CEM, champs électro-magnétiques, EMF, electromagnetic fields

How can we assess the health risks associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields?

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As partners of the European SEAWave project, Télécom Paris and the C2M Chair are developing innovative measurement techniques to respond to public concern about the possible effects of cell phone usage. Funded by the EU to the tune of €8 million, the project will be launched in June 2022 for a period of 3 years. Interview with Joe Wiart, holder of the C2M Chair (Modeling, Characterization and Control of Electromagnetic Wave Exposure).

Could you remind us of the context in which the call for projects ‘Health and Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (EMF)’ of the Horizon Europe program was launched?

Joe Wiart – The exponential use of wireless communication devices, throughout Europe, comes with a perceived risk associated with electromagnetic radiation, despite the existing protection thresholds (Recommendation 1999/519/CE and Directive 2013/35/UE). With the rollout of 5G, these concerns have multiplied. The Horizon Europe program will help to address these questions and concerns, and will study the possible impacts on specific populations, such as children and workers. It will intensify studies on millimeter-wave frequencies and investigate compliance analysis methods in these frequency ranges. The program will look at the evolution of electromagnetic exposure, as well as the contribution of exposure levels induced by 5G and new variable beam antennas. It will also investigate tools to better assess risks, communicate, and respond to concerns.

What is the challenge of SEAWave, one of the four selected projects, of which Télécom Paris is a partner?

JW – Currently, there is a lot of work, such as that of the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection), that has been done to assess the compliance of radio-frequency equipment with protection thresholds. This work is largely based on conservative methods or models. SEAWave will contribute to these approaches in exposure to millimeter waves (with in vivo and in vitro studies). These approaches, by design, take the worst-case scenarios and overestimate the exposure. Yet, for a better control of possible impacts, as in epidemiological studies, and without underestimating conservative approaches, it is necessary to assess actual exposure. The work carried out by SEAWave will focus on establishing potentially new patterns of use, estimating associated exposure levels, and comparing them to existing patterns. Using innovative technology, the activities will focus on monitoring not only the general population, but also specific risk groups, such as children and workers.

What scientific contribution have Télécom Paris researchers made to this project that includes eleven Work Packages (WP)?

JW – The C2M Chair at Télécom Paris is involved in the work of four interdependent WPs, and is responsible for WP1 on EMF exposure in the context of the rollout of 5G. Among the eleven WPs, four are dedicated to millimeter waves and biomedical studies, and four others are dedicated to monitoring the exposure levels induced by 5G. The last three are dedicated to project management, but also to tools for risk assessment and communication. The researchers at Télécom Paris will mainly be taking part in the four WPs dedicated to monitoring the exposure levels induced by 5G. They will draw on measurement campaigns in Europe, networks of connected sensors, tools from artificial neural networks and, more generally, methods from Artificial Intelligence.

What are the scientific obstacles that need to be overcome?

JW – For a long time, assessing and monitoring exposure levels has been based on deterministic methods. With the increasing complexity of networks, like 5G, but also with the versatility of uses, these methods have reached their limits. It is necessary to develop new approaches based on the study of time series, statistical methods, and Artificial Intelligence tools applied to the dosimetry of radio frequency fields. Télécom Paris has been working in this field for many years; this expertise will be essential in overcoming the scientific obstacles that SEAWave will face.

The SEAWave consortium has around 15 partners. Who are they and what are your collaborations?

JW – These partners fall into three broad categories. The first is related to engineering: in addition to Télécom Paris, there is, for example, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), the Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile (Italy), Schmid & Partner Engineering AG (Switzerland), the Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT’IS, Switzerland), the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC, Belgium), and the CEA (France). The second category concerns biomedical aspects, with partners such as the IU Internationale Hochschule (Germany), Lausanne University Hospital (Switzerland), and the Fraunhofer-Institut für Toxikologie und Experimentelle Medizin (Germany). The last category is dedicated to risk management. It includes the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, France), the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (Germany) and the French National Frequency Agency (ANFR, France).

We will mainly collaborate with partners such as the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the CEA, the IT’IS Foundation and the IMEC, but also with the IARC and the ANFR.

The project will end in 2025. In the long run, what are the expected results?

JW – First of all, tools to better control the risk and better assess the exposure levels induced by current and future wireless communication networks. All the measurements that will have been carried out will provide a good characterization of the exposure for specific populations (e.g. children, workers) and will lay the foundations for a European map of radio frequency exposure.

Interview by Véronique Charlet

Déchets plastiques, plastic waste

Plastic waste: transforming a problem into energy

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The linear life cycle of plastics, too rarely recycled, exerts a heightened pressure on the environment. The process of gasification makes it possible to reduce this impact by transforming more waste – currently incinerated or left in landfill – into useful resources like hydrogen or biomethane. Javier Escudero, process engineering researcher at IMT Mines Albi, aims to perfect this approach to make it easier to implement locally.

Plastic waste is so abundant, it is practically like rain. While we know well that it is piling up in landfills and oceans, an American study published in the journal Science has also shown that plastic particles are even in the air we breathe. Despite increased levels of pollution, international plastic production continues its explosive growth. However, at the end of the chain, the recycling industry has never managed to keep up with consumption. In France, the average recycling rate for all plastics is 28%, a percentage mainly obtained from bottle recycling (54.5% of the total). The vast majority of these materials is therefore incinerated or sent to landfill.

In order to respond efficiently to the plastic crisis, other forms of reuse or recycling must be developed. “Gasification means we can transform this waste into useful energy vectors, while losing as little material as possible”, explains Javier Escudero, Process Engineering Researcher at IMT Mines Albi. It is an alternative that contributes to a circular economy approach.

Some plastics not so fantastic

Rigid plastics used for bottles are generally made from a single material, which makes it easier to recycle them. For plastic films, which represent 40% of waste deposits, this is not the case. They are made from a multilayer combination of various plastics, such as polyethylene, polyurethane, and so on, sometimes joined with other materials like cardboard. The complex configuration of chemicals makes recycling such packaging too expensive. This means that in recycling centers, these products are overwhelmingly used for solid recovered fuel (SRF) – non-hazardous waste used for energy production. They are incinerated to feed turbines and generate electricity.

Another kind of waste that is ineligible for recycling is packaging from chemical products (industrial and mass market), considered hazardous. Some of the toxic compounds (chorine, sulfur, metals, etc.) are removed from the surface by pre-washing. However, certain atoms are absorbed into the material and cannot be removed by prewashing. This is where the advantages of gasification come in. “It makes it possible to process all plastics – SRF and contaminated ones – with less prewashing beforehand, as well,” emphasizes Escudero.

Moreover, this process has greater capacity for recycling plastic waste than incineration, as it produces chemical compounds that can be reused by industry, The synthesis gases can be burnt to generate energy (heat, electricity) with better yield than combustion. They can also be reprocessed and stored in the form of gas to be used as fuel (biomethane, hydrogen). To achieve this, one of the challenges of research is to observe the influence of pollutants, and therefore the composition of plastics, on products obtained from gasification.

Transforming materials down to the last crumb

Ground-up waste is compacted in the form of pellets, all the same size, to facilitate their transformation into gas in the gasifier. But if you want to recycle as much waste as possible, you need to adapt the gasification operating parameters, depending on the types of plastics contained in the pellets. For example, processing at a low temperature will break the long chains of polymers in plastic films. The molecules are then broken up again in the next step, as is done in petrochemistry. This produces a wide variety of products: hydrogen, methane, acetylene, and heavier molecules as well.

Processing at a higher temperature will produce more synthesis gas. However, it also produces more aromatic molecules like benzene and naphthalene. These compounds have a very stable structure and are very difficult to break into useful molecules. They may turn into soot – solids that build up in pipes – representing a significant loss of materials. The objective of Escudero’s research into gasification is therefore to combine the advantages of these two methods of processing, to avoid solid residue forming while producing as much gas as possible.

To do so, the researcher and his team are mainly focusing on gas injection, which breaks the molecular bonds of the materials being processed. Where and at which point in the process should injection take place? In connection to what? How does the material react? These questions, and many others, must be answered to improve the process.  The gasifier at the Valthera technological platform, located at IMT Mines Albi and used for the tests, can process around 20 kilograms of material per hour. The process recycles not only the materials but also their energy. “Gasification reactions require energy to occur. This means that we use the energy stored in the materials to power their transformation,” explains the researcher.

Use less, convert more

Hydrogen and biomethane obtained through gasification directly power the goals of the French energy transition. Gasification therefore transforms materials made from fossil fuels into renewable energy. However, this process remains restricted to the context of research. “There are still many small aspects to study in designing gasifiers, to make them higher-performing and more mature for a certain amount of material. We are also going to concentrate on purifying synthesis gases with the aim of finding even cheaper solutions,” concludes Escudero. Gasification could supplement waste management channels at a local level. However, cost remains the greatest obstacle to small industrial actors adopting this method.

Anaïs Culot

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).

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.

L’attribut alt de cette image est vide, son nom de fichier est MF-2.jpg.
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

gestion des déchets, waste management

Waste management: decentralizing for better management

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Reducing the environmental impact of waste and encouraging its reuse calls for a new approach to its management. This requires the modeling of circuits on a territorial scale, and the improvement of collaboration between public and private actors.

Territorial waste management is one of the fundamental aspects of the circular economy. Audrey Tanguy,1 a researcher at Mines Saint-Étienne, is devoting some of her research to this subject by focusing on the development of approaches to enable the optimal management of waste according to its type and the characteristics of different territories. “The principle is to characterize renewable and local resources in order to define how they can be processed directly on the territory,” explains Audrey Tanguy. Organic waste, for example, should be processed using the shortest possible circuits because it degrades quickly. Current approaches tend to centralize as much waste as possible with a view to its processing, while circular approaches tend towards more local, decentralized circuits. Decentralization can be supported by low-tech technologies, which optimize local recycling or composting in the case of organic waste, especially in the urban environment.

The research associated with waste processing therefore aims to find ways to relocate these flows. Modeling tools can help to spatialize these flows and then provide guidance for decision-makers on how to accommodate local channels. “Traditional waste-processing impact assessment tools assess centralized industrial systems, so we need to regionalize them,” explains Audrey Tanguy. These tools must take the territorial distribution of resources into account, regardless of whether they are reusable. In other words, they must determine which are the main flows that can be engaged in order to recover and transform materials. “It is therefore a question of using the appropriate method to prioritize the collection of materials, and to this end, an inventory of the emission and consumption flows needs to be drawn up within the territory,” states the researcher.

Implementation of strategies in the territories

In order to implement circular economy strategies on a territorial scale, the collaboration of different types of local actors is essential. Beyond the tools required, researchers and the organizations in place can also play an important role by helping the decision-makers to carry out more in-depth investigations of the various activities present in the chosen territory. This enables the definition of collaborative strategies in which certain central stakeholders galvanize the actions of the other actors. For example, business associations or local public-private partnership associations promote policies that support industrial strategies. A good illustration is the involvement of the Macéo association, in partnership with Mines Saint-Étienne, in the implementation of strategies for the recycling and recovery of plastic waste in the Massif Central region. It acts as a central player in this territory and coordinates the various actions by implementing collaborative projects between companies and communities.

The tools also provide access to quantitative data about the value of potential exchanges between companies and enable the comparison of different scenarios based on exchanges. This can be applied to aspects of the pooling of transport services, suppliers or infrastructure. Even if these strategies do not concern core industrial production activities, they lay the foundations for future strategies on a broader scale by establishing trust between different actors.

Reindustrialisation of territories

“We assume that in order to reduce our impacts, one of the strategies to be implemented is the reindustrialization of territories to promote shorter circuits,” explains Natacha Gondran,1 a researcher in environmental assessment at Mines Saint-Étienne. “This may involve trade-offs, such as sometimes accepting a degree of local degradation of the measured impacts in exchange for a greater reduction in the overall impact,” the researcher continues.

Reindustrializing territories is therefore likely to favor the implementation of circular dynamics. Collaboration between different actors at the local level could in this way provide appropriate responses to global issues concerning the pressure on resources and emissions linked to human activities. “This is one of the strategies to be put in place for the future, but it is also important to rethink our relationship with consumption in order to reduce it and embrace a more moderate approach,” concludes Natacha Gondran.

1 Audrey Tanguy and Natacha Gondran carry out their research in the framework of the Environment, City and Society Laboratory, a joint CNRS research unit composed of 7 members including Mines Saint-Étienne.

Antonin Counillon

This article is part of a 2-part mini-series on the circular economy.
Read the previous article:

Economics – dive in, there is so much to discover!
économie circulaire, impact environnemental

Economics – dive in, there is so much to discover!

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To effectively roll out circular economy policies within a territory, companies and decision-makers require access to evaluation and simulation tools. The design of these tools, still in the research phase, necessarily requires a more detailed consideration of the impact of human activities, both locally and globally.

“The circular economy enables optimization of the available resources in order to preserve them and reduce pressure on the environment,” explains Valérie Laforest,1 a researcher at Mines Saint-Étienne. Awareness of the need to protect the planet began to develop in earnest in the 1990s and was gradually accompanied by the introduction of various key regulations. For example, the 1996 IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) Directive, which Valérie Laforest helped to implement through her research, aims to prevent and reduce the different types of pollutant emissions. More recently, legislation such as the French Law on Energy Transition for Green Growth (2015) and the Anti-Waste Law for a Circular Economy (2021) have reflected the growing desire to take the environment into account when considering anthropic activities. However, to enable industries to adapt to these regulations, it is essential for them to have access to tools derived from in-depth research on the impacts of their activities.

Decision-support tools for actors

To enable actors to comply with the regulations and reduce their impacts on the environment, they need to be provided with tools adapted to issues that are both global and local. Part of the research on the circular economy therefore concerns the development of such tools. The aim is to design models that are precise enough to be able to characterize and evaluate a system on the scale of an individual territory, while also being general enough to be adapted to territories with other characteristics. Fairly general methodological frameworks can therefore be developed, within which it is possible to determine criteria and indicators specific to certain cases or sectors. These tools should provide decision-makers with the information they need to implement their infrastructures.

At Mines Saint-Étienne and in collaboration with Macéo, a team of researchers is focusing on the development of a tool called ADALIE, which aims to characterize the potential of territories. This tool creates maps of different geographical areas showing different criteria, such as the economic or environmental criteria of these territories, as well as the industries established in them and their impacts. Decision-makers can therefore use this mapping tool as the basis for choosing their priority activity areas. “The underlying issue is about being able to ensure that a territory possesses the dimensions required to implement circular economy strategies, and that they are successful,” Valerie Laforest tells us. In its next phase, the ADALIE program then aims to archive experiences of effective territorial practices in order to create databases.

For each territorial study, the research provides a huge volume of different types of information. This data generates models that can then be tested in other territories, which also enables the robustness of the models to be checked according to the chosen indicators. These types of tools help local stakeholders to make decisions on aspects of industrial and territorial economics. “This facilitates reflection on how to develop strategies that bring together several actors affected by different issues and problems within a given territory,” states Valérie Laforest. To this end, it is essential to have access to methodologies that enable the measurement of the different environmental impacts. Two main methods are available.

Measurements of impact on the circular economy

Life cycle analysis (LCA) aims to estimate environmental impacts spanning a large geographical and temporal scale, taking account of issues such as distance transported. LCA seeks to model all potential consumptions and emissions over the entire life span of a system. The models are developed by compiling data from other systems and can be used to compare different scenarios in order to determine the scenario that is likely to have the least impact.

Read more on I’MTech: What is life cycle analysis?

The other approach is the best available techniques (BAT) method. This practice was implemented under the European Industrial Emissions Directive (IPPC then IED) in 1996. It aims to help European companies achieve performance standards equivalent to benchmark values for their consumption and emission flows. These benchmarks are based on data from samples of European companies. The granting or refusal of an operating license depends on the comparison of their performance with the reference sample. BATs are therefore based on European standards and have a regulatory purpose.

BATs are related to companies’ performance in the use phase, i.e. the performance of techniques is closely scrutinized in relation to incoming and outgoing flows during the use phase. LCA, on the other hand, is based on real or modeled data including information from upstream and downstream of this use phase. The BAT and LCA approaches are therefore complementary and not exclusive. For example, between two BAT analyses of a system to ensure its compliance with the regulations, different models of the systems could be created by conducting LCAs in order to determine the technique that has the least impact throughout its entire life cycle.

Planetary boundaries

In addition to quantifying the flows generated by companies, impact measurements must also include the effects of these flows on the environment on a global scale.

To this end, research and practices also focus on the effects of activities in relation to the different planetary boundaries. These boundary levels reflect the capacity of the planet to absorb impacts, beyond which they are considered to have irreversible effects.

The work of Natacha Gondran1 at Mines Saint-Étienne is contributing to the development of methods for assessing absolute environmental sustainability, based on planetary boundaries. “We work on the basis of global limitations, defined in the literature, which correspond to categories of impacts that are subject to thresholds at the global level. If humanity exceeds these thresholds, the conditions of life on Earth will become less stable than they are today. We are trying to implement this in impact assessment tools on the scale of systems such as companies,” she explains. These impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and the eutrophication of water, are not directly visible. They must therefore be represented in order to identify the actions to be taken to reduce them.

Read more on I’MTech: Circular economy, environmental assessment and environmental budgeting

Planetary boundaries are defined at the global level by a community of scientists. Modeling tools enable these boundaries to be used to define ecological budgets that correspond, in a manner of speaking, to the maximum quantity of pollutants that can be emitted without exceeding these global limits. The next challenge is then to design different methods to allocate these planetary budgets to territories or production systems. This makes it possible to estimate the impact of industries or territories in relation to planetary boundaries. “Today, many industries are already exceeding these boundary levels, such as the agri-food industry associated with meat. The challenge is to find local systems that can act as alternatives to these circuits in order to drop below the boundary levels,” explains the researcher. For example, it would be wise to locate livestock production closer to truck farming sites, as livestock effluents could then be used as fertilizer for truck farming products. This could reduce the overall impact of the different agri-food chains on the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, as well as the impact of transport-related emissions, while improving waste management at the territorial level.

Together, these different tools provide an increasingly extensive methodological framework for ensuring the compatibility of human activities with the conservation of ecosystems.

1 Valérie Laforest and Natacha Gondran carry out their research in the framework of the Environment, City and Society Laboratory, a joint CNRS research unit composed of 7 members including Mines Saint-Étienne.

Antonin Counillon

This article is part of a 2-part mini-series on the circular economy.
Read more:

Waste management: decentralizing for better management

Easier access to research infrastructure for the European atmospheric science community

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Improving access to large facilities for research on climate and air quality and optimizing use are the objectives of the European ATMO-ACCESS project. Véronique Riffault and Stéphane Sauvage, researchers at IMT Nord Europe, one of the project’s 38 partner institutions, explain the issues involved.

What was the context for developing the ATMO-ACCESS project?

Stéphane Sauvage – The ATMO-ACCESS project responds to a H2020-INFRAIA call for pilot projects specifically opened for certain research infrastructure (RI) targeted by the call, to facilitate access for a wide community of users and develop innovative access services that are harmonized at the European level.  

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. 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 variability

What is the goal of ATMO-ACCESS?

S.S. – ATMO-ACCESS is intended for the extended atmospheric science community. It involves three RI: ACTRIS, ICOS and IAGOS, combining stationary and mobile observation and exploration platforms, calibration centers and data centers. It’s a pilot project aimed at developing a new model of integrating activities for this infrastructure, in particular by providing a series of recommendations for harmonized, innovative access procedures to help establish a sustainable overall framework .

What resources will be used to reach this goal?

S.S. – The project has received €15 million in funding , including €100 K for IMT Nord Europe where four research professors and a research engineer are involved. ATMO-ACCESS will provide scientific and industrial users with physical and remote access to 43 operational European atmospheric research facilities, including ground observation stations and simulation chambers as well as mobile facilities and calibration centers which are essential components of RI.

Why is it important to provide sustainable access to research facilities in the field of atmospheric science?

Véronique Riffault – The goal  is to optimize the use of large research facilities, pool efforts and avoid duplication for streamlining and environmental transition purposes, while promoting scientific excellence and maintaining a high level in the transfer of knowledge and expertise, international collaborations, training for young scientists and the contribution of RI to innovative technologies and economic development.

What role do IMT Nord Europe researchers play in this consortium?

V.R. – IMT Nord Europe researchers are responsible for developing virtual training tools for the users of these research facilities and their products. Within this scientific community, IMT Nord Europe has recognized expertise in developing innovative learning resources (Massive Open Online Course-MOOC, serious games), based on the resources the school has already created in collaboration with its Educational Engineering center, in particular a first MOOC in English on the causes and impacts of air pollution, and a serious game, which should be incorporated into a second module of this MOOC currently in development.

As part of ATMO-ACCESS, a pilot SPOC (Small Private Online Course) will present the benefits and issues related to this infrastructure and a serious game will apply the data proposed by observatories and stored in data centers, while video tutorials for certain instruments or methodologies will help disseminate good practices.

Who are your partners and how will you collaborate scientifically?

V.R. – The project is coordinated by CNRS and brings together 38 partner institutions from 19 European countries. We’ll be working with scientific colleagues from a variety of backgrounds: calibration centers responsible for ensuring measurement quality, data centers for the technical development of resources,  and of course, the community as a whole to best respond to expectations and  engage in a continuous improvement process. In addition to the academic world, other users will be able to benefit from the tools developed through the ATMO-ACCESS project: major international stakeholders and public authorities (ESA, EEA, EUMETSAT, EPA, governments, etc.) as well as the private sector.

The project launch meeting has just been held. What are the next important steps?

V.R. – That’s right, the project was launched in mid-May. The first meeting for the working group in which IMT Nord Europe is primarily involved is scheduled for after the summer break. Our first deliverable will be the interdisciplinary SPOC for atmospheric science, planned for less than two years from now. The project will also launch its first call for access to RI intended for atmosphere communities and beyond.

Interview by Véronique Charlet

Also read on I’MTech

Atmospheric reactive trace gases: low concentrations, major consequences
air intérieur

Our indoor air is polluted, but new materials could provide solutions

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Frédéric Thévenet, IMT Lille Douai – Institut Mines-Télécom

We spend 80% of our lives in enclosed spaces, whether at home, at work or in transit. We are therefore very exposed to this air, which is often more polluted than outdoor air. The issue of health in indoor environments is thus associated with chronic exposure to pollutants and to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in particular. These species can cause respiratory tract irritation or headaches, a set of symptoms that is referred to as “sick building syndrome.” One VOC has received special attention: formaldehyde. This compound is a gas at room temperature and pressure and is very frequently present in our indoor environments although it is classified as a category 1B CMR compound (carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic). It is therefore subject to indoor air quality guidelines which were updated and made more restrictive in 2018.

The sources of volatile organic compounds

VOCs may be emitted in indoor areas by direct, or primary sources. Materials are often identified as major sources, whether associated with the building (building materials, pressed wood, wood flooring, ceiling tiles), furniture (furniture made from particle board, foams), or decoration (paint,  floor and wall coverings). The adhesives, resins and binders contained in these materials are clearly identified and well-documented sources.

To address this issue, mandatory labeling has existed for these products since 2012: they are classified in terms of emissions. While these primary sources related to the building and furniture are now well-documented, those related to household activities and consumer product choices are more difficult to characterize (cleaning activities, cooking, smoking etc.) For example, what products are used for cleaning, are air fresheners or interior fragrances used, are dwellings ventilated regularly? Research is being conducted in our laboratory to better characterize how these products contribute to indoor pollution. We have recently worked on cleaning product emissions and their elimination. And studies have also recently been carried out on the impact of essential oils at our laboratory (at IMT Lille Douai) in partnership with the CSTB (French National Scientific and Technical Center for Building) in coordination with ADEME (French Environmental and Energy Management Agency).

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Emission, deposition and reactivity of essential oils in indoor air (Shadia Angulo-Milhem, IMT Lille Douai). Author provided

In addition to the primary sources of VOCs, there are also secondary sources resulting from the transformation of primary VOCs. These transformations are usually related to oxidative processes. Through these reactions, other kinds of VOCs are also formed, including formaldehyde, among others.

What solutions are there for VOCs in indoor air?

Twenty years ago, an approach referred to as a “destructive process” was being considered. The idea was to pass the air to be treated through a purification system to destroy the VOCs. These can either be stand-alone devices and therefore placed directly inside a room to purify the air, or integrated within a central air handling unit to treat incoming fresh air or re-circulated air.

Photocatalysis was also widely studied to treat VOCs in indoor air, as well as cold plasma. Both of these processes target the oxidation of VOCs, ideally their transformation into CO2 and H2O. Photocatalysis is a process that draws on a material’s – usually titanium dioxide (TiO2) – ability to  adsorb and oxidize VOCs under ultraviolet irradiation. Cold plasma is a process where, under the effect of a high electric field, electrons ionize a fraction of the air circulating in the system, and form oxidizing species.

The technical limitations of these systems lie in the fact that the air to be treated must be directed and moved through the system, and most importantly, the treatment systems must be supplied with power. Moreover, depending on the device’s design and the nature of the effluent to be treated (nature of the VOC, concentration, moisture content etc.) it has been found that some devices may lead to the formation of by-products including formaldehyde, among others. Standards are currently available to oversee the assessment of this type of system’s performance and they are upgraded with technological advances.

Over the past ten years, indoor air remediation solutions have been developed focusing on the adsorption – meaning the trapping – of VOCs. The idea is to integrate materials with adsorbent properties in indoor environments to trap the VOCs. We have seen the emergence of materials, paint, tiles and textiles that incorporate adsorbents in their compositions and claim these properties.

Among these adsorbent materials, there are two types of approaches. Some trap the VOCs, and do not re-emit them – it’s a permanent, irreversible process. The “VOC” trap can therefore completely  fill up after some time and become inoperative, since it is saturated. Today, it seems wiser to develop materials with “reversible” trapping properties: when there is a peak in pollution, the material adsorbs the pollutant, and when the pollution decreases, for example, when a room is ventilated, it releases it, and the pollutant is evacuated through ventilation.

These materials are currently being developed by various academic and industry players working in this field. It is interesting to note that these materials were considered sources of pollution 20 years ago, but can now be viewed as sinks for pollution.

How to test these materials’ ability to remove pollutants

Many technical and scientific obstacles remain, regardless of the remediation strategy chosen. The biggest one is determining whether these new materials can be tested on a 1:1 scale, as they will be used by the end consumer, meaning in “real life.”  

That means these materials must be able to be tested in a life-size room, and with conditions that are representative of real indoor atmospheres, while controlling environmental parameters perfectly. This technical aspect is one of the major research challenges in IAQ since it determines the representativeness and therefore the validity of the results we obtain.  

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Experimental IRINA room (Innovative Room for Indoor Air studies, IMT Lille Douai). Author provided

We developed a large enclosed area in our laboratory for precisely this purpose a few years ago. With its 40 square meters, it is a real room that we can go into, called IRINA (Innovative Room For Indoor Air Studies). Seven years ago, it was France’s first fully controlled and instrumented experimental room on a 1:1 scale. Since its development and validation, it has housed many research projects and we upgrade it and make technical updates every year. It allows us to recreate the indoor air composition of a wood frame house, a Parisian apartment located above a ring road, an operating room and even a medium-haul aircraft cabin. The room makes it possible to effectively study indoor air quality and treatment devices in real-life conditions.

Connected to this room, we have a multitude of measuring instruments, for example to measure VOCs in general, or to monitor the concentration of one in particular, such as formaldehyde.

Frédéric Thévenet, Professor (heterogeneous/atmospheric/indoor air quality physical chemistry), IMT Lille Douai – Institut Mines-Télécom

This article has been republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article (in French).

MANIFESTS

Decision support tools for maritime accident management

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The European MANIFESTS project, launched in January, is a two-year project bringing together a consortium of nine research institutions and public administrations with complementary expertise in managing maritime accidents. Funded by the European Commission, this project aims to improve responses to emergencies related to these accidents. An interview with Laurent Aprin, a researcher at IMT Mines Alès, a project partner.

Could you describe the broader context of the MANIFESTS project?

Laurent Aprin –The MANIFESTS project (Managing Risks and Impacts From Evaporating and Gaseous Substances to Population Safety) is a follow-up to the European HNS-MS project funded from 2015 to 2017 by the European Commission’s Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (DG-ECHO). The purpose of this project was to study and model the consequences of chemical spills in the ocean and determine the vulnerability of the environment, people and goods depending on the chemicals spilled. We wanted to continue our research by expanding the consortium and addressing questions submitted by the various stakeholders at the end-of-project meeting, in particular the consequences of evaporating substances that are likely to form toxic clouds, which are flammable, or even explosive.

What is the aim of the MANIFESTS project?

LA ­– Responding to maritime accidents can be especially challenging when they involve Hazardous and Noxious Substances (HNS) which act like gases or evaporators. Due to their potential to form toxic or combustible clouds, fact-based decisions are needed to protect the crew, responders, coastal communities and the environment. But when an accident is declared, key information for assessing risks for responders or emergency teams is not always available. Allowing a ship that presents a risk to dock in a place of refuge due to a lack of knowledge and data could have major implications for coastal communities. The aim of MANIFESTS is to respond to these uncertainties and improve response capacity with decision support tools and novel and innovative operational guidelines. How so? By facilitating access to knowledge and databases, all of which are hosted on a dedicated open source web platform accessible to planners and responders.

How will you achieve this goal?

LA – The MANIFESTS project is divided into four activities (workpackages, WP) supported by two cross-project activities, project management (WP1) and project communication (WP6). The technical work includes producing new data and knowledge on gases and evaporating substances that may be released during marine accidents. This information will be obtained by acquiring knowledge from the literature and research data (WP2). WP3 involves developing methods to assess and manage risks and testing response tools through computer-based and field trials. WP4 will focus on developing and improving tools for modeling HNS behavior and developing a MANIFESTS decision support system. This WP includes developing  new tools based on the previously described WPs and upgrading the models developed in the existing HNS-MS and MARINER projects (WP5).

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What scientific expertise are IMT Mines Alès researchers bringing to this project?

LA – IMT Mines Alès[1] researchers are primarily involved in two WPs:

  • WP2: improving knowledge and data on gases and evaporating substances for which IMT Mines Alès is the coordinator. This task aims to characterize and theoretically and experimentally assess the behavior and impacts of HNS when they are released into the ocean, with a particular focus on the release of volatile substances that may lead to the formation of a potentially toxic, flammable and/or explosive gas cloud.
  • WP6: strategy for dissemination, exploitation and visibility, in particular to develop proof of concept (PoC) for a serious games to train emergency responders and planners involved in managing marine pollution events. Using an immersive scenario, this crisis simulation makes it possible to test the implementation of response plans, the response cell’s capacity to fulfill its missions (including adapting during a dynamically evolving scenario) and to make defensible decisions under demanding, realistic conditions.

Who are your partners for this project and how are you working together?

LA – The project consortium is coordinated by Cedre (France)[2], and includes 9 research institutions and public administrations from 6 countries (France, Belgium, UK, Norway, Spain, Portugal) with strong complementary expertise: ARMINES/IMT Mines Alès (France), Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Science (RBINS, Belgium), Instituto Tecnológico para el Control del Medio Marino de Galicia (INTECMAR, Spain), Centro tecnologico del mar/Fundacion CETMAR (Spain), Instituto superior tecnico (Portugal), Department of Health (UK), Meteorologisk Institutt (Norway) and the Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment (Belgium). They are involved in all the aspects of marine pollution addressed by the project: chemical analysis, pollution modeling, developing decision support tools, risk assessment and management, training and exercises, knowledge transfer. MANIFESTS will also benefit from collaboration with an advisory committee comprising 6 national maritime authorities who will be the primary end-users of the project results, including the French Navy, CEPPOL (Centre of Practical Expertise for Pollution Response) and customs for France.

What are the next big steps for the project?

LA – The MANIFESTS project was launched on 1 January 20201 and is set to run for two years. The first phase will involve an accident study and a literature review of the modeling of the behavior of evaporating substances in the ocean. The next steps will focus on creating experimental designs to characterize the  evaporation rate of substances and the consequences of explosions, programming consequence models (dispersion, fire and explosion) and conducting a large-scale trial in the Atlantic Ocean.


[1] The IMT Mines Alès team includes Laurent Aprin, Aurélia Bony-Dandrieux, Philippe Bouillet, Frédéric Heymes, Christian Lopez and Jérôme Tixier.

[2] Laura Cotte, engineer, and Stéphane Le Floch, Head of the Research Department at the Centre for Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre), are the initiators and coordinators of the project.

Interview by Véronique Charlet