France is the world's second largest wine producer and its industry is undergoing major transformations in response to global climate change and societal concerns. Winemaking fermentation is exothermic but generally carried out at low temperature to achieve the desired final aroma content, being therefore energy-intensive. The challenge is to reduce its energy footprint, while controlling the organoleptic quality of wines. To meet this challenge, our project mobilises and develops new state of the art sensors and IT tools. Fermentation kinetics and a large number (up to 20) of aroma compounds, markers of the organoleptic quality of wine, will be measured online. Based on a dynamic model of the process and on the current estimated process state, multiobjective optimisation will be carried out periodically (e.g. daily) to determine the best possible compromises between energy consumption and achieving specified aroma targets. Original high-dimensional visualisation and decision-support tools will enable the human operator to select the desired Pareto-optimal strategy to be implemented in real time, with a reduced mental load. An advanced control law will take necessary actions, such as applying time-varying temperature profiles and multiple nitrogen additions, to carry out the strategy selected by the human decision maker. To achieve this goal, our project brings together expertise in winemaking, online measurement of volatile molecules, dynamic modelling of bioprocesses, multiobjective optimization, high-dimensional data visualisation and human-machine interaction, as well as state estimation and control of dynamic systems. The proposed methodology will be experimentally demonstrated at laboratory scale. Expected benefits include an improved agility in production scheduling in wineries with reduced energy footprint, better controlled and customised organoleptic wine quality, and an increased flexibility in managing fermentation duration and cooling power.

The food industry faces the major challenge of guaranteeing optimal surface hygiene while improving operational efficiency. The OREGANO project aims to develop innovative metallic surfaces with a dual antimicrobial effect. This effect will be achieved through the covalent grafting of arylbenzothiazole derivatives possessing biocidal properties, and by implementing surface microstructuring to prevent the formation of bacterial biofilms. The synergy between these two effects is strategically significant in combating the early-stage development of bacterial biofilms. Importantly, this surface treatment is permanent, does not result in the release of active compounds and requires only a minimal quantity of molecules. The development of these new surfaces could help mitigate the risk of food contamination during industrial production, ensuring health safety standards. Furthermore, it will reduce the frequency and duration of cleaning and disinfection cycles, thereby enhancing productivity and countering the emergence of resistant pathogens. The OREGANO project is structured into four key parts. Firstly, various functionalized arylbenzothiazoles will be synthesized using eco-friendly chemical methods. Special care will then be taken to evaluate their antimicrobial properties, as well as to study their toxicity, using in vitro and in silico approaches, without animal experimentation. Subsequently, covalent grafting onto stainless steel will be performed using electrochemical processes, with a focus on controlling the critical microstructuring for generating anti-adhesive properties. Finally, the project will demonstrate the stability of the grafting during accelerated aging, along with the biocidal and anti-bioadhesion efficacy of these innovative surfaces, thus ensuring health safety, sustained antimicrobial effectiveness, and long-term resistance.

We aim at understanding the microscopic physical mechanisms that cause colloidal gels to break under fatigue, i.e., under an oscillatory stress. We will study protein gels that consist of a three-dimensional network of entangled strands. These gels are of particular importance in the food industry. From a fundamental point of view, they present a brittle-like rupture involving plasticity and fractures. We will experimentally formulate gels whose strand network topology can be adjusted by playing on the interactions. We will determine the influence of this microstructure on the microscopic precursors of fracture by combining rheometry and confocal microscopy, both in shear and compression. Numerical simulations will provide access to the full dynamics, from the scale of the individual particle to that of the network, therefore allowing us to distinguish universal features in order to propose a predictive physical framework for fatigue-induced failure.

Since the beginning of the century, Africa has been the second fastest growing region in the world (AUC/OECD, 2023), with both fast population growth and important signs of structural change in many countries. At the same time, it has also been the continent with the highest rate of deforestation over the last decade, losing on average 4 million hectares of forest every year (FAO and UNEP, 2020). Must these two processes inevitably go together? Or are there ways to facilitate economic growth while conserving forests? The objective of this project is two-fold. First, we aim to better understand the relationship between recent economic development and forest loss in sub-Saharan Africa. Second, we will investigate whether there can be mechanisms that foster economic development while reducing the rate of forest loss on the continent.

In order to address the current challenge of ecological transition, renewable feedstocks, in particular molecules extracted from natural resources appear as a valuable alternative to the widespread corrosion inhibitors whose production and use may have high environmental impacts. Although numerous natural extracts have been investigated in various media and substrates, only few have found their way in industrial applications due to a lack of fundamental knowledge about how the various chemical functions are involved in the protection of the metallic surfaces and about potential synergistic effects between different molecules/macromolecules. The COBY project aims at determining the key parameters for the extraction of valuable molecules/mixtures based on a fundamental understanding of the corrosion protection mechanisms provided by biomolecules from local and abundant agricultural by-products. The final goal is to get 100% vegetal carbon-based anticorrosion solutions for the formation of coatings on steel and to evaluate them in comparison with references in terms of efficiency, techno-economic aspects, as well as environmental impacts. Thus, the COBY project fully falls within Axis H.7 : Bioeconomy, from biomass towards uses: chemistry, materials and systemic approaches. In order to address the objectives of COBY, the partnership will rely on the complementarity of four research teams whose specialities are, respectively, (i) the eco-processes related to the recovery of vegetal by-product (URD ABI) with specific expertise in techno-economic data analysis and life cycle assessment (LRGP); (ii) the corrosion protection of metallic materials (IJL); and (iii) the advanced characterization of organo-metallic surfaces (LRS).