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 atUM, is now making a name for itself with the invention of “ecocatalysis”: a revolutionary process that opens up new horizons for green chemistry.
Plant Frenzy
Photo: All rights reserved
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 “botanical experiments” demonstrated that they alone could restore soil damaged by centuries of mining.
Since then, related plants have been used in Crete, New Caledonia, Gabon, and even 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 mission, these miraculous plants also make it possible to recover metals that are sometimes as precious 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 to do is recover them using a 100% eco-friendly thermal and chemical treatment.
Better yet, Claude Grison’s little charges are also proving to be invaluable aids in a very common chemical process: the “reduction of carbonyl derivatives.” This process is widely used in industry but 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 objects. For the same operation, methods using hyperaccumulator plants are more environmentally friendly—and even more effective.”
The Eco-Catalyst Revolution
They are 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 fields of application are countless. Biocosmetics, as well as perfumes, the pharmaceutical industry, biopesticides, and even those “key molecules” that the industry is so keen on—most of which currently come from petroleum derivatives.
Producing high-value-added molecules while remediating contaminated soil: this prospect, which reconciles industry and ecology, is certainly appealing.“By providing the necessary funding to develop large-scale production of pollution-removing plants, the chemical industry itself will soon drive the entire ecological sector forward,”says Claude Grison. Soil remediation would thus become an economically viable project. A revolution.