Processes and Processing

The objectives of this research theme are to understand, control, and intensify processes and flows involving industrial fluids or models with complex rheological behavior. The industrial applications are wide-ranging, covering the packaging, energy, agri-food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, water and effluent treatment, methanization, and selective trapping of organic pollutants in organic or aqueous environments sectors.

The work carried out in recent years has focused on both model objects and industrial objects. The materials used or environments treated are complex homogeneous or heterogeneous fluids, loaded or unloaded, such as polymers, copolymers, emulsions, foams, composite materials, bio-based materials, ionic liquids, and effluents. Our approach is to establish a link between process control and understanding of the fundamental underlying phenomena related to flows and their stability. To achieve this, one of the keys to success is identifying the mechanisms involved at the relevant length and time scales in relation to the structure of materials, their flows, and the external stresses applied during processes (shear or elongation flows, pressure fields, ultrasonic fields, concentration gradients, or thermal gradients).

The latest results obtained have enabled us to make progress on numerous aspects, which we have structured into three areas of research. The first area, entitled Bio-based Materials, addresses the need to reduce carbon emissions and contribute to an environmentally friendly circular economy focused on the use of plant biomass. The second area, Intensification of Transfer Processes and Reactivity through Ultrasound, aims to improve our understanding of the phenomena induced by the presence of an ultrasonic field and their potential as a method of activation in processes. The third area, Processes for the Environment, involves larger-scale processes that handle greater volumes and with facility sizes adapted for applications such as the methanization of thick matter for the production of renewable energy, or the development of new ionic compounds for the selective trapping of organic pollutants in organic or aqueous environments.