The BRGM and SUEZ Enter the Next Phase in their Jointed Scientific Research

On 27 June 2019, the BRGM (the French geological and mining research office) and SUEZ signed a framework partnership agreement. This 3-year agreement aims to strengthen the Group’s scientific and industrial cooperation with the BRGM in the fields of water and the environment.

This framework agreement aims to strengthen the partnerships between the BRGM and SUEZ by building on the close scientific and industrial fit between the partners in the following fields:

1. Groundwater resources ( quantity, quality, management, big data)
2. Nanomaterials and nanoparticles for water treatment
3. Metrology (measurement systems)
4. Emerging pollutants
5. Geothermal energy, energy storage
6. Polluted soils and sediments, refunctionalization
7. Remediation of mining sites (Peru, Chile, Europe, etc.)
8. Mining environments.

The agreement lays down the general framework in which the partners intend to cooperate (non-disclosure, intellectual property, themes) and also aims to secure the long-term future of the Group’s partnerships and to maximize the potential for the development of their activities.

Ongoing projects between the BRGM and SUEZ:

• AGREGE is a €3.2 million collaborative project funded by the French interministerial fund (FUI) and labelled by the AXELERA centre of excellence in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. The project aims to reduce the use of natural resources in urban developments (topsoil taken from increasingly distant sites, peat, granulates, etc.) and to develop channels to recycle urban waste. A number of local small and medium-sized companies (VALTERRA DR, CAPMETROPOLE and C3EUROPE) have joined forces with the BRGM and SUEZ in this project.
• MAREA , a €1.6 million “Interreg” project resulting from the joint efforts of the Basque coastline scientific interest group. This project is a unique cross-border European partnership between the French and Spanish regions of the Basque country. Since 2013, the communities on the Basque coast and public and private scientific organisations have been working together to develop research projects to improve public policy to manage the coastline. The MAREA project brings together the Basque Country urban authority, the project leader, the University of Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Rivages Pro Tech, SUEZ’s centre of expertise in coastlines , the AZTI foundation, the Basque meteorological agency, Euskalmet, the BRGM and the Casagec Ingénierie engineering firm.
• The Smart Control project, selected by the French national research agency (ANR) as part of the IC4WATER (Step 2) call for projects, consists of monitoring salt water intrusion in the town of Hyères, France. The goal of the project is to simulate future climatic scenarios and to study their effects on water resources using the model developed by the BRGM.
• The Valomag project, selected by the Raw Materials EIT, is being led by the CIRSEE, SUEZ’s main expertise and research centre, in partnership with the BRGM, the CEA, the CRM Group and Delft and Leyden universities. The project is studying the use of a technology to dismantle permanent magnets for recycling in short-loop processes. The project is based on the direct reuse of ferromagnetic alloys.

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Taxonomy

• Groundwater
• Mine Water Management
• Groundwater Assessment
• Groundwater Modeling
• Groundwater Mapping
• Soil & Water Assessment Tools
• Groundwater Quality & Quantity
• Materials