Post-doctoral Position

IFP Energies nouvelles is a French public-sector research, innovation and training center. Its mission is to develop efficient, economical, clean and sustainable technologies in the fields of energy, transport and the environment. For more information, see our WEB site.
IFPEN offers a stimulating research environment, with access to first in class laboratory infrastructures and computing facilities. IFPEN offers competitive salary and benefits packages. All PhD students have access to dedicated seminars and training sessions.

**Site web**:
**Poste et missions**:
**Title : Towards a better understanding of subsurface microbial hydrogenotrophic activities using synthetic consortia**

**1- Context**:
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. Our expertise is based on interdisciplinary methodological approaches to improve our understanding of biogeochemical processes associated with various microbiomes inhabiting soils, deep terrestrial subsurface, as well as natural and industrial waters. These approaches draw on partnerships within many laboratories of the Carnot IFPEN RE, as well as academic and private players via numerous collaborative projects.

**2-The Hystoren project**:
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.
More precisely, the main objectives of the project are:
(i)
To develop various monitoring tools, direct and undirect, to assess H2 fluxes through a shallow aquifer, vadose zone, wells, microbial communities;
(ii)
To study biological and abiotic transformations of H2 in shallow environments.
(iii)
To quantify how much H2 could leak from an underground storage and reach shallow formations and to assess to what extent leaks can damage the subsurface environment.
(iv)
To quantify to what extent shallow aquifers could slow down H2 migration towards surface due to interactions with rocks, water, and microorganisms.

**3- Description**
(i)
The characterization of the hydrogenotrophic activity of microbial populations.
(ii)
The development of a model of population kinetics for hydrogenotrophic microorganisms.

**4- Implementation**
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®).
- **Supervisors** : Dr. Elodie MULLER et Dr. Senta BLANQUET
- **Localisa