Towards a better understanding of subsurface microbial hydrogenotrophic activities using synthetic consortia

29 Mar 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN)

Department

Biotechnology

Research Field

Biological sciences » Biology

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country

France

Application Deadline

15 May 2024 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

38

Offer Starting Date

3 Jun 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Energy transition depends on the development of alternative renewable resources. IFPEN's originality and strength lie in its ability to ensure continuity between fundamental research, applied research and innovation. IFPEN develops technological solutions for sustainable mobility and renewable energies to progress towards a sustainable energy mix. The environmental microbiology laboratory, hosted by the Biotechnology department is designed as a versatile platform developing tools and methods to characterize the functional diversity of microbial ecosystems.

Intermittent renewable energies such as wind turbines and solar panels can produce electricity in excess. A promising technical solution to deal with this surplus consists in converting electricity into “green” hydrogen (H2) through electrolysis and to store produced H2 in geological formations. Due to its high mobility, the major risk associated with underground hydrogen storage (UHS) is H2 leakage. Hydrogen is then likely to accumulate in a confined underground area near the reservoir (cellar, underground car park, urban underground network, tunnel, etc.) where it will become a risk factor for explosion, fire, or asphyxiation. Moreover, dissolved H2 can be actively metabolized by microorganisms and transformed into other gases (H2S, CH4, etc.) or products (acetate, etc.), which can dramatically affect freshwater quality in shallow aquifers. In this context, HyStorEn ANR project aims at studying H2 leakage from an underground storage reaching a shallow aquifer and vadose zone. Such an aquifer slows down H2 migration, creates H2 accumulations, activates the growth of hydrogenotrophic microorganisms, which themselves become indirect indicators of H2 presence and produce other biomarkers. This will be studied experimentally in lab, in situ in an underground laboratory based in Saint-Emilion (France) and by numerical modeling.

This postdoctoral subject is harbored by the WP3 of HyStorEn project entitled “Experimental and theoretical analysis of the dynamics of bacterial populations”. The aim is to develop models of population kinetics for hydrogenotrophic microorganisms under the conditions of shallow aquifer and vadose zone. This research work includes:
(i) The characterization of the hydrogenotrophic activity of microbial populations.
(ii) The development of a model of population kinetics for hydrogenotrophic microorganisms.
The postdoctoral fellow will be in charge of the first task of this WP. The subject will focus on pure cultures of methanogenic archaea, sulfate reducing and homoacetogenic bacteria. Abiotic factors such as salinity, temperature and pH will be modulated to assess the sensitivity of kinetics parameters (microbial growth and hydrogenotrophic reactions rates). These data enable the development of
synthetic hydrogenotrophic microbial consortia and numerical simulations to study and model their activity.

This postdoctoral project will be hosted by the Biotechnology department. The postdoctoral fellow will have access to bacterial strains isolated from the shallow aquifer in Saint Emilion but also to commercial pure strains. He/she will implement an innovative synthetic ecology approach by reconstructing representative ecosystems harboring a wide diversity of hydrogenotrophic metabolisms. He/she will also be in charge of the development of new monitoring tools to assess the evolution of the composition and the activity of microbial populations within the synthetic consortia. These tools will need skills in molecular biology (DNA/RNA extraction and purification, qPCR, RTqPCR) and microbiology (anaerobic cultivation, metabolites, and gas quantification). The integration of Geosciences division in the ANR project allows the postdoctoral fellow to develop an ambitious integrative analytical approach using geochemical measurements (isotope, rock powder characterisation, elementary analysis, potentially Rock Eval®).

 

Requirements

Research Field

Biological sciences » Biology

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

The postdoctoral fellow should have a strong expertise in cultivation of anaerobic ecosystems. Moreover, he/she is expected to develop new protocols to quantify the biomass of each strain throughout the incubations. He/she must have expertise in molecular biology and data analysis.

 

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Additional Information
Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

IFPEN

Country

France

City

Rueil-Malmaison

Postal Code

92852

Street

4 avenue de Bois-Préau

Geofield

Where to apply

E-mail

[email protected]

Contact

City

Rueil-Malmaison

Website

http://www.ifpenergiesnouvelles.com/

Street

4 avenue de Bois-Préau

Postal Code

92852

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED