To detect pollution, the best thing is sometimes to jump into the water!
In Biarritz, in the Basque Country, this is what the activists of Surfrider Foundation Europe, an environmental NGO fighting for the protection and enhancement of the ocean, the coast and the waves, are doing.
Activists, but also guinea pigs... During their gliding games, these new kind of surfers equip their suits with small sensors, similar to coffee capsules.
These sensors absorb chemical pollutants during the hours spent in the water and are then sent to Ifremer in Nantes, where Farida Akcha, research officer in marine ecotoxicology, analyzes them in order to detect the presence of chemical pollutants, heavy metals in head.
Planktonid, depolluting with algae
But once this observation has been established, are there ways to clean up the oceans of chemical particles and, tomorrow, be able to surf and swim in purer water?
This is what Planctonid Environnement, a start-up specializing in the cultivation of microalgae, is working on.
At the Yara factory in Montoir-de-Bretagne (Loire-Atlantique), the production of fertilizers results in significant discharges of chemical pollutants into the water, in particular nitrogen and phosphorus.
The company therefore called on Planctonid to find a solution.
Cultivated near the plant in photobioreactors, the microalgae are fed with the plant's waste.
They absorb chemicals, thereby purifying the water.
A kind of plant treatment plant.
However, this energy-intensive technology remains to be improved.
Like all plants,
>> To read: "Marine algae, a promising avenue for the preservation of the planet"
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