Management of the Technical Departement at NGL:- Application Centre- Quality Control- R&D Department

Formulation of new products for aqueous cleaning in spraying and ultrasonic equipments.

The objective of this partnership between the Chemtex company and the research laboratory IRCELYON is to valorize a mixture of sugars and alcohols issued from biomass. Hydrogenation and hydorgenolysis reactions were implemented in continuous reactors to reach the desired products with the highest yield possible.

The goal of my PhD was to study the hydrogenolysis of glycerol through metallic heterogeneous catalysis. This work was conducted at IRCELYON and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon).Glycerol, obtained as a co-product of the transesterification of vegetable oils to produce biodiesel is a potential building block to be processed in biorefineries.I had to optimize both the selectivity and the conversion of the reaction toward the desired products. The influence of several parameters (nature of the metal, nature of the support, pH ...) has been investigated. We also aimed at getting a better comprehension of the mechanism. Molecular modelling using density functional theory (DFT) has thus been implemented to understand the elementary steps taking place at the surface of the matallic catalyst.Thanks to this experimental and theoretical study, the catalytic system has been tuned to achieve the best yield for the chemical transformation of glycerol in lactic acid. The mechanism of the reaction has moreover been demonstrated.

New surfactants from renewable feedstocks for cosmetic application.

Research on Transition Metal Catalysis

Research work on new materials