The rationale of this project of « smart storage » is to take advantage of the idle time between biomass harvesting and its utilization in a biorefinery : this time would be used for preparing biomass deconstruction via lignolytic bioprocesses. In other words, it would look as a kind of controlled ensiling fitted to the new utilization of biomass, namely its potentialities to be transformed in energy (bio-ethanol, biogas), in platform molecules (through white biotechnology of sugars coming from cellulose or hemicelluloses or as a source of phenolic compounds). This idea raises the question of the balance between the transformation of lignins and the losses of sugars during such a storage, but other issues are pregnant, like contamination or piloting the storage. This project deals with all of these by using solid state fermentation methodology and lignolytic fungus strains. The benefit would be at the same time energetical and environmental : for all kinds of biomass utilization, the two first steps in a factory (size reduction and pretreatment) are strong consumers of energy (grinding, cooking, steam explosion, ….) and possibly of chemical reactives (acid pretreatment, alkali pretreatment, organosolv pretreatment, …) which need to be filtered out and which deteriorate the environmental impacts. So a pre-conditioned biomass which would enable to lower, or to suppress, the pretreatment would be a noticeable benefit. In case of biogas production, a pre-conditioned biomass could gain wider possibilities of uses if its biodegradation kinetic fits with the classical substrates ones . In our approach, the essential difference in comparison to an industrial process is the time, which turned from hours to weeks. In fact, the background of the proposal is not new, as it is close to the « biopulping » process developed in papermaking industry around ten years ago, but the present project is designed to address new issues : - keep as max as possible the « utilization potential » of the biomass for ethanol (and so saccharification) and biogaz production - describe the operating parameters for piloting the storage, in order to be able to obtain a repeatable degree of transformation, whichever be the external perturbations, including the problem of contamination by sugars-consuming bacteria - set up the technico-economical balance between the possible loss of end use potential and the gain for pre-treatment and anaerobic digestion, particularly in terms of energy and environmental impacts - plan the use of this smart storage principle in a simple, low cost and realistic way by comparing a few pre-industrial solutions The research work is mainly cognitive, as the field to address is wide and it is necessary to handle the effects of several parameters to find an optimal solution. This work is managed through four main work-packages : - the screening for best suited fungus strain(s) and the choice of the level and the conditions of efficient inoculation methods - the description of the controlling parameters for solid state fermentation - the characterization of the products obtained regarding subsequent steps of process, and particularly grinding, bio-ethanol and biogas production - the influence of fungus preconditioning on the technico-economical and environmental balance. Thanks to the partnership of four industrial companies, the solutions will be tested at a pre-industrial scale. This step will also be an opportunity to test the prototype of an on-site device designed to sensor complex biological reactions, developed by a start-up company during this project. The private companies partnership is also a guarantee of moving the five academic research teams towards a robust and realistic solution for this smart storage principle.

Oxygenic photogranules (OPGs) could turn wastewater treatment in circular bioeconomy by capturing much of the energetic and chemical value of wastewater in their biomass. But essential knowledge on their formation and life cycle is still missing and needed for conducting a bioprocess based on OPGs. Omics (in particular metabolomics) are the best tools to understand photogranulation but still require a specific effort in statistical modelling to make full use of them. This project will tackle both challenges: the development of automatic and reproducible data analysis methods for metabolomics, the implementation of a longitudinal multi-omics data integration methodology and the use of these new approaches to investigate the life cycle of OPGs, mainly their switch from growth activity to storage of compounds which is one of the major remaining challenges for the industrial use of OPGs in depollution of wastewater.

Plastic pollution might lead to the degradation of soils, with major environmental and economical costs for agriculture. Considering the multiple facets of plastic pollution (contaminant cocktails including additives and non-intentionally added substances NIAS, added alone in mulching or closely entangled with residual organic matter in amendments), this project will take a lead in assessing the extent of this threat and propose ways to remediate it. With a novel methodology based on a back and forth collaboration between polymer chemistry and soil ecology we will explore several exposure scenarios of soil organisms to custom-made plastics, deciphering their toxicity in different environmental compartments (rhizosphere, microorganisms, mesofauna, plastisphere), their impacts on soil functions and on biogeochemical cycles, their dynamics and that of plastic-associated microorganisms and the physico-chemical and microbial retroactions of soils on plastics.

In the light of CO2 valorization and further reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, the BIOMIntens project aims at intensifying the biological methanation process (BIOM), which itself constitutes a building block of the Power-to-Gas strategy platform for the long-term and seasonal electrical energy storage. To enhance the production of carbon-neutral biomethane using H2 derived from intermittent renewable energy sources, the objective is to develop a biogas upgrading technology in conjunction with the policy framework for energy transition. Two high-potential routes will be compared: the injection of H2 in an anaerobic digester (in-situ BIOM), and the design of a specific bioreactor able to treat CO2/H2 mixtures using microbial consortia or pure cultures (ex-situ BIOM). Hence, an original transdisciplinary methodology is proposed, coupling microbiology, microbial engineering, chemical engineering, microbial ecology and Life Cycle Assessment from the skills and competences of three public partners, Institut Pascal (UMR CNRS 6602), LGE (UMR CNRS 6023) and LBE (INRAE, UR50), and one private partner Bio-Valo). The project is supported by a multi-scale approach, from the microorganism to the bioreactor scale, integrating experiments and modelling in order to: (i) select methanogenic archaea and anaerobic consortia exhibiting high hydrogenotrophic activity; (ii) intensify gas-to-liquid mass transfer; (iii) optimize CO2/H2 feed and operating conditions in in-situ and ex-situ BIOM. The 42-month work program is divided into four scientific workpackages (WP) to which a WP0 for project coordination, exploitation and dissemination is added. In detail, WP1 will bring the fundamental knowledge necessary to the project, such as the measurement of the thermodynamic and transport properties of H2 in culture media, the selection of hydrogenotrophic Archaea enabling faster metabolic pathways for converting CO2/H2 mixtures in CH4 from human or animal gut, and the development of quantitative molecular methods for a follow-up of the strains. The experimental work aimed to optimize CO2 conversion yield and CH4 productivity will be carried out in WP2 (ex-situ) and WP3 (in-situ), respectively. These WPs will address at the same time biotic (enrichment strategy…) and abiotic (pH, pressure, retention time…) factors, and will aim at quantifying the physical (mass transfer, chemical acceleration…) and biological (impact on the microbiome, inhibition of metabolic pathways…) mechanisms induced by the injection of H2/CO2 mixtures. In WP2, a specific issue is the design of a specific bubble column/airlift bioreactor for which technological choices will give access to better control of mixing and interfacial area. In WP3, the main issue is that anaerobic digestion and BIOM processes are coupled, which requires a specific investigation of in- and ex-situ conditions in parallel. Finally, WP4 will develop robust models based on experimental data from WP2 and WP3, in order to conduct a techno-economic and environmental analysis of biogas upgrading. This will address two scenarios, considering in-situ BIOM (enriched biogas in the digester outlet stream) and ex-situ BIOM (conversion of CO2 from the biogas purification step) in French biogas plants, respectively. The deliverables will assess the economic and environmental sustainability of BIOM for CO2 reuse and valorization, the production carbon-neutral fuel, and as key technology for energy transition. They will provide the fundamental and technical knowledge necessary for technology transfer to industrial scale. The long-term economic impact will also address the biogas industry, and the project should highlight that BIOM constitutes a safe, clean and socially acceptable alternative in the framework of CO2 reuse and energy storage for intermittent renewable sources.

ANSWER is a French-Chinese collaborative project which focuses on the modelling and the simulation of eutrophic lake ecosystems to study the impact of anthropogenic environmental changes on the proliferation of cyanobacteria. Worldwide the current environmental situation is preoccupying: the water needs for humans increase while the quality of the available resources is deteriorating due to pollution of various kinds and to hydric stress. In particular, the eutrophication of lentic ecosystems due to excessive inputs of nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) has become a major problem because it promotes cyanobacteria blooms, which disrupt the functioning and the uses of the ecosystems. For 40 years, some measures of reduction of nutrient inputs, especially of phosphorus, have been applied in developed countries to fight against these blooms whereas a reverse tendency of increase of the nutrient loading is observed in other countries. At the same time, the temperature and the atmospheric CO2 concentration have been increasing with significant consequences on the dynamics of phytoplankton communities in lakes. All these local and global changes finally lead to significant modifications of the C/N/P ratio in ecosystems (i.e. the modification of the availability of the three major elements: C, N & P). The project ANSWER will evaluate the consequences that these variations can have on the dynamics of cyanobacterial blooms, by using modelling approaches and numerical simulations which will be based on existing and specific experiments and field data. To represent the complexity of the functioning of lentic ecosystems, the use of 3D dynamical models, obtained by coupling hydrodynamic and ecological models, is essential. Because the development, the calibration and the simulation of such models require a wide range of skills, researchers of various fields (computer science, applied mathematics, modelling, physical limnology and microbial ecology) will work together to develop an integrative platform for lake ecosystems modelling, which will include tools of data management and knowledge representation, models and statistical methods for model calibration and validation. The models will be used for: (1) the simulation of the short-term (weeks) impact of sudden changes of C/N/P ratio (due to weather events) on the initiation of blooms and the evolution of their spatial distribution; (2) comparative simulations of the dynamics and the composition of phytoplankton communities during an annual cycle following the observed trends for the C/N/P ratio in France and in China; (3) the test and optimization of control strategies whose combined impact with climate changes results in a modification of the C/N/P ratio. The processes of recycling of organic matter by bacteria in the water column and of release of nutrients from the sediments will be studied experimentally to improve the model ability. Indeed, although these processes are considered as essential for the dynamics of cyanobacteria, they are often ignored or poorly represented in existing models. One of the difficulties of the implementation of these modelling approaches often comes from the lack of data, or from their poor quality, which makes the validation and the calibration of the models difficult. Thanks to the diversity of the French and Chinese teams gathered in our consortium, we will have access to a rich database composed of good quality data acquired on diversified ecosystems (the large shallow Lake Taihu in China, the long and deep Villerest reservoir and the small and shallow urban Lake Champs-sur-Marne in France). The broad skills of our consortium, ranging from microbial ecology and limnology to modelling, will allow us to take into account in the construction, the validation and the analysis of the models, all the key processes involved in the ecosystem functioning.