COrrosion inhibitors from vegetal BY-products – CoBy

In order to address the current challenge of ecological transition, renewable feedstocks, in particular molecules extracted from natural resources appear as a valuable alternative to the widespread corrosion inhibitors whose production and use may have high environmental impacts. Although numerous natural extracts have been investigated in various media and substrates, only few have found their way in industrial applications due to a lack of fundamental knowledge about how the various chemical functions are involved in the protection of the metallic surfaces and about potential synergistic effects between different molecules/macromolecules. The COBY project aims at determining the key parameters for the extraction of valuable molecules/mixtures based on a fundamental understanding of the corrosion protection mechanisms provided by biomolecules from local and abundant agricultural by-products. The final goal is to get 100% vegetal carbon-based anticorrosion solutions for the formation of coatings on steel and to evaluate them in comparison with references in terms of efficiency, techno-economic aspects, as well as environmental impacts. Thus, the COBY project fully falls within Axis H.7 : Bioeconomy, from biomass towards uses: chemistry, materials and systemic approaches. In order to address the objectives of COBY, the partnership will rely on the complementarity of four research teams whose specialities are, respectively, (i) the eco-processes related to the recovery of vegetal by-product (URD ABI) with specific expertise in techno-economic data analysis and life cycle assessment (LRGP); (ii) the corrosion protection of metallic materials (IJL); and (iii) the advanced characterization of organo-metallic surfaces (LRS).