The young shoot is called BioInspir. Quite simply… In the image of its activity: inventing bio-inspired processes to replace polluting chemical processes. It is not surprising that the approach of this start-up founded in 2020 is particularly virtuous: this is the major concern of its scientific director, Claude Grison, research director at the CNRS, head of the laboratory of Chemistry Bio-inspired and Ecological Innovations (ChimEco).
“I have been working for the past fifteen years on the preservation and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems and aquatic, she says. A better understanding of the adaptation strategies of aquatic plants to stress metal, allowed me to gradually develop natural technologies of depollution both sober, efficient and industrializable”. And that’s how the idea of creating a start-up emerged.
There is no active intervention of the plant, the metal biosorption mechanism continues even with the dead plant
We know the biosorption capacities of metals of certain plants, already used to depollute the soil in particular. With his team, Claude Grison worked on these phytoextraction solutions. But this living chemist went much further: she discovered how these aquatic plants achieved such results.
“These extraordinary biosorption capacities are due to molecular structures located on the surface of the roots, in particular of the floating plants, explains the researcher who filed three patents on this subject in 2017. There is no active intervention of the plant, but a adsorption passive from the elements present in the water thanks to their complex root system. This mechanism continues even with the dead plant”.
His ingenious idea was to reduce these roots to vegetable powder to depollute industrial effluents. It turned out to be as effective as the live plant! And to kill two birds with one stone, Claude Grison did not choose just any plants but the invasive plants which represent a major ecological problem, threatening more and more aquatic and wetland areas and whose eradication becomes illusory. The challenge today is to control their proliferation. The resource is unfortunately inexhaustible…
A new branch of the chemical industry
At the same time, the scientist has been waging another fight for a long time, this time mixing ecology and synthetic chemistry: it invents nothing less than a new process for producing chemical compounds. It called it ecocatalyse® and has already filed 37 patents for ecocatalytic processes with the CNRS. What is it about ? To use the metallic elements recovered by these invasive aquatic plants as catalysts of chemical processes.
Catalysts are elements which, in low concentrations, accelerate or direct reactions. L’chemical industry uses many metal catalysts based on rhodium, palladium, nickel, zinc, copper, manganese, cobalt, etc. whether in industrial organic chemistry, petrochemicals, agrochemicals, the manufacture of plasticsdyes, paints, cosmetics, perfumes or even pharmaceutical derivatives and medicines.
The extraction of these minerals is an ecological disaster. As for their transformation into catalysts, it consumes energy or pollutes and is dangerous. By comparison, the vegetable powders produced by BioInspir, rich in metallic elements, are real eco-catalysts: “These are the first metal catalysts of vegetable origin, she specifies. One gram of powder may for example contain 270 mg of palladium. Each ecocatalyst® is a signature of the plant, with an original metallic composition, whose catalytic capacities we are studying. »
A catalog of around sixty molecules
The startup, which includes around ten
These esters fats are produced from vegetable oils without any input chemicals or solvents. For some, the capacity is pre-industrial but we will not know more, confidentiality obliges. Depending on the case, BiosInspir works hand in hand with chemists or develops new solutions. With a single watchword: the synthesis of biosourced products with the minimum of chemical inputs.
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