[LUM#17] BioInspir makes chemistry rhyme with ecology

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

After successfully cleaning up soil pollution using plants that accumulate heavy metals, Claude Grison and his colleagues at the ChimEco laboratory and start-up BioInspir are now tackling water pollution.

Water purification with... aquatic plants. This is the innovative ecological process developed by the ChimEco* laboratory, which has perfected a plant filter capable of capturing metals in polluted water. " After working on soil decontamination using plants that hyper-accumulate heavy metals, we realized in the field the extent of water pollution," recalls Claude Grison. Could these very special plants also be a weapon against pollution? The chemist's intuition soon became a reality, and in 2016 researchers began treating aquatic systems with plants. "They have molecular antennae on the surface of their roots that capture metallic elements.

The experiment took on a whole new dimension when Claude Grison and his team found a dead plant in their pollution control system. " Dead, it retained the same depollution capacity", recalls the researcher. The process then evolved: "from now on, we grind up roots to make plant filters that depollute the water". And not just any roots... The chemist-ecologists use invasive species, which are veritable ecological disasters in wetlands. Cleaning up water while restoring the environment: a real double coup for this innovation.

A revolutionary process with circular economy overtones, since the substances extracted from water by plants are then used to produce plant-based catalysts. These are used to produce various molecules needed in sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry. BioInspir, a start-up created in 2021, aims to add value to these products. The company, born of a desire to create a different kind of chemistry, is the only one in the world to master this technology, which uses no chemical inputs, solvents or synthetic reagents. " It's a process with no environmental footprint," explains Claude Grison. A truly ecological chemistry with one big winner: the environment.

photos © Cyril Fresillon / ChimEco / CNRS Photothèque

Key words : Environment, LUM#17, LUM Magazine, Research, Science, Company