Déchets verre, waste

An oasis of waste reconverted into ceramic materials

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Transforming industrial waste and unused by-products could make it possible to respond to issues of scarcity for civil engineering resources, recyclability and even reducing use of fossil fuels. Doan Pham Minh, process engineering researcher at IMT Mines Albi, explains several avenues for recycling and reusing materials explored by his work.

One man’s trash can be another man’s treasure. Turning rubbish into resources is the aim of the circular economy. And it is also the issue at the heart of the Innovative Ceramic Materials for Energy Storage and Construction (MACISEB)[1] project, launched in 2019, with the participation of researchers from IMT Mines Albi[2]. “Our objective is to transform inorganic, industrial waste and by-products, which can be found around us, into something that is useful for society,” describes Doan Pham Minh, process engineering researcher. The solutions identified as part of the project will then be transferred to companies in the Occitania region. From finding other uses for unrecyclable waste to replacing raw materials that are running out, the principle of ‘second life’ can be applied to a large range of unexpected situations.

Sand reserve seeks replacement for time to rest and recuperate

The French Agency for Ecological Transition (Ademe) reports that between 27 and 40 billion tons of sand are extracted each year around the world. It can be found in our buildings and windows, as well as our computers. “The demand for this resource is even more critical than that for noble metals. And the reserves are running out so quickly that they are arriving at breaking point,” emphasizes Pham Minh. Extracted from quarries or taken from riverbeds, natural sand is formed by the lengthy process of erosion. Too long, therefore, to meet society’s needs. However, this material is indispensable for the civil engineering sector (its main consumer) and therefore the economic stability of many countries.

Read more on I’MTech: Sand, an increasingly scarce resource that needs to be replaced

This is why the MACISEB project is seeking sand replacement products from inorganic by-products, i.e. industrial waste that is not currently being used. “The idea is not to completely change our means of manufacturing, but to replace a critical raw material using a circular economy approach,” specifies Pham Minh. With his team, the researcher has created resource maps for the entire Occitan territory. He identified and located deposits with high potential and similar properties to sand. He also ensured that these products are sustainable, by noting the quantity and availability of this waste. In this way, multiple candidates were selected, including glass residue.

During the recycling process, glass is ground up into grains fine enough to be reused by glass factories. However, a portion of this glass, too fine, coarse or contaminated, is not reused. “We are recovering this leftover glass to replace part or all of the sand needed to make ceramic bricks or tiles,” specifies Pham Minh. Sand from foundries, slag from blast furnaces, and ashes from biomass thermal power plants are also promising.

Using these materials, researchers have suggested formulas to create bricks and tiles with the same mechanical and thermal properties as those made with clay and natural sand. Moreover, the formulas comply with industrial specifications. The products are therefore guaranteed to be able to be manufactured using equipment that companies already possess, without extra investment. The first bricks will be made in 2022, and then tested by the Scientific and Technical Center for Building (CSTB).

From wind to heat: reusing wind turbine blades

The operating lifespan of a wind turbine is estimated at around twenty years. This means that the first French facilities are now arriving at end-of-life, and there will have to be more dismantling in the coming years. In short, recycling is becoming a major challenge for the wind energy industry. While the parts made from metal (pole and rotor) and concrete (base) recycle well, the blades – made from glass fiber mixed with organic resin – are not so lucky. Another part of the MACISEB project involves researchers recycling this waste into thermal storage materials. “Our objective is to reuse glass fiber from the blades to develop ceramics used by concentrated solar power (CSP) plants,” explains the researcher. This means of energy production transforms solar energy first into heat, then electricity. To do so, it uses systems made up of mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays at one point, generating extremely high temperatures (from 200 to 1,500°C). The heat is transported by fluid, to propel the turbines and produce. It can be stored in ‘thermal batteries’, to later be released during the night to ensure continuity of service.

At present, thermal power plants store heat using molten salt – a mixture of potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate. “These compounds can also be found in agricultural fertilizer. There is therefore a conflict of use between the two sectors. However, there is currently no commercial alternative that is economically and environmentally viable,” explains Pham Minh. Transforming turbine blades into ceramics would therefore provide a new solution for this sector. With this in mind, researchers are developing materials capable of handling intense, repeated cycles of heating and cooling for multiple years. This solution would eventually make it possible to reuse a waste product that promises to grow. But it will also give a technological boost to the thermodynamic solar energy sector, which could allow it to establish itself in the renewable energy market. As part of the MACISEB project, this research is being undertaken by the PROMES laboratory, a partner of the project and academic reference body in the area of thermal storage. ART-DEV, partner and social sciences laboratory, is also looking into the social conditions for recycling wind turbine blades and the possibility of implementing a recycling ecosystem for the blades at a regional scale.

Industrial fumes: an idea to get the turbines going

Another application could make use of ceramic materials made from inorganic waste to capture heat. At present, the industry squanders over 30% of the energy it consumes in the form of so-called waste heat, released into the atmosphere in industrial fumes. Researchers at IMT Mines Albi are collaborating with company Eco-Tech Ceram, specialist in thermal storage, in order to recover this energy, store it and use it to supply industrial processes. For example, ceramicists and metal-working factories use high-temperature ovens, often running on natural gas. Reusing the heat captured from their fumes would make it possible to partially heat their equipment and therefore reduce their fossil fuel consumption.

Like for thermodynamic solar, the challenge is therefore to develop ceramic materials adapted for companies’ conditions of use. “Nevertheless, here another issue arises: industrial fumes contain pollutants. Such acidic, corrosive gases accelerate the aging of ceramics and therefore alter their performance,” explains the researcher. Moreover, the composition of fumes varies according to the industrial operations. The first thing to do will therefore be to characterize the kind of fumes, their temperature, etc. sector by sector, in order to develop sustainable materials while keeping costs under control[3].

Anaïs Culot

[1] Project funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), part of European policy aiming to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion in the European Union by supporting development in regions such as here, in the Occitania region.
[2] The project brings together researchers from the RAPSODEE center, the PROcesses, Materials and Solar Energy (PROMES) laboratory, the Actors, Resources and Territories in Development (ART-DEV) laboratory and the company Eco-Tech Ceram.
[3] This is part of the objectives of certain projects, Eco-Stock® solutions to recycle complex industrial waste heat (SOLUTEC, launched in 2021) and developing monolithic materials from local clay blends to reuse industrial waste heat in Occitania (CHATO, launched in 2021), led by IMT Mines Albi.
Photographie montrant plusieurs blocs de béton

Improve the quality of concrete to optimize construction

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Since the late 20th century, concrete has become the most widely used manufactured material in the world. Its high level of popularity comes alongside recurring problems, affecting its quality and durability. Among these problems is when one of the components in concrete, cement paste, sweats. Mimoune Abadassi, civil engineering PhD student at IMT Mines Alès, aims to resolve this problem.

“When concrete is still fresh, the water inside rises to the surface and forms condensation,” explains Mimoune Abadassi, doctoral student in Civil Engineering at IMT Mines Alès. This phenomenon is called concrete sweating. “When this process takes place, some of the water will not reach the surface and remains trapped inside the concrete, which can weaken the structure,” adds the researcher, before specifying that “sweating does not only have negative effects on the concrete’s quality, as water allows the material to be damp cured, which prevents it from drying out and cracks appearing that would reduce durability”.

In his thesis, Abadassi studies the sweating of cement paste, one of the components of concrete alongside sand and gravel. In analyzing cement paste prepared with varying amounts of water, the young researcher has remarked that the more water incorporated in the cement paste, the more it sweats. He has also looked into the effect of superplasticizers, chemical products that when included in the cement paste, make it more liquid, more malleable when fresh and more resilient when hardened. “When we increase the amount of superplasticizer, we have observed that the cement paste sweats more as well,” indicates Abadassi. “This is explained by the fact that superplasticizers disperse suspended cement particles and encourage the water contained in clusters formed by these particles to be released,” he points out, before adding that “this phenomenon causes the volume of water in the mixture to increase, which increases the sweating of the cement paste”.

Research at the nanometric, microscopic and macroscopic level

By interfering with the sweating, superplasticizers also affect the permeability of cement paste. To study its permeability when fresh, Abadassi used an oedometer, a device mainly used in the field of soil mechanics. Oedometers compress a sample, extract the water contained inside and measure the volume, to determine how permeable it is. The larger the volume of water recovered, the more permeable the sample. In the case of cement paste, if it is too permeable, more water will enter, which reduces cohesion between aggregate particles and weakens the material’s structure.

By varying certain parameters when preparing the cement paste, such as the amount of superplasticizer, Abadassi aims to observe the changes taking place within the paste, invisible to the naked eye. To do so, he uses a Turbiscan. This machine, generally used in the cosmetics industry, makes it possible to analyze particle dispersion and cluster structure in the near-infrared. By observing the sample at scales ranging from the nanometer to the millimeter, it is possible to identify the formation of flocks: groups of particles in suspension which adhere to one another, and that, in the presence of superplasticizers, separate and release water into the cement paste mixture.    

To understand the consequences of phenomena in cement paste at the microscopic and mesoscopic scale, Abadassi uses a scanning electron microscope. This method makes it possible to observe the paste’s microstructure and interfaces between aggregate particles at a nanometric and microscopic scale. “With this technique, I can visualize internal sweating, shown by the presence of water stuck between aggregate particles and not rising to the surface,” he explains. When concrete has hardened, a scanning microscope can be used to identify fissuring phenomena and cavity formation caused by the sweating paste.

Abadassi has also studied the effects of an essential stage in cement paste production: vibration. This process allows cement particles to be rearranged, leaving the smallest possible gaps between them and therefore making the paste more durable and compact. After vibrating the cement paste at various frequencies, Abadassi concluded that sweating is more likely at higher frequencies. “Vibrating cement particles in suspension will cause them to be rearranged, which will lead to the water contained in flocks being released,” he describes, adding that “the greater the vibration, the more the particles will rearrange and the more water will be released”.

Once these trials are finished, the concrete’s mechanical performances will be analyzed. One way this will be done is by exerting mechanical pressure on an object, in this case, a sample of concrete, to measure its resistance to said pressure. The results obtained from this experiment will be connected with microscope observations, Turbiscan tests and trials varying the parameters of the cement paste formula. All of Abadassi’s results will be used to create a range of formulas that can be utilized by concrete production companies. This will provide them with the optimal quantities of components, such as water and superplasticizers, to include when preparing cement for use in concrete. In this way, the quality and durability of the most widely used manufactured material in the world could be improved.

Rémy Fauvel

Maxime Lefrançois

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Mines Saint-Étienne | Artificial Intelligence, Semantic web, Ontologies, IoT

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digital sovereignty

Sovereignty and digital technology: controlling our own destiny

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Annie Blandin-Obernesser, IMT Atlantique – Institut Mines-Télécom

Facebook has an Oversight Board, a kind of “Supreme Court” that rules on content moderation disputes. Digital giants like Google are investing in the submarine telecommunications cable market. France has had to back pedal after choosing Microsoft to host the Health Data Hub.

These are just a few examples demonstrating that the way in which digital technology is developing poses a threat not only to the European Union and France’s economic independence and cultural identity. Sovereignty itself is being questioned, threatened by the digital world, but also finding its own form of expression there.

What is most striking is that major non-European digital platforms are appropriating aspects of sovereignty: a transnational territory, i.e. their market and site where they pronounce norms, a population of internet users, a language, virtual currencies, optimized taxation, and the power to issue rules and regulations. The aspect that is unique to the digital context is based on the production and use of data and control over information access. This represents a form of competition with countries or the EU.

Sovereignty in all its forms being questioned

The concept of digital sovereignty has matured since it was formalized around ten years ago as an objective to “control our own destinies online”. The current context is different to when it emerged. Now, it is sovereignty in general that is seeing a resurgence of interest, or even souverainism (an approach that prioritizes protecting sovereignty).

This topic has never been so politicized. Public debate is structured around themes such as state sovereignty regarding the EU and EU law, economic independence, or even strategic autonomy with regards to the world, citizenship and democracy.

In reality, digital sovereignty is built on the basis of digital regulation, controlling its material elements and creating a democratic space. It is necessary to take real action, or else risk seeing digital sovereignty fall hostage to overly theoretical debates. This means there are many initiatives that claim to be an integral part of sovereignty.

Regulation serving digital sovereignty

The legal framework of the online world is based on values that shape Europe’s path, specifically, protecting personal data and privacy, and promoting general interest, for example in data governance.

The text that best represents the European approach is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adopted in 2016, which aims to allow citizens to control their own data, similar to a form of individual sovereignty. This regulation is often presented as a success and a model to be followed, even if it has to be put in perspective.

New European digital legislation for 2022

The current situation is marked by proposed new digital legislation with two regulations, to be adopted in 2022.

It aims to regulate platforms that connect service providers and users or offer services to rank or optimize content, goods or services offered or uploaded online by third parties: Google, Meta (Facebook), Apple, Amazon, and many others besides.

The question of sovereignty is also present in this reform, as shown by the debate around the need to focus on GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft).

On the one hand, the Digital Markets Act (the forthcoming European legislation) includes strengthened obligations for “gatekeeper” platforms, which intermediate and end-users rely on. This affects GAFAM, even if it may be other companies that are concerned – like Booking.com or Airbnb. It all depends on what comes out of the current discussions.

And on the other hand, the Digital Services Act is a regulation for digital services that will structure the responsibility of platforms, specifically in terms of the illegal content that they may contain.

Online space, site of confrontation

Having legal regulations is not enough.

“The United States have GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), China has BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi). And in Europe, we have the GDPR. It is time to no longer depend solely on American or Chinese solutions!” declared French President Emmanuel Macron during an interview on December 8 2020.

Interview between Emmanuel Macron and Niklas Zennström (CEO of Atomico). Source: Atomico on Medium.

The international space is a site of confrontation between different kinds of sovereignty. Every individual wants to truly control their own digital destiny, but we have to reckon with the ambition of countries that demand the general right to control or monitor their online space, such as the United States or China.

The EU and/or its member states, such as France, must therefore take action and promote sovereign solutions, or else risk becoming a “digital colony”.

Controlling infrastructure and strategic resources

With all the focus on intermediary services, there is not enough emphasis placed on the industrial dimension of this topic.

And yet, the most important challenge resides in controlling vital infrastructure and telecommunications networks. The question of submarine cables, used to transfer 98% of the world’s digital data, receives far less media attention than the issue of 5G devices and Huawei’s resistance. However, it demonstrates the need to promote our cable industry in the face of the hegemony of foreign companies and the arrival of giants such as Google or Facebook in the sector.

The adjective “sovereign” is also applied to other strategic resources. For example, the EU wants to secure its supply of semi-conductors, as currently, it depends on Asia significantly. This is the purpose of the European Chips Act, which aims to create a European ecosystem for these materials. For Ursula von der Leyen, “it is not only a question of competitiveness, but also of digital sovereignty.”

There is also the question of a “sovereign” cloud, which has been difficult to implement. There are many conditions required to establish sovereignty, including the territorialization of the cloud, trust and data protection. But with this objective in mind, France has created the label SecNumCloud and announced substantial funding.

Additionally, the adjective “sovereign” is used to describe certain kinds of data, for which states should not depend on anyone for their access, such as geographic data. In a general way, a consensus has been reached around the need to control data and access to information, particularly in areas where the challenge of sovereignty is greatest, such as health, agriculture, food and the environment. Development of artificial intelligence is closely connected to the status of this data.

Time for alternatives

Does all that mean facilitating the emergence of major European or national actors and/or strategic actors, start-ups and SMEs? Certainly, such actors will still need to show good intentions, compared to those that shamelessly exploit personal data, for example.

A pure alternative is difficult to bring about. This is why partnerships develop, although they are still highly criticized, to offer cloud hosting for example, like the collaboration between Thales and OVHcloud in October 2021.

On the other hand, there is reason to hope. Open-source software is a good example of a credible alternative to American private technology firms. It needs to be better promoted, particularly in France.

Lastly, cybersecurity and cyberdefense are critical issues for sovereignty. The situation is critical, with attacks coming from Russia and China in particular. Cybersecurity is one of the major sectors in which France is greatly investing at present and positioning itself as a leader.

Sovereignty of the people

To conclude, it should be noted that challenges relating to digital sovereignty are present in all human activities. One of the major revelations occurred in 2005, in the area of culture, when Jean-Noël Jeanneney observed that Google had defied Europe by creating Google Books and digitizing the continent’s cultural heritage.

The recent period reconnects with this vision, with cultural and democratic issues clearly essential in this time of online misinformation and its multitude of negative consequences, particularly for elections. This means placing citizens at the center of mechanisms and democratizing the digital world, by freeing individuals from the clutches of internet giants, whose control is not limited to economics and sovereignty. The fabric of major platforms is woven from the human cognitive system, attention and freedom. Which means that, in this case, the sovereignty of the people is synonymous with resistance.

Annie Blandin-Obernesser, Law professor, IMT Atlantique – Institut Mines-Télécom

This article was republished from The Conversation under the Creative Commons license. Read the original article here (in French).

Metaverse, nouvelles technologies

Debate: The Metaverse, flying taxis and other weapons of mass planetary destruction

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Fabrice Flipo, Institut Mines-Télécom Business School

5G, 8K, flying taxis and the Metaverse are all topics of great interest, raising many questions. However, such questions are rarely, if ever, from an environmental perspective.

A recent article from French daily newspaper Le Monde, published October 18 2021 and titled “Facebook to hire 10,000 people in Europe to create the Metaverse”, discusses employment, the location of the innovation production site, “use cases” of this application and the experiences it will provide. However, the risks highlighted only relate to addiction or the rights of individuals in the Metaverse.

There is the same narrative framing on the topic of flying taxis, providing promises on the one hand and focusing on the user experience on the other.

In Toulouse, Airbus presents its flying taxi scheduled for 2023 (AFP, 2021).

However, the connection is never made between these initiatives and their potential impact on the biosphere. To find such a connection, you have to go to the “Environment” or “Books” sections of Le Monde: there, consumers are blamed for watching too many videos or sending too many emails.

This means of “compartmentalizing” debates and issues is nothing new – if you flick through old editions of Le Monde, you can find it again and again.

Hype technologies vs punitive environmentalism

Regulation works in the same way. On one side are laws and directives organizing the growth of digital technology and its applications; on the other are those that investigate the environmental implications of such technology, managed by other agencies, such as ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition).

One of the main consequences of this division is making environmentalism appear “punitive”. On the one hand, we have technological innovations and related hype, promising new experiences, fun, happiness and incredible achievements. And on the other, the issue of the environment; discussing waste, energy efficiency, the destruction of the planet and other “depressing”, “boring” issues.

This also holds true for research: researchers with “new, good” technology are placed in the front row, with others left at the back. This is how the mediator at France Info explained that footballer Lionel Messi’s move to Paris Saint-Germain was “worth” more airtime than the report from the IPCC – the first topic was a longer-running story while the IPCC report was a one-off event.

Obliterating a more minimalist approach

Another consequence is that environmental regulation remains largely confined to the area of “energy efficiency”, a technical term referring to the amount of resources and energy needed to manufacture a good or provide a service.

This approach overshadows others, which are essential for the environmental transition – namely, approaches related to using less. Such approaches raise the question of whether we really need a certain good or service. Whether we are talking about 8K or 5G, the not-for-profit Shift Project questions the usefulness of these technologies in light of their forecasted effects on the planet.

The third consequence of this separation between digital expansion and environmental impact is that environmental policy is always struggling to catch up. We see this every day: despite regulation, the digital sector’s environmental impact continues to grow. Technologies are developed for millions or even billions of dollars. And only afterwards does the environmental question get raised. But by then, it is already too late!

Widespread dependencies… that could have been predicted

However, in a large number of cases, the effects of these projects are foreseeable – we can see well in advance which ideas will be disastrous, or at least highly problematic.

Thinking about this early on means we can avoid situations of technological lock-in, such as the widespread dependency on cars or smartphones in our current lifestyles. These are situations that are hard to get out of, as they require coordinating a change in infrastructure and habits, just like the use of bikes in cities “versus” cars.

We can see these easy-to-predict consequences with 5G, 8K, flying taxis and the Metaverse.

For example, 5G is designed to allow for a large increase in data transfer, but comes at a huge energetic cost, even if we have achieved increases in energy efficiency in this area since the 1950s that are just as significant. As emphasized by the Shift Project in their report, though increases in efficiency are stable at the technical level, they cannot compensate for the rise in data…

This reasoning also applies to 8K and the Metaverse, which is basically a conceptually similar, improved version of Second Life, a digital universe launched in 2003 that still exists today. At the time, technology specialist Nicholas Carr remarked that a Second Life avatar consumes about as much energy as the average Brazilian.

Works of fiction such as Virtual Revolution (2016) depict a world in which the Metaverse will absorb a key part of our social interactions, in the same way that social media is a major vehicle for daily conversations nowadays.

It is easy to predict the amount of information that will need to be produced and processed, compared with what exists already. IT company Cisco warns that these universes could easily become the biggest source of traffic on the internet.

As for flying taxis, their aim is to find space in the air that has been “lost” on the ground: in short, to clog up one of the last remaining spaces, despite the fact that moving up and down generally uses more energy than moving horizontally, due to gravity.

Our relationship to nature

We can see that it is not hard to establish the connection between technological innovation and the environmental situation, there is no conceptual difficulty here. And environmentalism does not always have to be lagging behind.

Back in Marx’s time, he explained that the question of humans’ relationship to nature is technical and so are our choices. It goes far beyond taking a blissful weekend stroll and admiring supposedly untouched areas…

Environmentalists have long been arguing that certain technological choices are incompatible with conditions for a good life on Earth. But these problems are formulated in the public sphere in a compartmentalized way, which prevents any serious discussion.

So what is the blockage?

Environmentalism does not have to be a “punitive” issue. Bike-riding, local products, renewable energy, insulation, DIY, and more… There are many environmental initiatives that can be discussed in the public sphere, as long as the various possible avenues are appropriately addressed.

So where is the issue? Why does hype benefit so many projects, when we can easily show that they will post huge problems once deployed on a certain scale? There are several explanations.

Tech projects receive the most funding, and are capable of a huge amount of impact in terms of persuasive power. They make use of marketing, surveys and other tools, perfectly dosing and precisely targeting their storytelling to reach the most receptive audiences, before progressively expanding to new fringes of the population, until they achieve saturation.

These selectively edited stories are also a part of the broader history of developed societies and their journey to create the most capital-intensive technologies, as Marx showed as early as 1867, emphasizing the effects of expanded reproduction of capital. Socialism also placed plenty of hope in this “expansion of productive forces”.

Moving away from this linear history, always pursuing the same aim, is seen as “moving backwards” and somehow, we would prefer to continue this narrative than preserve life on Earth. A narrative where science and science fiction combine, like Elon Musk announcing a future colony on Mars. Here, cognitive bias, known as the “Othello effect”, is at play.

Another explanation relates to capitalization itself, which represents a means of power for organizations. The greater the capitalization, the more the networks controlled by the organization will grow – and the greater the persuasive power. Elon Musk (yes, him again) aims to control the entire fleet of personal vehicles, with his robotaxis and self-driving cars. And what is true of companies is also true of governments, as highlighted by François Fourquet in his work “Les Comptes de la puissance” (The Accounts of Power).

While dominant ideas of socialism in the 20th century have always been fascinated by the collective power created by capitalism, trying to make it benefit as many as possible, environmentalism, on the other hand, supports decentralized initiatives and short circuits.

This trend often breaks with the “politics of power”, which explains in particular why conservatives are so opposed to it. Is it “realistic”, in a world where countries try to dominate each other? But on the other hand, can the leadership race last indefinitely if it undermines life on Earth?

Fabrice Flipo, Professor of social and political philosophy, epistemology and history of science and technology at Institut Mines-Télécom Business School

This article was republished from The Conversation under the Creative Commons license. Read the original article here (in French).

Marie-France Lacrampe

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IMT Nord Europe | Materials, Composites, Plastics, Recycling, Ecological transition

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privacy, data protection regulation

Privacy as a business model

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The original version of this article (in French) was published in quarterly newletter no 22 (October 2021) from the Chair “Values and Policies of Personal Information”.

The usual approach

The GDPR is the most visible text on this topic. It is not the oldest, but it is at the forefront for a simple reason: it includes huge sanctions (up to 4% of consolidated international group turnover for companies). Consequently, this regulation is often treated as a threat. We seek to protect ourselves from legal risk.

The approach is always the same: list all data processed, then find a legal framework that allows you to keep to the same old habits. This is what produces the long, dry texts that the end-user is asked to agree to with a click, most often without reading. And abracadabra, a legal magic trick – you’ve got the user’s consent, you can continue as before.

This way of doing things poses various problems.

  1. It implies that privacy is a costly position, a risk, that it is undesirable. Communication around the topic can create a disastrous impression. The message on screen says one thing (in general, “we value your privacy”), while reality says the opposite (“sign the 73-page-long contract now, without reading it”). The user knows very well when signing that everyone is lying. No, they haven’t read it. And no, nobody is respecting their privacy. It is a phony contract signed between liars.
  2. The user is positioned as an enemy. Someone who you need to get to sign a document, more or less forced, in which they undertake not to sue, is an enemy. It creates a relationship of distrust with the user.

But we could see these texts with a completely different perspective if we just decided to change our point of view.

Placing the user at the center

The first approach means satisfying the legal team (avoiding lawsuits) and the IT department (a few banners and buttons to add, but in reality nothing changes). What about trying to satisfy the end user?

Let us consider that privacy is desirable, preferable. Imagine that we are there to serve users, rather than trying to protect ourselves from them.

We are providing a service to users, and in so doing, we process their personal data. Not everything that is available to us, but only what is needed for said service. Needed to satisfy the user, not to satisfy the service provider.

And since we have data about the user, we may as well show it to them, and allow them to take action. By displaying things in an understandable way, we create a phenomenon of trust. By giving power back to the user (to delete and correct, for example) we give them a more comfortable position.

You can guess what is coming: by placing the user back in the center, we fall naturally and logically back in line with GDPR obligations.

And yet, this part of the legislation is far too often misunderstood. The GDPR allows for a certain number of cases under which it is authorized to manipulate personal user data. Firstly, upon their request, to provide the service that is being sought. Secondly, for a whole range of legal obligations. Thirdly, for a few well-defined exceptions (research, police, law, absolute emergency, etc.). And finally, if there really is no good reason, you have to ask explicit consent from the user.

If we are asking the user’s consent, it is because we are in the process of damaging their privacy in a way that is not serving them. Consent is not the first condition of all personal data processing. On the contrary, it is the last. If there really is no legitimate motive, permission must be asked before processing the data.

Once this point has been raised, the key objection remains: the entire economic model of the digital world involves pillaging people’s private lives, to model and profile them, sell targeted advertising for as much money as possible, and predict user behavior. In short, if you want to exist online, you have to follow the American model.

Protectionism

Let us try another approach. Consider that the GDPR is a text that protects Europeans, imposing our values (like respect of privacy) in a world that ignores them. The legislation tells us that companies that do not respect these values are not welcome in the European Single Market. From this point of view, the GDPR has a clear protectionist effect: European companies respect the GDPR, while others do not. A European digital ecosystem can come into being with protected access to the most profitable market in the world.

From this perspective, privacy is seen as a positive thing for both companies and users. A bit like how a restaurant owner handles hygiene standards: a meticulous, serious approach is needed, but it is important to do so to protect customers, and it is in their interest to have an exemplary reputation. Furthermore, it is better if it is mandatory, so that the bottom-feeders who don’t respect the most basic rules disappear from the market.

And here, it is exactly the same mechanism. Consider that users are allies and put them back in the center of the game. If we have data on them, we may as well tell them, show them, and so on.

Here, a key element enters in play. Because, as long as Europe’s digital industry remains stuck on the American model and rejects the GDPR, it is in the opposite position. The business world does not like to comply with standards when it does not understand their utility. It debates with inspecting authorities to request softer rules, delays, adjustments, exceptions, etc. And so, it asks that the weapon created to protect European companies be disarmed and left on standby.

It is a Nash equilibrium. It is in the interest of all European companies to use the GDPR’s protectionist aspect to their advantage, but each believes that if they are the first, then they will lose out to those who do not respect the standards. Normally, to get out of this kind of toxic equilibrium, it takes a market regulation initiative. Ideally, a concerted effort to stimulate movement in the right direction. For now, the closest thing to a regulatory initiative are the increasingly high sanctions being dealt out all over Europe.

Standing out from the crowd

Of course, the digital reality of today is often not that simple. Data travels, changes hands, collected in one place but exploited in another. To successfully show users the processing of their data, often many things need to be reworked. The process needs to be focused on the end user rather than on the activity.

And even so, there are some cases where this kind of transparent approach is impossible. For example, the data that is collected to be used for targeted ad profiling. This data is nearly always transmitted to third parties, to be used in ways that are not in direct connection with the service that the user subscribed to. This is the typical use-case for which we try to obtain user consent (without which the processing is illegal) but where it is clear that transparency is impossible and informed consent is unlikely.

Two major categories are taking shape. The first includes digital services that can place the user at the center, and present themselves as allies, demonstrating a very high level of transparency. And the second represents digital services that are incapable of presenting themselves as allies.

So clearly, a company’s position on the question of privacy can be a positive feature that sets them apart. By aiming to defend user interests, we improve compliance with regulation, instead of trying to comply without understanding. We form an alliance with the user. And that is precisely what changes everything.

Benjamin Bayart

RI-URBANS

Improving air quality with decision-making tools

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Launched in October for a four-year period, the RI-URBANS project aims to strengthen synergies between European air quality monitoring networks and research infrastructures in the field of atmospheric sciences. IMT Nord Europe is a partner for this project, which received up to €8 million of funding from the European Union. Interview with  Stéphane Sauvage, professor, and Thérèse Salameh, R&D engineer.

European project RI-URBANS[1] was submitted in response to a call for tender dedicated to research infrastructures (RI) capable of tackling the challenges set by the European Green Deal. What is it all about?

Stéphane Sauvage The EU aims to play a leading role in fighting climate change at a global level. In a communication dated 14 July 2021, the 27 member states committed to turning the EU into the first climate neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this, they committed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to levels in 1990, and to implement a series of initiatives related to the climate, energy, agriculture, industry, environment, oceans, etc.. Specifically, the Green Deal aims to protect our biodiversity and ecosystems, transition to a circular economy and reduce air, water and soil pollution. RI-URBANS falls under this initiative to reduce air pollution.

What is the goal of RI-URBANS?

S.S. Within this project, the objective is to connect the Aerosol, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure (ACTRIS), Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) and In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) – combining stationary and mobile observation and exploration platforms, calibration centers and data centers – with local stakeholders, such as air quality monitoring agencies, political decision-makers or regional stakeholders. The main objective is to provide them with high quality data and develop innovative service tools allowing them to better evaluate the health impact, identify sources of pollution in real time and forecast atmospheric pollution, in order to help decision-makers in improving air quality.

How will these tools be developed?

S.S. RI-URBANS will focus on ambient nanoparticles and atmospheric particulate matter, their sizes, constituents, source contributions, and gaseous precursors, evaluating novel air quality parameters, source contributions, and their associated health effects to demonstrate the European added value of implementing such service tools. To determine which areas are of interest, we have first to collect the available data on these variables and make it findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, while offering decision-makers services and tools.

In order to test these services, a pilot phase will be deployed in nine European cities (Athens, Barcelona, Birmingham, Bucharest, Helsinki, Milan, Paris, Rotterdam-Amsterdam and Zurich). These cities have been identified as industrial, port, airport and road hotspots, with significant levels of pollution and have established air quality monitoring networks and research infrastructure units. In Paris, for example, the atmospheric research observatory SIRTA is a unit of ACTRIS and one of the most prominent sites in Europe offering the instrumentation, equipment and hosting capacities needed to study atmospheric physico-chemical processes.

What expertise do the IMT Nord Europe researchers bring?

Thérèse Salameh IMT Nord Europe research teams have internationally recognized expertise in the field of reactive trace gases, which can lead to the formation of secondary compounds, such as ozone or secondary organic aerosols. IMT Nord Europe’s participation in this project is connected to its significant involvement in the ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds, and Trace Gases Research InfraStructure) RI as a unit of the European Topical Center for reactive trace gases in situ measurements (CiGas). ACTRIS is a distributed RI bringing together laboratories of excellence and observation and exploration platforms, to support research on climate and air quality. It helps improve understanding of past, present and future changes in atmospheric composition and the physico-chemical processes that contribute to regional climate.

Who are the partners of RI-URBANS?

T.S. The project brings together 28 institutions (universities and research institutes) from 14 different countries. The three partners in France are the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS) and Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT). For this project, IMT Nord Europe researchers are collaborating in particular with Swiss federal laboratories for materials science and technology Empa, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and INERIS.

The project has just been launched. What is the next step for IMT Nord Europe?

T.S. In the coming months, we will conduct an assessment collecting observation data for reactive trace gases potentially available in main European cities. We will then need to evaluate the quality and relevance of the collected information, before applying source apportionment models to identify the main sources of pollution in these European cities.

[1] This project is funded by Horizon 2020, the European Union framework program for research and innovation (H2020), with grant agreement ID 101036245. It is conjointly coordinated by CSIC (Spain) and University of Helsinki (Finland). Find out more.

Read on I’MTech

Easier access to research infrastructure for the European atmospheric science community
Atmospheric reactive trace gases: low concentrations, major consequences

Cleaning up polluted tertiary wastewater from the agri-food industry with floating wetlands

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In 2018, IMT Atlantique researchers launched the FloWAT project, based on a hydroponic system of floating wetlands. It aims to reduce polluting emissions from treated wastewater into the discharge site.

Claire Gérente, researcher at IMT Atlantique, has been coordinating the FloWat1 decontamination project, funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR), since its creation. The main aim of the initiative is to provide complementary treatment for tertiary wastewater from the agri-food industry, using floating wetlands. Tertiary wastewater is effluent that undergoes a final phase in the water treatment process to eliminate residual pollutants. It is then drained into the discharge site, an aquatic ecosystem where treated wastewater is released.

These wetlands act as filters for particle and dissolved pollutants. They can easily be added to existing waste stabilization pond systems in order to further treat this water. One of this project’s objectives is to improve on conventional floating wetlands to increase phosphorus removal, or even collect it for reuse, thereby reducing the pressure on this non-renewable resource.

In this context, research is being conducted around the use of a particular material, cellular concrete, to allow phosphorus to be recovered. “Phosphorus removal is of great environmental interest, particularly as it reduces the eutrophication of natural water sources that are discharge sites for treated effluent,” states Gérente. Eutrophication is a process characterized by an increase in nitrogen and phosphorus concentration in water, leading to ecosystem disruption.

Floating wetlands: a nature-based solution

The floating wetland system involves covering an area of water, typically a pond, with plants placed on a floating bed, specifically sedges. The submerged roots act as filters, retaining the pollutants found in the water via various physical, chemical and biological processes. This mechanism is called phytopurification.

Floating wetlands are part of an approach known as nature-based solutions, whereby natural systems, less costly than conventional technologies, are implemented to respond to ecological challenges. To function efficiently, the most important thing is to “monitor that the plants are growing well, as they are the site of decontamination,” emphasizes Gérente.

In order to meet the project objectives, a pilot study was set up on an industrial abattoir and meat processing site. After being biologically treated, real agri-food effluent is discharged into four pilot ponds, three of which that are covered with floating wetlands of various sizes, and one that is uncovered, as a control. The experimental site is entirely automated and can be controlled remotely to facilitate supervision.

Performance monitoring is undertaken for the treatment of organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and suspended matter. As well as data on the incoming and outgoing water quality, physico-chemical parameters and climate data are constantly monitored. The outcome for pollutants in the different components of the treatment system will be identified by sampling and analysis of plants, sediment and phosphorus removal material.

These floating wetlands will be the first to be easy to dismantle and recycle, improved for phosphorus removal and even collection, as well as able to treat suspended matter, carbon pollution and nutrients.

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Photograph of the experimental system

Improving compliance with regulation

In 1991, the French government established a limit on phosphorus levels to reduce water pollution, in order to preserve biodiversity and prevent algal bloom, which is when one or several algae species grow rapidly in an aquatic system.

The floating wetlands developed by IMT Atlantique researchers could allow these thresholds to be better respected, by improving capacities for water treatment. Furthermore, they are part of a circular economy approach, as beyond collecting phosphorus for reuse, the cellular concrete and polymers used as plant supports are recyclable or reusable.

Further reading on I’MTech: Circular economy, environmental assessment and environmental budgeting

To create these wetlands, you simply have to place the plants on the discharge ponds. This makes this technique cheap and easy to implement. However, while such systems integrate rather well into the landscape, they are not suitable for all environments. The climate in northern countries, for example, may slow down or impair how the plants function. Furthermore, results take longer to obtain with natural methods like floating wetlands than with conventional methods. Nearly 7000 French agri-food companies have been identified as potential users for these floating wetlands. Nevertheless, the FloWAT coordinator reminds us that “this project is a feasability study, our role is to evaluate the effectiveness of floating wetlands as a filtering system. We will have to wait until the project finishes in 2023 to find out if this promising treatment system is effective.”

Rémy Fauvel

Antoine Fécant

Antoine Fécant, winner of the 2021 IMT-Académie des Sciences Young Scientist Prize

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Antoine Fécant, new energy materials researcher at IFP Energies Nouvelles, has worked on many projects relating to solar and biosourced fuel production and petrol refining. His work has relevance for the energy transition and, this year, was recognized by the IMT-Académie des Science Young Scientist Prize.

“Energy is a central part of our lifestyles,” affirms Antoine Fécant, new energy materials researcher at IFP Energies Nouvelles. “When I was younger, I wanted to work in this area and my interest in chemistry convinced me to pursue this field. I have always been attracted by the beauty of science, and I find even greater satisfaction in directing my work so that it is concretely useful for our society.” His research since 2004 has mainly focused on materials that speed up chemical processes, known as catalysts.

Antoine Fécant’s initial research was based on a class of catalysts called zeolites. Zeolites are materials mainly made of silicon, aluminum and oxygen. They are found naturally, but it is also possible and often preferable to synthesize them. These minerals contain networks of porosity that can be used to limit the quantity of by-products generated. Zeolites are useful for optimizing the yield of chemical reactions and energy consumption, and thus limiting the CO2 and waste produced.

The main idea of Antoine Fécant’s thesis, undertaken between 2004 and 2007, was to develop a unique methodology to generate new zeolites. For this, he used a multidisciplinary approach and chose to pair combinatorial chemistry with molecular modeling to “identify ways to synthesize zeolites depending on the kind of porous structure desired,” he describes. “This methodology allowed us to define streamlining criteria and therefore very significantly speed up research and development work in this area,” Antoine Fécant continues.

15 years ago, this approach was completely innovative and won him the “Yves Chauvin” thesis prize in 2008. Now, however, it is widespread in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry and genomics, showing the trailblazing nature of the researcher’s approach.

Improving solar energy production and recycling CO2

After completing his PhD, Antoine Fécant took the post of research engineer at IFP Énergies Nouvelles. Continuing to pursue his goal of offering technical solutions to contain greenhouse gas emissions, in 2011, the researcher began a project aiming to develop materials and processes to recycle CO2 using solar energy. This work won him the 2012 Young Researcher Award from the City of Lyon. The initiative stems from the intermittent nature of solar power. It is based on the idea that a phase directly converting/storing this energy flow as an easily usable energy source would allow it to be better exploited.

Further reading on I’MTech: What is renewable energy storage?

“To get around this disadvantage, we wanted to find a way to store solar energy as a fuel,” states Antoine Fécant. “This would make it possible to create energy reserves in a form that is already known and usable in various common applications, such as heating, vehicles or in the industrial and transport sectors,” he adds. To achieve this goal, the researcher based his research work on the principle of natural photosynthesis: capturing light energy to convert CO2 and water to more complex carbon molecules that can be used as energy.

In order to artificially transform solar energy into chemical energy, Antoine Fécant and his team, in collaboration with academic actors, developed several families of specific materials. Known as photocatalysts, these materials have been optimized by researchers in terms of their characteristics and structures on a nanometric scale. One of the compounds developed is a family of monolithic materials made from silicon and titanium dioxide, allowing for better use of incident photons through a “nano-mirror” effect. Other families of materials with composite architecture are able to reproduce the energetic processes in multiple complex phases of natural photosynthesis. Lastly, entirely new crystalline structures give greater mobility to the electrical charges needed to convert CO2.

According to Antoine Fécant, “these materials are interesting, but at present, they only allow us to overcome a single obstacle at a time, out of many. Now, we have to work on creating synergy between these new catalyst systems to efficiently perform CO2 photoconversion and reach an energy yield threshold of at least 10% for this means of energy production to be considered viable.” The researcher believes it will still be several decades before this process can be deployed on an industrial scale.

Catalyzing the production of biosourced and fossil fuels

Antoine Fécant has also undertaken research to reduce the environmental impact of the use of conventional fuels and their manufacturing processes. For this, he designed higher-performing catalysts that help to improve the energy efficiency of processes and thereby limit related CO2 emissions. The researcher has also participated in discovering catalysts that increase yields in the Fischer-Tropsch process, a key phase in transforming lignocellulosic biomass to produce advanced biofuels. Furthermore, these fuels could contribute to limiting the aviation sector’s carbon footprint.

By winning the IMT-Académie des Sciences Young Scientist Award, Antoine Fécant hopes to shine a light on research into solar fuel and hopes that “this area will be more highly valued”. Such fuels could truly represent a promising avenue to make better use of solar energy, by controlling its intermittent nature. “Research into these topics needs to be supported in the long term in order to contribute to the paradigm shifts needed for our energy consumption,” concludes the prizewinner.

Rémy Fauvel

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From energy to tires

During his career, Antoine Fécant has also participated in a collaborative project on the production of biosourced compounds. The aim of this project was to design a process to manufacture butadiene, a key molecule in the composition of tires, using non-food plant resources. It is commonly produced using fossil fuels, but researchers have found a way to generate it using lignocellulosic compounds. Project teams have managed to refine a process and associated catalysts, making it possible to transform ethanol into butadiene using condensation. This 10-year-old project is now in its final phases.

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