The project deals with optimizing the technical and economic performances of the drying of the extruded alumina gel used as support for the catalysis and separation. The objective is to develop predictive tools of the mechanical behavior and dehydration of the extruded sections according to their composition and the conditions of drying. A tool for optimization of the conditions of drying will be developed and will be validated at the laboratory and industrial scales. To achieve these goals, the program suggested includes the following steps: - The definition of the composition of the extruded sections from the experimental data available; - The experimental study of the cracks initiation during the drying as well as the determination of the thermal, hydrous and mechanical properties of the product; - The definition of a crack criterion taking into account the microstructure of the material with the help of a discrete elements approach - The experimental study and the simulation of the propagation of cracks during drying. Measurements will be carried out using the electronic scan microscopy and micro tomography; - The development of a physical model and a numerical simulator intended to predict the behavior of the material during drying and the rate of breakage of the extruded sections according to their composition and to the drying conditions; - A scale up study from the material sample to the drier behavior with a modeling of the thermal and mass transfers within the drier; - The development of a numerical simulator intended to optimize the composition of the extruded sections and the conditions of drying for desired rate of breakage. This tool corresponds to the inverse model of the preliminary developed tools.

The aim of the project CATAPULT is to assess the technical, economical and environmental relevance of flash pyrolysis as a route for producing bio-oils dedicated to the joint production of chemicals and energy, combining the two following applications: - chemical upgrading of an appropriate fraction of bio-oil by extracting molecules dedicated to green chemistry (platform or high-value molecules) ; - co-refining (or co-processing) of the bio-oil residual fractions with petroleum distillates for producing hybrid biofuels. The major technical barrier remains the quality of bio-oils produced in conventional pyrolysis processes. The overall goal of the project is to explore a way of improving the efficiency of flash pyrolysis, by the joint use of a suitable catalyst which may allow - to direct the selectivity of pyrolysis reactions in order to optimize the production of molecules identified as interesting and to make easier the downstream separation/extraction operations; - to upgrade bio-oils in order to improve their compatibility regarding towards further co-processing specifications, by promoting de-oxygenation of organic vapors produced during pyrolysis. The main scientific issue is to better understand the effect of catalysts on the formation or destruction of these molecules (or families of molecules) which will be previously identified as potentially interesting for extraction/recovery chemical, or conversely undesirable for downstream processing operations. The main technical issue is the development of an innovative module for catalytic post-treatment of pyrolysis vapors which will be implemented and tested on an existing flash pyrolysis pilot. As a first step, a first generation of catalytic module will be designed on the basis of a supported commercial catalyst, and implemented on the pilot in order to produce two batches of bio-oils reference (with and without catalytic treatment). These tests will also allow evaluating the operating mode of the reference catalyst, especially its stability and ability to be regenerated, those data being hardly available in the literature. Batches of bio-oils will serve as reference products for the standardization of analytical methods and quality tests as a source of molecules or as co-processing feedstock. As a second step, laboratory scale developments will aim at improving the performance of the catalytic module regarding the yield and selectivity of target molecules. Tests conducted on different catalyst formulations and via different methods of support impregnation, will result in selecting a second generation of catalytic module, through a multi-criteria analysis of performance. This second generation of catalytic module will be validated on the pilot, with new analyzes and tests of bio-oil quality. These technical data will ultimately provide economic and environmental indicators to decide on the viability of the route considered. Though these highly complementary approaches and continuous exchange between laboratory and pilot scales, the project responds to both scientific and industrial issues covering many areas of expertise such as the optimization of catalysts, process development and integrated analysis / testing quality. It will further lead to theoretical schemes of bio-oil fractionation, which might lead to further specific developments.

PIREP2 deals with the characterization and elimination of soot particulates emitted by Hybrid Diesel Cars (HDC). The main objective of PIREP2 is to develop a new generation of self-regenerating Diesel Particulate Filters (self-DPF) from the knowledge on filtering electrochemical catalysts acquired during the PIREP1 project (ADEME program, 2007-2010), managed by IRCELYON with the support of PSA. The main advantage of Hybrid Diesel cars is to strongly reduce the fuel consumption and, consequently, the emission of CO2 as well as the vehicular dependence on hydrocarbons. This achievement is absolutely necessary for limiting the global warming of earth and its disastrous impacts. The ambitious target fuel consumption of HDC is 3 L for 100 km for a medium motorisation passenger vehicle (1.6 L). This represents a 50% reduction of the fuel consumption. However, HDC will still require a complex catalytic post-treatment in order to achieve future European legislations (EURO 6 in 2014 and EURO 7 in 2018-2020) in terms of emissions of NOx, unburned hydrocarbons, CO and particulate matter. The actual solution for removing soot particulates is the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) which is a porous ceramic structure. In addition, the necessary periodic regeneration of these DPFs is performed by post-injection of fuel which allows, via the exothermicity of oxidation reactions, a rapid increase of the DPF temperature catalyzing soot oxidation. These regeneration steps induce fuel overconsumption that undermines the main objective of the Hydrid Diesel Technology. PIREP2 is an industrial research program which aims to : o Develop and optimize self-DPFs, based on ionic conducting ceramics, able to continuously burn soot particulates from 250°C without fuel overconsumption and without the use of noble metals. o Understand the mechanism for soot particulates activation by ionic conducting ceramics. o Analyse the gaseous and particulate emissions of HDC as well as the impact of self-DPF on nucleation processes (production of ultrafine particulates).