WATER DEPOLLUTION WITH PLANTS

The biomimicry and zero waste methodologies are used to collect heavy metals from chemical and mining facilities and recycle them with green methods from chemistry. Many plants draw metals from the earth and store them in their leaves. Due to their potential to spread pollutants into the soil and waterways, these plants are looked at with distrust.

In 2020, Claude Grison industrialized a method of collecting these metals by establishing the start-up Bioinspir after submitting more than 35 patent applications and winning the CNRS innovation prize in 2014.

Following a comparison of data from the National Institute for the Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS) and the Pollutant Emissions Register (IREP), the start-up reports that industrial effluents in France are responsible for 100,000 tons of metal-polluted sludge, or roughly 5,000 tons of lost precious metals.

As a result, Bioinspir is working on four or five plant species that are found in French rivers, such as water mint.

The company gives these aquatic plants a second chance by grinding their roots, which continue to function even after the plant dies, and using the resulting powder to create highly thick filters.

These aquatic plants are then capable of storing different metals thanks to their roots. Through an eco-catalytic process, these tainted plants are reused. Consequently, they satisfy the need for bio-sourced compounds, notably in cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and phytosanitary industries.

It is comforting to be reassured that the country's industrial contaminated effluents will soon support the plant filters after so many challenges with the water environment.

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