Biotechnology: Biological transformation of matter
A controlled, innovative, environmental friendly and and efficient bioprocess to valorize your by-products
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The vast majority of industry processes use chemicals that have a significant environmental and financial impact.
The main interest of biotechnologies lies in the use of micro-organisms as an alternative to these chemicals. These micro-organisms could replace chemicals in an environmentally friendly way by exploiting the properties of micro-organisms, their associated enzymes, and their diversity. The development of such a process can be challenging.
Biotechnologies have many industrial applications including :
- Metal leaching
- Innovative recycling
- By-product recovery
- Biodegradability of organic materials
- Soil remediation
- Soil and aqueous decontamination
The aim of the CIME microbiology laboratory is to develop bioprocesses to address various problems of industrial process optimisation, water and soil remediation, product and by-product recovery..
CIME has the means to meet the needs for the study of a panel of microbial metabolisms on all types of matrices.
CIME’s fields of investigation include the study of micro-organisms:
- in aerobic condition through the provision of custom-made aerated/agitated reactors and agitated incubators
- in anaerobic condition by the use of gas injection ramps and the provision of a glove box
- on solid media in different processes, such as fluidised beds or fixed beds that are completely immersed
- Cultivation of pure strains by providing a microbiological safety station and Bunsen spout for the smallest manipulations and a sterilisation autoclave with a capacity of 80L
The various methods available at CIME allow the monitoring of microbial growth by:
- physico-chemical analyses of substrates and products derived from the culture
- microscopic observation and counting of biomass using a fluorescence microscope and phase contrast available in this laboratory.
- Environmentally friendly methods (low temperature and pressure levels)
- Low energy
- Limited greenhouse gas emissions.
From the laboratory phase to the design of industrial pilots, the research and development studies carried out at the CIME make it possible to approve the feasibility and effectiveness of the biological processes involved in different fields.
Several mining-oriented projects have been carried out at CIME in collaboration with the MMRO:
- Uranium effluent bio-oxidation for uranium leaching was developed for the KATCO mining sites in Kazakhstan and SOMAIR in Niger. This process consists of oxidising part of the flow through the use of ferro-oxidant bacteria as a biological catalyst for the oxidation of ferrous iron.
- The degradation of sulphated mineral gangue by sulphate-reducing bacteria has been developed for the Trekkopje mining industry in Namibia and SOMAIR in Niger. These anaerobic micro-organisms catalyse the reduction of sulphate in effluents or minerals to hydrogen sulphide or elemental sulphur.
This bioprocess notably reduces the consumption of reagents for the alkaline leaching of sulphated minerals but also the recovery of elemental sulphur from sulphates contained in deuranised industrial effluents.
Current expertise is mainly focused on ferro-oxidant and sulphate-reducing bacteria, but studies in other fields of application are possible:
- Nitrification/Denitrification
- Elimination of carbon compounds
- Bioleaching of metals etc.
- This process is of environmental interest since it allows reduction as far as the elimination of chemical reagents from the oxidative loop of uranium leaching processes.
- Low operational cost making it economically viable compared to a chemical process.
- Efficiency and industrial feasibility tested at CIME by coupling it with ISR (in situ recovery) and static type leaching processes.
