGAE TO VALORIZE CO2