Meeting with Régine BASSEGUY, Research Director at CNRS at the Toulouse Chemical Engineering Laboratory. In this interview, Régine presents the MICOATEC project, its origins but also its challenges as well as the various partners working on the project.

Coordination of the MICOATEC project

Accompanied by the team from BioSyM (Bioprocesses and Microbial Systems) department of LGC, Régine specializes in the study of interfaces between conductive materials and microbial systems.

As project leader on the MICOATEC project, she is the one who coordinates the academic and private partners who take part in the project. (See partners page)

Mimic the action of microorganisms to offer new corrosion protection solutions

The MICOATEC project is a national project supported by the ANR. It is a project that presents a new concept of anticorrosion coating of materials inspired by microorganisms. 

The project starts from the observation that the interactions between an aluminum alloy (AA 5083) and microorganisms in the marine environment lead to the formation of a protective layer against corrosion. 

The objective of the MICOATEC project is therefore to understand these interactions in order to reproduce this protective layer without the presence of microorganisms. This is a real challenge because it will make it possible to offer anti-corrosion solutions that are more respectful of the environment to replace, among other things, the use of Chrome VI in the coating industry. 

The origins

It was in 2013 that Maria João MARQUES, a research engineer in Portugal, contacted Régine BASSEGUY. During an industrial project carried out in her laboratory (LNEG) in Portugal, she noticed that a protective layer naturally formed on the aluminum alloy (catamaran construction material) when it was immersed in the estuary of the Tagus. Together, Maria João and Régine create an individual project around this subject, then, subsequently, a larger project. This is the birth of the MICOATEC project.

From transport to aeronautics via renewable energies

This innovation aims to integrate the surface treatment & coating Industry sector Any industry using aluminum alloy in product design could consequently be interested. Many sectors are concerned, such as transport, maritime or other, renewable energies linked to the sea and aeronautics.