[LUM#17] BioInspir Brings Chemistry and Ecology Together

[LUM Magazine, Podcast] - Published on November 15, 2022 in Science and Society

After successfully remediating contaminated soil using plants that hyper-accumulate heavy metals, Claude Grison and her colleagues at the ChimEco laboratory and the startup BioInspir are now tackling water pollution.

Cleaning up water with… aquatic plants. This is the eco-friendly and innovative process developed by the ChimEco* laboratory, which has created a plant-based filter capable of capturing metals from polluted water.“ After working on soil remediation using plants that hyper-accumulate heavy metals, we realized in the field just how widespread water pollution is ,” recalls Claude Grison. Could these very special plants also be a weapon against pollution here? The chemist’s intuition quickly became a reality, and as early as 2016, researchers began treating aquatic systems with these plants. “They have molecular ‘antennas’ on the surface of their roots that capture metal elements.”

The experiment took on a whole new dimension the day Claude Grison and her team found a dead plant in their water purification system . “Even though it was dead, it still had the same purification capacity!” the researcher recalls. The process then evolved: “Now we grind up roots to make plant-based filters that purify the water.” And not just any roots… The chemical ecologists use invasive species—true ecological disasters in wetlands. Purifying water while restoring the environment: a true two-for-one benefit for this innovation.

A revolutionary process with elements of the circular economy, as the substances extracted from water by plants are then used to produce plant-based catalysts. These catalysts enable the production of various molecules needed by sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry, for example. The startup BioInspir was founded in 2021 to commercialize these products. The company, born out of a desire to create a different kind of chemistry, is the only one in the world to have mastered this technology, which uses no chemical inputs, solvents, or synthetic reagents. “It’s a process with no environmental footprint, ” explains Claude Grison. It’s truly eco-friendly chemistry—and the environment is the big winner.

photos © Cyril Fresillon / ChimEco / CNRS Photo Library

Keywords: Environment, LUM#17, LUM Magazine, Research, Science, Company