Winners of the Engineering of the Future Prize: in the midst of the energy crisis, students are mobilizing in the service of carbon neutrality

Alternative to palm oil and bio-inspired bricks capable of storing CO2… Discover in videos the 2 projects that were selected by Internet users and a jury of professionals with carbon neutrality in their sights.

For Pierre Verzat, president of Syntec-Ingénierie: “Once again this year, the students who won the Engineering of the Future Prize have demonstrated that relatively simple technological innovations can help us change the game. As major upheavals accelerate and we are going through an energy crisis, the younger generation is doing its part and reminding us that many solutions are at hand! This is also the whole meaning of the engineering profession: providing intelligence to respond to the complexity of the world and support major transitions. »

Jury Prize: Carbon Capt', a recycled concrete brick, made without heating and which captures CO2

The concrete industry alone accounts for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions. To be transformed into construction materials, the raw materials are indeed heated to very high temperatures, which is very energy-intensive and generates pollution. Faced with this observation, the students of Sup'Biotech decided to innovate. Their objective ? Create a construction brick that is both energy- and material-saving.

Led by Raphaël Masse, Léa Wernette, Juliette Visconti, Julie Kahane, Amélie Sulpice and Elisa Marbeuf, the Carbon Capt' project is based on 2 innovations. First, CO2 storage. During its manufacture, concrete is naturally capable of sequestering CO2. However, this process is relatively slow and therefore inefficient. Never mind ! The engineering students intend to modify certain physico-chemical reaction conditions in order to speed up the process and increase the quantity of CO2 captured by the material. The second innovation is bio-inspired and consists of using micro-organisms to aggregate concrete at room temperature, as corals do. Result: a construction brick designed without heating, capable of storing CO2 and using recycled concrete! The team, which wishes to take advantage of this prize to develop its project, will soon start creating a prototype in the laboratory.

Public Prize: Oléo'Tech, an ecological, local and ethical alternative to palm oil

Despite its bad reputation, palm oil is still widely used by manufacturers. Odorless, colorless, or smooth, it has unique properties, which make it a must in the food industry. Faced with what they call an "ecological disaster", Ryman Yamami, Lucas Facchinetti, Oxane Divaret, Célia Mlynarczyk, Adrien Lautrie Nuez and Armand Bouillon, students at Sup'Biotech have given themselves a mission: to offer an ecological, local and ethical palm oil.

Called Oléo'Tech, their solution is based on fermentation, a process often used to convert raw materials into consumable products. The team identified living micro-organisms capable of producing oil in the laboratory. By playing on the composition of the culture medium and its conditions, budding engineers want to produce an oil with the same properties as traditional palm oil. Note: by using organic waste from agricultural materials as a source of nutrients, the students integrate their solution into a virtuous circular economy. The Oléo'Tech team, which has already provided a proof of concept, now wants to switch to large-scale production and actively contribute to the eco-responsible food of tomorrow. The project received nearly 1.300 votes on the ww.avenir-ingenierie.fr website.

The Engineering of the Future Prize

The Engineering of the Future Prize was created in 2006 by Syntec-Ingénierie. It distinguishes projects carried out by students from engineering schools, universities or CFA apprentices in Higher Education who have imagined scientific and technological solutions to meet the challenges of tomorrow. 2 prizes were awarded.

• the Jury Prize; made up of representatives of ministries, engineering companies, schools and organizations.
• the Audience Award, which received xx votes out of www.avenir-ingenierie.fr

This student competition is organized by Syntec-Ingénierie, the professional engineering federation, in partnership with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty , the Ministry of National Education and Youth and Concepteurs d'Avenirs.

The 2022 jury was made up of Anne De Cagny - ESTACA, Claire-Marie Chaffin - ESTP, Rémi Leconte - NGen group, Bertrand Martin-Monier - ERAS, Amélia Tiscornia - SCOPING, Arnaud Pacitti - Ministry of Ecological Transition and the cohesion of territories, Maureen Vagneron – STEPPES and Cyril Carabot - Union of Renewable Energies.