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Context

Manure, urban sludge and agroindustrial wastes are organic wastes and can be recycled in agriculture as soil amendment or fertilizers in their raw form or after biological or chemical treatments such as anaerobic digestion, composing, liming… Indeed, nutrients (N, P) and organic matter recycling is a good way to reduce the use of mineral fertilizers and maintain soil biological activity.

The use of chemical products (solvents, detergents, paints, pesticides…) and hydrocarbons in human activity as well as human or veterinary pharmaceutical products lead to organic waste contamination by a variety of organic micropollutants. These compounds, usually found as traces have a high environmental impact. During organic waste land spreading on crops, organic micropollutants can be transferred to soil, water, or fauna and flora.

Treatments applied before land-spreading can lower organic micropollutants levels and reduce environmental risk.  However, these treatment processes have also an effect on the waste biochemical properties thus changing interactions between the waste organic and inorganic matter (bearing phases) and the organic micropollutants it contains which will influence their behaviour once in the soil.

With a grant from the French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche or ANR), we aim to link bearing phases characteristics and organic micropollutant fate during waste treatment processes and after its spreading on soil. We want to use the treatments processes as a way to modify these interactions and go toward a better dissipation or stabilisation of the pollutants

Goal

The goal of this internship is to study three organic waste selected for their diversity and qualify the coevolution of their organic/inorganic matter (their bearing phases) and three families of micro pollutants (Polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbons, nonylphenol ethoxylates and pharmaceuticals products) during anaerobic digestion and composting.

Contents

You will work with us on:

• Anaerobic digestion bioreactors monitoring and setting up of lab-scale composters
• Raw and treated waste organic and inorganic matter characterisation (with various chemical and physical fractionation methods)
• Extraction, preparation and quantitative analysis  of organic micropollutants in raw, treated and fractionated waste
• Setting up and monitoring lab simulations of waste land-spreading on soil
• We will train you and you will work with: Gas chromatography (GC), High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Accelerated Solvent extraction (ASE), 3D Fluorescence, quantitative analysis of dry matter, carbon, proteins, volatile fatty acids, sugars…

Conditions

• Required level: Master’s degree acquired or in training, in chemical, biological or environmental fields and process engineering.
• Workplace: The internship will take place at LBE-INRA in Narbonne – France
• Duration: Up to 6 months
• Starting date: September/October 2018
• Monthly Wage : 554€  + access to the local cafeteria

Contact

Please send a CV and a cover letter and feel free to contact us if you have any questions

Nicolas Sertillanges: nicolas.sertillanges (arobase) inra.fr 

Dominique Patureau: dominique.patureau (arobase) inra.fr