Transverse themes

The LRGP's activities in the field of hydrometallurgy are structured around a team of around 15 people (permanent staff, PhD students, post-docs and masters), divided between the PERSEVAL and Product Engineering divisions, who have expertise in physico-chemical and electrochemical processes for the reduction or recovery of metals (electro-leaching and phytomining), requiring mastery of speciation processes, physicochemistry, electrochemistry, precipitation, process engineering (material transfer, heat, two-phase flow) and life-cycle analysis.

The LRGP thus aims to structure and showcase its skills in the field of hydrometallurgical processes. This theme gave rise to two days (J3P) in which various players from Lorraine (IJL, Géoressources), France (CEA, LGC, RMMD Institut Chimie Paris team) and industry showed great interest. A hydrometallurgy GDR project is currently underway.

The Hydrogen action in Lorraine was built as part of the Lorraine Pact, following identification by the ANCRE Alliance in 2014. It brings together Université de Lorraine-CNRS laboratories (LRGP, LEMTA, IJL, GREEN...), CEA and industrial players, and aims to boost visibility in the field by creating a shared experimental platform. It is currently supported by the IMPACT project as part of the I-SITE Lorraine Université d'Excellence (LUE), which has extended its scope to include innovation and SHS laboratories.

The LRGP's cross-disciplinary approach covers hydrogen production by methane reforming, membrane gas separation, optimal design of energy systems and their integration (PRIMO axis), H2 production by biological means (BIOPROMO axis) and pyrolysis gasification (CITHERE axis), as well as materials for H2 production by photolysis (Product Engineering axis). The laboratory has also begun an analysis of its strengths in the more general field of Energy.

The LRGP's activities in the field of biorefineries, a theme at the heart of the challenges of sustainable chemistry and one of the pillars of the European Horizon 2020 program, cover a broad spectrum of skills which have been summarized in a white paper, structured around 13 project sheets and involving the laboratory's 5 axes with a total of some twenty permanent staff.

The activities carried out within the framework of numerous national and European research projects concern the processing of plant resources upstream of the chain (e.g. supercritical oil extraction from rapeseed), the thermal transformation of biomass (gasification and synthesis gas production, pyrolysis of lignin to produce aromatics) or biotechnology (production of intermediates from sugars), catalytic conversion of biomolecules (e.g. transesterification of lipids) or enzymatic conversion (acylation of peptides), separation and purification processes (membranes, chromatography) or the production of biobased products (acrylic polymers).

This work is supported by a portfolio of dedicated methodological tools: process modeling (bioreactors, catalytic processes, bioseparations), simulation of an entire process chain in a Process System Engineering (PSE) environment, safety considerations and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

All in all, the LRGP has a wealth of know-how concerning the different types of plant resources (sugars, proteins, lipids, wood) and combining the challenges of the different technological building blocks of the sector: resource processing, thermal or biological conversion of biomass, extraction/purification of biomolecules, development of products with a function of use.

The LRGP's activities in the field of CO2 capture and recovery involve around 20 people (permanent staff, PhD students, post-docs and masters) whose skills are spread across the PERSEVAL, PRIMO and BIOPROMO axes, in complementary areas of the processing chain. These actions are partly supported by the Valorco project (PIA ADEME).

The first component concerns the filtration of hot flue gases, with high efficiency in terms of fine dust, while limiting clogging and hence energy expenditure, with a view to their recovery by thermochemical or biotechnological means.

The second concerns membrane-based CO2 capture, which not only enables selective separation and covalorisation of the CO2 / CO / H2 gas mixtures that are often associated, but also low-energy capture for chemical or biological recovery of CO2, CO and H2 compounds.

The third part concerns :

• Biochemical conversion of CO2 into methane by intensification of the anaerobic digester;
• Exogenous production of biohydrogen to covalorize CO2 ;

Reactors for the catalytic thermochemical conversion of CO2 into methane (methanation), methanol or dimethyl ether in intensified reactors.