The future of chemistry lies in plants
She had already made a name for herself with an innovative technique for soil remediation using plants. The team led by Claude Grison, a professor at the University of Marseille, is now making headlines with the invention of “ecocatalysis”: a revolutionary process that opens up new horizons for green chemistry.
Plant Frenzy
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They are called Noccaea caerulescens, Iberis intermedia, and Anthyllis vulneraria. These very special plants have a unique ability: they can extract heavy metals from the soil. As early as 2011, in Saint-Laurent-le-Minier, Claude Grison’s “plant experiments” demonstrated that they alone could rehabilitate soil damaged by centuries of mining.
Since then, related plants have been used in Crete, New Caledonia, Gabon, and China. Everywhere, the plants selected by the Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Chemistry and Ecological Innovations (ChimEco, CNRS/University of Montpellier) have made it possible to extract metals dispersed in soils rich in zinc, lead, cadmium, copper, manganese, nickel, or palladium.
A new green sector for industry
Not content with simply fulfilling their ecological role, these miraculous plants also make it possible to recover metals that are sometimes as valuable as they are toxic. That’s because these “hyperaccumulators” have a superpower: they’re capable of storing heavy metals in their leaves… All that’s left is to recover them using a 100% eco-friendly thermal and chemical treatment.
Better yet, Claude Grison’s little charges also prove to be invaluable aids in a very common chemical process: “carbonyl derivative reduction.” A process widely used in industry, but one that generates a lot of waste and requires the use of expensive metals.“The market is huge,”reveals Claude Grison, “because this process is used in the manufacture of most everyday items. For the same operation, processes using hyperaccumulator plants are more eco-friendly—and even more efficient.”
The Eco-Catalyst Revolution
So effective that they are attracting growing interest from manufacturers. The ChimEco laboratory has already filed no fewer than 36 patents on the use of eco-catalysts in chemistry. The potential applications are endless. Biocosmetics, but also perfumes, the pharmaceutical industry, biopesticides, and even those “key molecules” that industry is so fond of—most of which currently come from petroleum derivatives.
Producing high-value-added molecules while simultaneously remediating soil: this prospect, which reconciles industry and ecology, is truly compelling.“By providing the necessary funding to scale up the production of pollution-remediating plants, the chemical industry itself will soon drive the entire ecological sector forward,”says Claude Grison. Remediation would thus become an economically viable project. A revolution.