This project deals with the catalytic pyrolysis of biomass to produce green aromatics (p-xylene, toluene, etc.). We propose a method to select stable and selective catalysts. Various catalysts will be tested under conditions relevant for the catalytic pyrolysis in dual fluidized bed (DFB) reactors. Their stability toward coke deposit, regeneration, ash coating, attrition, etc. will be addressed. A new DFB lab-scale reactor will be built. Its design will be based on apparent rates of pyrolysis and oxidation of carbons and on hydrodynamics of the particles. Mass balance obtained from this device will be integrated under Aspen Plus software. Mass and energy balances of an integrated process will be determined by Aspen Plus. A first economical study will enable to figure out the development of an eventual demonstration platform.

The research project "CoolWood" aims to develop an innovative conservation of wood material for optimum support of its quality during storage and thus enabling new modes of organization in the forest / wood industry. The quality of raw and processed wood is constantly challenged by attacks of biological origin. In the absence of conservation measures, the woods become unsuitable for most technological uses after a period depending on the species and weather conditions, they can lose up to their full market value. Maintaining the quality of wood during storage is therefore a key issue, as part of "normal" functioning of the forest / wood industries but also in situations of emergency following storms or forest epidemics. Although the last major storms in France in 1999 and 2010 respectively have landed 140 million and 40 million m3 of windthrow (trees blown over). The general principle of protection of the woods is the realization of conditions minimizing the development of wood-destroying organisms by chemical treatment or by acting on the wood moisture content, oxygen content of the atmosphere or ambient temperature. The effect of temperature on the preservation of wood, although it is recognized, has never been seriously explored systematically on a scientific viewpoint. Its technological implementation has never been studied. In response to this gap and in order to achieve the definition of an operational prototype, the objective of the research project "CoolWood" is, through a program lasting 43 months, to validate the feasibility Scientific method of preservation of logs by controlling the temperature and humidity and then design an industrial process optimized technically, economically and environmentally, to evaluate its performance and its preparation for future implementation through to an industrial prototype. This work is underpinned by a patent that one of the project partners filed on an innovative wood preservative during storage by temperature control. Our process meets the needs of structuring the forest / wood industry, industrial needs by improving product quality and also to societal needs in crisis situations. It can replace existing processes that remain generally unreliable for certain pollutants or heavy users of water resources. The sustainable development aspect is thus a strong component in the project. Finally the economic aspect is also very present in the benefits of this process, particularly through industrial competitiveness gains expected and the contribution that the process can make to the objective of increasing logging initiated by French government (increased wood mobilization Forest + 60% of the volume between 2009 and 2020).

Plant proteins, particularly from oilseed meals, are promising renewable resources for texturizing ingredients in food and cosmetic matrices. Application of these ingredients would get rid of petroleum-based products in cosmetics, and to strengthen the use of animal proteins in food, responding to major socio-economic challenges. However, they have insufficient performance compared to currently used products. The functional limitations of plant proteins currently represent a major bottleneck to their industrial development, which must be improved to reach the quality standards of animal proteins and synthetic molecules. Enzymatic transformation processes can be implemented on protein isolates to improve their functional properties. Among these processes, proteolysis and enzymatic cross-linking are the most feasible, sustainable and compatible processes for the use of plant proteins in cosmetics and food industries. Nevertheless, the understanding and control of obtaining functional protein products by these two processes are limited by the lack of knowledge of the relationships between the product characteristics and their properties. Moreover, the process implementations result from laborious and empirical experimental approaches, leading to non-optimal production ways with regard to industrial technical, economic (cost, production duration) and environmental criteria. The main objective of PROSPER project is to develop a generic methodology for obtaining tailor-made plant protein ingredients for targeted applications in food and cosmetic, by controlling enzymatic transformation processes. Its purpose is to allow (i) an improvement in the level of understanding of the relationship between product properties and functionalities; (ii) wider use of plant proteins as functional ingredients; (iii) technological innovation to improve protein functionalities and open up new fields of application. To meet this objective, an original strategy of product engineering will be applied, structured around four main work packages. Reliable analytical tools for the characterization of the products obtained and the monitoring of proteolysis and enzymatic crosslinking processes will be developed initially. Then, the methodology aims to associate the characteristics of the products obtained with functional properties of interest using supervised machine learning methods. In a third step, relationships can be established between the characteristics of the products and a kinetic monitoring parameter of the process, as a representative criterion of a targeted functionality. Modeling/simulation tools for enzymatic transformation processes, based on experimental data regressions, will be developed. Obtained models will be coupled with the established correlations to numerically explore the influence of operating conditions sets on the targeted functionalities, and thus to identify in a rational way the original production routes of a product with targeted functionality. Then, in a last step, these models will be associated with multi-criteria optimization and decision-making tools, in order to establish the optimum functioning of these transformation routes on technical and economic criteria and to analyze these routes towards environmental impacts through life cycle analysis studies.

At the heart of bioprocesses the activity and the physiological state of microorganisms are variables still difficult to assess. Most of the information is obtained from delayed off-line measurements and remains insufficient for the development of real time control strategies to optimize the potential of micro-organisms and design high performance processes. On-line quantification of the physiological state of cells is paramount for the understanding and improvement of cell metabolism and thus to control pathways of interest. The main objective of SPECTRE is to develop an on-line system able to monitor the physiological state of microorganisms during fermentation or cell cultures. SPECTRE is partly in continuity with the work developped during the previous ANR FASST program (Programme ANR-06-BIOE-003-01-FASST : Fermentation Alcoolique d'hydrolysats lingo-cellulosiques et obtention de Souches adaptées aux Stress Technologiques). During FASST, advanced methods for the determination of yeast strain viability state were developed. In association with off-line data, on-line dielectric spectroscopy was able to track variations of cell cytoplasm conductivity and microscopy image analysis showed that cell size distribution and cell optical properties were strongly correlated with yeast cell viability. The results of the program have been positively evaluated by the ANR and ADEME expert boards. Dielectric spectroscopy (DS) has been operational for the last ten years. This technique is now routinely used in a number of cell culture and fermentation processes for the determination of biomass concentration. However, it can also give access to informations dependent on the biomass state, but has to be completed by additional techniques to access the value of biologically significant variables. The determination of total cell volume, viability, and cell size are required to calculate the membrane capacitance Cm, representative of the cell enveloppe state, and the cytoplasmic conductivity si, a marker of water and ion exchanges between cells and their environment. Off-line measurements, on samples taken during fermentation or cell cultures, give a differed access to the information provided by the DS and are not suitable for online control. The proposed SPECTRE project is based primarily on : - the study of a coupling of two innovative technologies - spatially resolved optical spectroscopy (SRS) and dielectric spectroscopy (DS) - for the online determination of cell physiological marker variables (size, membrane capacitance, intracellular conductivity...). - the implementation of associated measurement (quantitative microscopy, flow cytometry, optical density, fluorescence, ...) which will allow - the validation of the information collected by DS and SRS, and - the selection of the most relevant additional physical variables (and their associated measurement techniques) eventually able to further improve the robustness of the physiological state evaluation of the cultivated populations. The project will lead to the development of generic tools allowing the real-time control of the physiological state of microbial populations. SPECTRE connects six academic teams expert in Bioprocess Engineering and an SME, leader in the SRS domain and in the associated data analysis techniques. Each team will use cell models chosen both for their established academic and industrial interest.