Hélène Carrère: an authority on biomass processing

Hélène Carrère is an engineer from the Ecole nationale supérieure de chimie in Toulouse and holds a doctorate in process engineering. For the past 20 years she has worked at the Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology (INRAE Occitanie-Montpellier), where her research focuses on the concept of environmental biorefinery. This consists of processing residues, wastes, organic effluents from human activities into products of industrial interest (bioenergy, biomolecules and organic fertilizers) while minimizing their environmental and health impact.  

A question of good chemistry

At the Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology, Hélène Carrère, now an INRAE research director, leads activities to study and develop physico-chemical or biological pretreatments to improve the methanisation and fermentation of various substrates such as sewage sludge, plant by-products and lignocellulosic biomass, slurry or even algae.

Over the years, Hélène has been involved in a large number of research projects in collaboration with French and international academic and industrial partners.
The Stockactif - Smart Storage of Biomass to Enhance its Technological Conversion project (ANR, 2012-2016) was an opportunity to explore the possibility of making lignocellulosic biomass (straw, miscanthus, etc.) easier to process by accelerating and controlling a fungal pre-processing during storage, before it enters the factory.
Hélène also contributes to research carried out for the Biomass for the future - BFF project (ANR, 2012-2020). BFF aims to develop new varieties and value chains for miscanthus and sorghum, which have high lignocellulosic biomass yields with low environmental impact.
More recently, the ProDéH2 project: Pre-processing of waste for hydrogen production using dark fermentation – as opposed to the so-called photo-sensitive methods that require light during a certain phase – (Muse project, 2018-2021) allows her to simultaneously study the impact of pre-processing on the accessibility of sugars in waste and on the microbial consortia contributed by the latter.

Today, Hélène Carrère has extensive knowledge of the pre-processing of various types of biomass to optimise their bio-conversion into energy and co-products. Keen to share her knowledge and know-how, Hélène has also helped train – through and for research – 32 Master’s students, 18 doctorate students (plus seven foreign doctorate students who came to spend a few months in the laboratory) and six post-doctoral students. She has also hosted three guest researchers. She recently completed two theses on the (pre- and post-) processing and methanisation processes, in collaboration with Air Liquide and GRDF via a CIFRE industrial research agreement. This type of agreement aims to foster cooperation between public research laboratories and social and economic stakeholders; support the employment of doctorate students in companies, and to contribute to innovation in companies based in France.

A prolific scientific writer

Hélène Carrère has published an extensive list of scientific publications, with over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, patents, etc.. This remarkable output recently made her one of the most cited researchers by their peers in 2018. This title, which she readily shares with her colleagues and students, has ensured that she is in high demand.

 What’s up next?

“(I plan) to continue my current activities while maintaining a balance between basic and applied research,” Hélène spontaneously replies when asked about what she’ll do next. She added: “The aim is to transfer research results to industrial applications”.

Hélène also wishes to try new multidisciplinary approaches – the study of the impact of this pre-processing on microbial communities, or of economic aspects, for example – and is thinking of other applications for fermentation by-products. These ideas are at the top of her to-do list, along with new research partnerships and encounters – which the COVID pandemic has made rare in recent months!