Étudiant en doctorat

The PhD will be involved in Horizon Europe project AGRILOOP (Pushing the frontier of circular agriculture by converting residues into novel economic, social and environmental opportunities), coordinated by N. Gontard (INRAE), including 37 partners (academic/industrial) from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and China. Driven by a ‘zero-waste’ society requirement, AGRILOOP aims at eco-efficiently upgrading underexploited agricultural residues into a portfolio of high added-value bioproducts by developing safe-and-sustainable-by-design bioconversion processes integrated in a cascading biorefinery approach.In this project, the joint research unit IATE (Montpellier, France) is responsible for the extraction of biomolecules such as polyphenols and carotenoids, in a cascade biorefinery scheme. The extracted biomolecules will then be used as additives in the development of biomaterials for food and non-food applications (packaging, agricultural materials, etc.).TasksThe PhD will be involved in the development of an extraction process for the recovery of high value molecules in their native forms from agri-residues.In a cascading biorefinery scheme, he/she will elaborate the extraction of polyphenols and carotenoids along with plant polyesters (cutin, suberin), and proteins, while saving solvents and resources. The use of natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) for extraction will be investigated. In the second part of the work, the PhD will be in charge (with collaboration of other researchers) of integrating the extracted molecules in the formulation of biomaterials.This will be based on an integrated approach: pretreatment of agri-residues, development of the extraction process, chemical and biological characterization of the extracts, development of predictive tools on structure/functionality relationship, processing of materials with additives.RequirementsMaster or Engineer degree in Chemistry (analytical, organic), polymer science or materials.Demonstrated skills to communicate in English (speak and write), interact with other public and industrial partners, and good ability for self-initiative.Commitment to environmental concern.The candidate will be involved in an international multi-disciplinary project with interactions with different scientists in various disciplines. Geographical mobility is possible. #J-18808-Ljbffr