The CNRS, the University of Lorraine and Saint-Gobain signed on Friday, October 23, 2020 the creation of a laboratory, Canopée, dedicated to the study of materials and “systems” in extreme temperature conditions. The aim is to reduce the carbon footprint of high-temperature manufacturing processes. To meet this challenge, this “outside” laboratory will bring together experts from LEMTA, Cemhti and 2 Saint-Gobain research centers.
The development of high-temperature products represents a specific challenge: at the temperatures under consideration (500-2700°C), measurement and instrumentation are difficult and the behavior of materials is not always well modeled, which limits the optimization and control over time of these processes, and in particular the reduction of their CO2 emissions.
Hence the initiative led by the LEMTA in Nancy, the CNRS Cemhti* (in Orleans), and two Saint-Gobain research centers (Saint-Gobain Research Provence and Saint-Gobain Research Paris), aimed at combining their expertise in the field, by creating the joint laboratory “outside the walls” Canopée, for the “CArbone challenge: innovative materials for energy-saving processes”.
Antoine Petit, Chairman and CEO of the CNRS, emphasizes that “our already strong and fruitful ties with Saint-Gobain, through the existence of three joint research structures, are strengthened with this new partnership”. Benoit Bazin, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Saint-Gobain, states that “we are very pleased with this new collaboration with the CNRS and the University of Lorraine to work on developing more efficient materials, while reducing the carbon footprint of our industrial processes. This is an essential challenge that is part of the Group’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050”. “The design and manufacture of materials and their use at high temperatures to reduce CO2 emissions is a major scientific challenge that we want to meet by combining our expertise in this joint laboratory,” says Pierre Mutzenhardt, President of the University of Lorraine.
Created for 5 years, Canopée’s ambition is to build a better understanding of heat transfer, from the scale of the material to the scale of the industrial installation, to develop precise methods for measuring, in extreme conditions, the properties of materials and the physical quantities characterizing the processes. Its originality lies in the combination of expertise in materials – their forming processes (on the laboratory, modeling or industrial pilot scale), their microstructural characterization (at room and hot temperature) – and expertise in thermics, from the precise measurement of temperature to the measurement of the thermo-physical properties of materials (solids or liquids, up to extreme temperatures), through the simulation of heat transfers.