Plant-based bioplastics, biogas from organic waste... today's biosourced innovations are helping to “de-petrolize” the economy.

This trend calls for a rethink of the skills needed by agronomy and agro-industry engineers, and for training courses to evolve accordingly.

Behind these new needs lies the development of a life-based economy, known as the bioeconomy, the challenge of which is to replace petroleum-based materials and energy with equivalents derived from renewable biomass (dedicated crops or bio-waste). This helps to reduce greenhouse gases and thus combat climate change.

The challenge of the bioeconomy

The bioeconomy is based on a more ecosystem-friendly approach to the production of food and non-food materials, whether of agricultural, forestry or animal origin. Biomass recovery is considered from a global perspective, taking into account the entire life cycle of plants and biowaste.

Indeed, for the bioeconomy to be truly sustainable, agro-ecosystems must not only provide ecosystem services (for example, by returning organic matter to the soil), but also ensure the production of bioresources in a context of accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss.

Since it enables us to limit our reliance on petroleum-based products, the bioeconomy represents one of the pillars of France's strategy for achieving its climate objectives. These include a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

The market it represents is already worth 326 billion euros in sales, or almost 15% of GDP, and employs two million people in France. France also plans to double the annual amount of biomass used for non-food purposes by 2050. The aim is to generate 50,000 to 100,000 new jobs per year in this sector.

There are several key issues at stake for agronomy and its practitioners:

• land allocation according to use,
• the design and optimization of transformation processes,
• the organization of agricultural sectors,
• and the development of new skills.

This means that we need to anticipate new professions, expertise and training requirements. This observation has led some engineering schools to adapt, or even reinvent, the training of agronomy and agro-industry engineers. This is notably the case at Institut polytechnique UniLaSalle.

Three main profiles can be envisaged, as detailed below.

First profile: the agro-ecological engineer

Today's agronomist is becoming an agroecologist engineer, integrating new skills in ecology, zootechnics combined with the greenhouse gas balance of livestock systems, and digital simulation.

The agro-ecology engineer seeks to produce and mobilize new biomass: food (rich in plant proteins insufficiently produced in France and Europe), non-food, all under a new climate regime and while preserving ecosystems and natural resources.

In training to become an agro-ecological engineer, emphasis is placed on non-competition between food and non-food crops in the use of soils, and on making the most of the diversity of plant functions and soil biodiversity, and more generally, of soil functions.

This is achieved through an understanding of soil-plant-atmosphere processes and the study of agricultural practices (fertilization, tillage and crop protection). In concrete terms, it also involves tool prototyping, experimentation within a network of trials on and with farmers, and digital simulation.

One of the roles of the agro-ecological engineer is to consider the recycling of agro-industrial by-products and bio-waste in order to complete the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, while producing renewable energy.

UniLaSalle's agro-ecology engineering program includes action-research activities in the second and third years, combining agro-ecology and the bioeconomy. For several months, students work with various local players (farmers, cooperatives, businesses, local authorities, etc.). This enabled them to grasp both the ecological and socio-technical complexity of the subject, with its heterogeneous soils, crop rotation, genetic diversity and diverse social expectations depending on the players involved. So many aspects rarely addressed simultaneously in conventional models.

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For example, students are examining the effects of crop diversification promoted by the bioeconomy (simultaneous or relay crop associations, agroforestry, development of perennial crops, valorization of agroecological infrastructures) on agrosystems under “low input” conditions (i.e., with low inputs of fossil energy and synthetic nitrogen).

In collaboration with Associate Professors, they test varieties and their mixtures in different environments. These are defined by climatic factors, farming practices (tillage including no-till, organic fertilization, etc.), and crop combinations (simultaneous pea and oat or barley, or relaying winter barley and soya). The challenge is to adapt cropping systems to current and future climate change.

Second profile: the bioengineer of transformation

“Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”, said Lavoisier. This formula lies at the heart of the second profile, that of the transformation bioengineer.

His task is to develop and improve bio-based materials and/or new biomolecules to replace petroleum-based products. They work to develop processes that are ecologically efficient (lower consumption of chemical solvents, energy and water), less energy-intensive and less waste-producing, while minimizing the release of pollutants and greenhouse gases.

This happens on two levels:

• firstly, within ecosystems themselves, where the restitution of organic matter improves soil fertility,
• secondly, through biomass recovery processes, notably crop co-products, for example via methanization.

The challenge is to limit the environmental impact of processes used to produce energy, materials and other biosourced molecules. This optimization principle is based on cascading, a virtuous system designed to maximize biomass efficiency.

To achieve this, transformation bioengineers develop expertise in process engineering and/or biotechnology. This requires an in-depth understanding of the physical and biological mechanisms involved in biomass transformation, both in the laboratory and on an industrial scale. What's more, modeling and simulation are playing a growing role in optimizing these processes, making these skills increasingly indispensable.

Students train and practice multi-physics and 3D modeling tools in a shared digital Lab, but also in physical laboratories (e.g. bioreactors for fermentation, pre-industrial platforms such as a food technology hall, or bioprocess platforms such as ozonation).

These innovations can also mobilize a creative approach, particularly in the context of biomimicry. For example, the study of the cow's rumen can inspire the improvement of methanizers, while the study of the structure of pine cones for heat exchangers can be used to optimize heat exchangers.

Third profile: The regional agronomist

Agricultural engineers must also take into account the regional scale in order to consider the economic and climatic challenges and those related to biodiversity, in a context of marked geopolitical instability. The sectors with which they work can vary in size: short circuit, regional, national, etc.

In this sense, they must have skills in agronomy, but also in social sciences. For example, knowing how to read the human dynamics between the different stakeholders in the sectors (producers, stockers, processors, consumers, etc.), leading collectives and designing mediation mechanisms to promote local consultation. An in-depth knowledge of sociological and even anthropological methods and tools is necessary. They must also master and anticipate public and regulatory policies as well as those concerning regional planning.

Let us cite an example. The territorialized food systems, which advocate a thorough overhaul of the globalized and financialized models of global food production, involve taking this local scale into account. These human dimensions are therefore essential for managing flows, exchanges and markets in a context of uncertainty and prove to be complementary to pure scientific and technical mastery.

For example, the development of new legume crops requires a definition of the daily protein requirements of the local population, the evolution of diets and eating habits, but also their expectations and those of distributors in terms of quality and formulation, as well as the areas of production, collection, storage and processing.

The renewed interest in environmental professions among young people is real and can be explained by a combination of socio-economic, political and ethical factors. However, the reality and opportunities of the bioeconomy sector are often unknown to secondary school pupils and even their teachers.

While young people are searching for meaning, it is urgent that all stakeholders mobilize – farmers' representatives, national education and higher education, research institutes – to engage in dialogue with society in order to better explain the diversity and potential of these professions and offer training courses that contribute to shaping agroecological, food and energy transitions.

Michel-Pierre Faucon, Associate Professor of Plant Ecology and Agroecology - Deputy Director of Research at the Institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle, UniLaSalle; Karine Laval, Director of Research and Development, UniLaSalle; Sébastien Laurent-Charvet, Director of Education and Training, UniLaSalle and Valérie Leroux, Deputy Managing Director & Director of the Rouen Campus, UniLaSalle
 

This article has benefited from the support of Anne Combaud, Pierre-Yves Bernard, David Houben and Laurent Ouallet, who are involved in the training of agricultural engineers.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.