Environment

Marine oil pollution detected from space

oil pollution

Whether it is due to oil spills or cleaning out of tanks at sea, radar satellites can detect any oil slick on the ocean’s surface. Over 15 years ago, René Garello and his team from IMT Atlantique worked on the first proof of concept for this idea to monitor oil …

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What happens to nanoparticles when they become waste?

nanoparticles

For the past twenty years, industry sectors across the board have been producing a wide range of nanomaterials. They have developed rapidly and with little in the way of regulation. This has led to a regulatory vacuum when it comes to the end-of-life management of these nanomaterials. Little is known …

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ALGIMEL, a ‘marine’ polystyrene

ALGIMEL is an environmentally-friendly material which is used in a wide range of projects.

In the future, materials will not only need to be more efficient; it will also be essential that they are environmentally friendly. With this in mind, researchers from IMT Mines Alès who specialize in bio-sourced materials are working on this project.  Over the past few decades, they have been trying …

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When plants help us fight pollution

plants

To help reduce or stabilize soil and water pollution, plants provide a rather effective yet inexpensive solution. They must be implemented on a case-by-case basis and could be used in a wide variety of sites.   According to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), 300,000 to 400,000 industrial …

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SERTIT: satellite imagery for the environment and crisis management

SERTIT

I’MTech is dedicating a series of stories to success stories from research partnerships supported by the Carnot Télécom & Société Numérique Institute (TSN), to which Télécom Physique Strasbourg and IMT belong. The regional image processing and remote sensing service (SERTIT) has specialized in producing geographic information production for over 30 …

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Sand, an increasingly scarce resource that needs to be replaced

sable, sand

Humans are big consumers of sand, to the extent that this now valuable resource is becoming increasingly scarce. Being in such high demand, it is extracted in conditions that aren’t always respectful of the environment. With the increasing scarcity of sand and the sometimes devastating consequences of mining at beaches, …

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How can AI help better forecast high and low water levels?

flood water level

Predicting the level of water in rivers or streams can prove to be invaluable in areas with a high risk of flooding or droughts. While traditional models are based primarily on hypotheses about processes, another approach is emerging: artificial neural networks. Anne Johannet, an environmental engineering researcher at IMT Mines …

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Indoor Air: under-estimated pollutants

Indoor air

While some sources of indoor air pollution are well known, there are others that researchers do not yet fully understand. This is the case for cleaning products and essential oils. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) they become and their dynamics within buildings are being studied by chemists at IMT Lille …

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The many layers of our environmental impact

The water footprint of a product has long been difficult to evaluate. Where does the water come from? What technology is used to process and transport it? These are among the questions researchers have to answer in better measuring environmental impact.

An activity can have many consequences for the environment, from its carbon footprint, water consumption, pollution, changes to biodiversity, etc. Our impacts are so complex that an entire field of research has been developed to evaluate and compare them. At IMT Mines Alès, a team of researchers is working on …

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“We must work now to recycle composites”

recycling

High-performance composite materials are used in cutting-edge sectors such as energy, aerospace and defense. The majority of these parts have not yet reached the end-of-life stage, but recycling them remains a medium-term issue that must be considered now in order to offer technically efficient and economically viable solutions when the …

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