Challenges for R&D

Bioenergies

Developing bioenergies means using biomass and its residues to produce energy. Sludge from wastewater treatment plants can be treated and recovered as a significant source of bioenergy. Veolia Environnement is conducting research into processes to convert treatment plant sludge into biogas, heat and motor fuel. The Company is also exploring possibilities for enhancing the efficiency of biomass-fueled boilers and for making biofuels (heating and motor fuels) from household and industrial wastes.

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Transportation Systems of the Future

New technology must be applied to provide us with improved travel conditions, while ensuring we are better informed and consuming less. The company’s researchers are looking closely at rationalized bus operation using optical guiding systems, factoring in comfort, safety and fuel consumption. They are also working on reduced consumption and energy recovery for light rail systems. Finally, they are experimenting with e-ticketing solutions and cell phone transportation information services for customers.

Greenhouse gases

Reducing the climate impacts of greenhouse gases is the overriding goal that has prompted the researchers of Veolia Environnement to explore CO2 capture and reuse options. Their work focuses on enhancing the energy efficiency of units and promoting the use of renewable energies based on CO2 capture technologies tailored to the different sizes of facilities managed by the Company. They are also investigating the deployment of CO2 transportation, storage and reuse solutions.

Waste sorting and recovery

Optimizing waste sorting and materials recovery is a source of new resources. For several years now, the Company has been studying processes that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions abatement and the reduction of final wastes. Research teams are working to automate materials recovery facilities by improving the efficiency of optical, aeraulic and other types of sorting machines and developing more reliable tools for detection, extraction and remote operation. At the same time, they are studying solutions for the reuse of secondary raw materials.

Seawater desalination

Within the next half-century, one-fourth of the world’s people may suffer from water shortages. Today, seawater desalination is already helping to supplement freshwater supply. At Veolia Environnement, research focuses essentially on the reverse osmosis, or membrane desalination, process (in which water is filtered through a membrane that rejects salts and microorganisms). Current aims are to optimize filtration efficiency by pretreating the seawater, lower process costs and reduce energy consumption and environmental impacts.

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Success Explorer

Success Explorer is an initiative launched by Veolia Environnement’s R&D to take you on a journey into the heart of advances in research. It reveals very simply concrete applications borne of numerous internal and external partnerships and resulting in tangible and durable progress in the day-to-day life of each and every one of us. Come aboard and discover the challenges confronted, methods used and results achieved.

Download the Success Explorer printable booklet (.pdf - 1132,6 Ko)

Metal recovery

The starting point was a dual challenge: how to extract metal pollutants from very heterogeneous industrial wastewater and waste and recover them? Veolia’s Research, in partnership with the University of Metz, developed a retention process to extract metals in the form of crystals. This allowed the selective capture of nickel and zinc, and the re-treatment of these metals with a view to simple industrial reuse.

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Microbus

Increased public transport would reduce urban congestion and limit air contamination. However, this type of transport, sometimes impractical, is still underused. Veolia’s Research has set a major challenge: bridging the gap between cars and buses in order to relieve the city. Thus the idea of the Microbus was born: a combination of technologies, resulting from a partnership with several transport operators. Veolia is currently operating the Microbus in 11 French cities.

Coliplage® process

Imagine a beach, bathers and then pathogenic bacteria suddenly appearing in this idyllic setting. How to react immediately to water contamination when the analysis takes 36 hours? After two years of research, Veolia’s R&D managed to reduce the analysis time to just one hour with the COLIPLAGE® process. Bathing water quality can now be assessed in real time.

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Athos™ process

Since the 1990s, the objective of Veolia’s Research has been to offer new re-treatment possibilities for sludge, the waste produced by wastewater treatment plants. The development of the ATHOS™ process, using hydro-thermal oxidation (HTO) now allows all local authorities, regardless of their size, to re-treat this sludge on an industrial scale while respecting the environment.

Gas sensor

Natural gas, an energy low in pollutants, can be used in many different forms. However, this use is not always easy, as the quality of natural gas varies depending on its origin. Veolia’s energy research Center, in partnership with Nantes’ Ecole des Mines, has developed a sensor which measures certain physical properties of the gas in order to evaluate its composition. Gas engines can now adapt in real time and combine energy efficiency with a reduction in pollutant emissions.

Research Centers

It takes an ongoing effort to improve services and invent new solutions to meet the evolving needs of industry and local authorities while maintaining a focus on technical and environmental excellence and at the same time, driving down costs. The research organization of Veolia Environnement is committed to these aims. Endowed with a budget of nearly €140 million, 400 research scientists and 400 field developers are hard at work in three dedicated research centers: Water, Environmental Services and Energy, and Transport.

Water research center

Protecting water resources, providing universal access to quality drinking water, preventing risks to health and preserving our quality of life all require research to find new solutions. The Water research center, the cradle of research activity at Veolia Environnement, has a staff of 110 research scientists and is involved in a number of programs: stewardship of water resources; optimization of drinking water and wastewater treatment processes; sludge reuse processes, etc.

Environmental services and energy research center

Demographic growth, urban sprawl and rising demand for energy are creating needs for technological innovation in the fields of environmental services and energy. This is the mission of the Research Center. It directs its efforts at improving waste treatment and recovery processes and optimizing energy services: cost control, alternative energies, and mitigation of risks to health and the environment.

Transportation research center

Optimizing urban transportation systems by making them more convenient, less polluting and better matched to demand is a factor in addressing current and future economic, social and environmental challenges. The Research, Development and Innovation subsidiary of Veolia Transport is in charge of pursuing these goals. The aims of some of its key projects include developing new passenger services, clean motor fuels, clean vehicles and new transportation systems, and improving existing rapid transit and infrastructure.

Scientific Chronicles

Resources

Focusing on innovation to introduce increasingly efficient services requires considerable human and financial resources. Veolia Environnement has pooled its R&D activities under the Research Division. This entity has a budget of 140 million euros and employs more than 400 researchers and 400 development people working in the field. It has established relations with renowned partners, has correspondents the world over and has access to several hundred industrial-scale prototype units.

Programs

How can we improve environmental services and reduce their costs while protecting the earth and the health of the people who live on it?
Our research programs focus on four themes corresponding to the sustainable development goals common to all the company’s business areas (water, energy, waste management and transportation): to manage and preserve natural resources, limit impacts on the environment, improve living conditions for populations and develop alternative energy sources.