Sustainable Soil Carbon Lab – SSCL

All areas of human activity, from industry to agriculture, from energy production to mobility, forestry, conventional land use, and the built environment, will have to adapt if we are to achieve the goal of keeping the increase in global temperature below 1.5 to 2°C, below pre-industrial levels. Soil plays a central role in this unprecedented global effort, as it is a major compartment of carbon stored on the earth's surface. The total amount of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems is around 3150 Gt, of which nearly 80% (~2500 Gt) is in the soil. Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF or LULUCF), therefore have a major impact on the capacity and potential of soils to emit or store carbon (C). To support the choice and implementation of more virtuous practices, it is necessary to better characterize the forms of soil carbon, their fate, and the impact of land management and practices on
it. In this context, our ambition is to set up a soil carbon analysis platform capable of meeting the strong demands of civil society and academia, using robust and reliable spectroscopic methods such as Visible Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (VNIRS) and thermal methods such as Rock Eval® (RE) analysis. To do this, we will aim to: (1) set up a common platform for characterizing soil organic and inorganic carbon using these two methods, capitalizing on the experience and know-how of IFPEN and Valorhiz; (2) innovate on the methodologies for analyzing and interpreting soil carbon forms to meet future challenges and provide support for research. This will include the development of Decision Support Tools (DST) in the form of webservices; and (3) mobilise this platform in the service of various research and industrial projects to challenge the LabCom's modus operandi and raise awareness of the tools developed among research teams, contractors and private operators; and to build the platform's business model to ensure its long-term viability.