The impact of road traffic on local air quality is a major policy concern and there have been numerous projects aiming at improving underlying vehicle and fuel technologies, traffic management and enforcement. MODALES will contribute to a substantial reduction in air pollution from all types of motorised road vehicles by encouraging the adoption of low-emission oriented driving behaviour and maintenance choice, improving the effectiveness of OBD devices and retrofits. The main goal of MODALES is to advance the fundamental understanding of the co-variability of user behaviour and vehicular emissions from powertrain, brakes and tyres, and modify user behaviour via dedicated training, including a driver assistance app and awareness campaigns, in order to support effective air quality plans and enforcement strategies to be developed by local and national authorities. MODALES proposes a user-centric approach to addressing all of the challenges which on the one hand enhance low-emission practices and on the other hand suppress high-emission behaviour by researching, developing and testing a number of innovative and complementary solutions in four key areas (namely, Driver, Retrofits, EOBD and Inspection) in order to substantially reduce vehicle emissions from 3 main sources (i.e. powertrain, brake wear and tyre wear). The results will be used as evidence with adequate quality to guide the derivation of effective driving practices and training courses for different user groups. MODALES echoes the EC ambition to open up global markets in transport services, through the creation of a worldwide platform for sharing and exchanging innovative solutions, experience and best practices for low-emission practices.

Among the four main families of natural compounds produced by plants and animals, terpene derivatives constitute the largest and most diverse group of functional hydrocarbon-based derivatives including molecules from C5 hemiterpenes to very high molar mass polyisoprenes such as Natural Rubber (NR). They are synthesized in vivo in presence of specific enzymes from a common C5 elementary precursor, isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP). Although in vitro biosynthesis of many terpenoids is described, this strategy of synthesis remains restricted to laboratory studies because of the low availability and stability of IPP. We have recently discovered that isoprene (IP) can be recognized by enzymes and used as initial substrate in place of IPP to produce isoprenoids. In particular, it was found that addition of IP to fresh Hevea brasiliensis latex containing active cis-prenyltransferase yields to an over production of very high molar mass 1,4-cis polyisoprene with a structure close to NR. In this project we plan to develop this approach for the production of various terpenoids. The elementary mechanisms leading to the formation of new NR from IP will be first investigated. Besides the possibility to significantly improve the NR biosynthesis, this strategy will be extended to the preparation of other terpenoid of economical interest. To that aim complementary experiments using labeled IP will be conducted on fresh rubber particles and on specific enzymes involved in terpenoid synthesis (IPP/DMAPP isomerase, prenyl transferase,…). Enzymatic systems will be obtained from plant extracts and through cloning protocols. It is anticipated that the use of IP, a substrate readily available from oil and the biomass and easy to handle, in place of IPP will open extremely interesting perspectives for the production and valorization of terpenoids and of related compounds. This new synthesis pathway should permit enhancing the productivity of NR producing plants as well as an industrial scale-up of the production of terpenoids of interest using microbial platform technology.

Natural Rubber (NR), a biopolymer produced from the latex of Hevea brasiliensis, exhibits very specific properties never mimicked by synthetic rubbers. NR is thus a highly strategic material for the production of tires or others items. However, NR presents important drawbacks: i) the rather non consistency or variability of its properties, ii) a structuration dynamics or “storage hardening” that is still not fully understood. The RUBBex project aims to study and identify the main biochemical components (poly(cis-1,4-isoprene), proteins and lipids) and the mechanisms involved in the structuration of NR in order to optimize the performances of raw NR. The main objective of the RUBBex project is to generate new knowledge that will allow targeting new treatments before processing for a better control of the variability of NR properties and of the NR structuration dynamics with time. A multidisciplinary and biomimetic approach will allow the study of this material from fresh rubber particles (organization, composition) to the raw NR (composition, structures, properties). The achievement of this multidisciplinary project relies on the complementarity of 6 partners (3 French academic laboratories, Michelin Company and 2 Thai academic laboratories). They will share their expertise in analytical chemistry, macromolecular chemistry, structural characterization, properties of materials, biochemistry, biophysics and spectroscopies.