Is preserving our oceans a real challenge?

Tires that wear out. Windshield washer fluid that drips onto the road. Oil spills. Detergent used to clean graffiti or a road surface. Cigarette butts, chewing gum, or even plastic wrap that's been carelessly thrown on the ground... Have you ever wondered where all this waste goes?

Romain Garcin, co-founder and director of the Dracénoise startup Vertuoso , has the answer. "When it rains, the water washes the streets and the waste is pushed towards the drains and outlets of the stormwater networks before ending up in the sea," he laments. "80% of marine pollution comes from land-based activities; it's 100% for lakes and rivers. Every year, 600,000 tons of plastic are released into the Mediterranean."

Hence its solution intended for local authorities but also for businesses: two standard filtration systems, one adapting to all roads and all cast iron frames for drains, and the second for outlets which is suitable for each network exit situation. Collecting macro-waste, fine particles and hydrocarbons, they are without risk of obstruction or saturation of the upstream storm network. "The stainless steel system is durable, low tech and does not require regular maintenance: no more than two to four per year to empty it. Hydro-cleaning is no longer necessary, estimates the startupper who adds. We are in the Anthropocene era [geological epoch which began when the influence of human beings on geology and ecosystems became significant on the scale of the history of the Earth, editor's note ] and we have created our geological stratum in which we find our pollutants!" Vertuoso's solution, which is being accelerated at Village by CA PCA in Sophia Antipolis, is already operational in several cities: Sainte-Maxime, Aix, Bobigny and "we should soon be installing a complete road network in Lille as well as an industrial site and another protected site. We are also a design office and we can therefore explain to our clients the number of filtration systems to install and their positioning."

Romain Garcin has another reason for satisfaction. In this case, the three awards he won at the last Paris Fair: the Paris City Hall Prize, the silver medal at the Sceau des Nautes, and, above all, the gold at the Lépine Competition. The startupper, who plans to add sensors to drains to determine when waste collection is due, is currently negotiating a partnership with a public works materials distributor. "This would allow us to market a complete, ready-to-install kit" and further protect nature.

LiDAR is a remote sensing technology that uses laser beams found in barcode readers, for example. By providing 3D data, LiDAR is a key tool in mapping, archaeology, and environmental monitoring. This is something experienced Russian oceanographer Vadim Pelevin and his team of researchers have understood. They have developed their own laser-induced fluorescence LiDAR within LIFeLiDAR —the company founded in Perpignan in 2023 and based in Sophia Antipolis since 2024. Translation: the particles suspended in the water each send back to the LiDAR a particular type of light signal which is then analyzed by algorithms and "we can detect the type of matter in the water without taking samples: plant pollutants, organic pollutants such as petroleum products (on the surface and submerged), microplastics, suspended sediments... We obtain a real-time, high-resolution and continuous assessment of the key parameters of water quality" , explains Vadim Pelevin.

Supported by Ademe , the startup will carry out field tests this summer on the surface layer of the ocean – that is, up to ten meters deep – and "we are working on a model going up to 60 meters deep which should be launched by the end of the year."

LIFeLiDAR targets three types of customers: water authorities who need to continuously monitor water quality, such as wastewater treatment plants or ports; the oil industry; and the scientific community. The Nice-based startup is also developing two other projects. The first is a winner of Innov Eau de France 2030. Developed in partnership with Vortex.io and Magellium , its goal is to set up an observatory for the quality of continental waters. "We will be able to install our microsensors on bridges and monitor water quality continuously." The first tests conducted this fall should lead to a prototype next spring. Finally, the last project concerns the deep sea. Subsea Lif was developed in partnership with the Marseille-based aquatic and underwater equipment design office Adequate Tools . It is a LiDAR microsensor which, positioned on a remote-controlled underwater vehicle, will be able to detect pollution from pipelines or drilling stations up to 6,000 meters deep.

Using living organisms to monitor water quality may seem like a simple idea, but it was extremely complex to implement. After twenty years of research and development, the CNRS and the University of Bordeaux achieved this technological feat: equipping mollusks with sensors to continuously monitor water quality. MolluSCAN-eye is the result of these years of research. The startup, founded in Bordeaux two years ago, was co-founded by Ludovic Quintault and Jean-Charles Massabuau. Today, they have three collaborators, rolling out their solution around the world, including soon in Golfe-Juan.

"Too many environmental disasters have unfortunately highlighted the lack of control over human impact on water quality." This is what MolluSCAN-eye's president, Ludovic Quintault, says. He is committed to improving water quality to preserve health and the environment. The startup's target market? Ports, water treatment plants, aquaculture farms, oyster farmers, and more.

"We install sensors on oysters, mussels, and other corbiculas, " he continues, "on the outside of the shells so as not to disturb the mollusk's development, because everything happens in the natural environment." Ultralight electromagnets are connected to a surface box, which is itself connected to a mobile network that continuously and directly analyzes the water quality. An email or SMS alert indicates if a pollution episode is in progress. "We have moved from fundamental research to concrete application," explains Ludovic Quintault cheerfully. "It's an ultra-precise solution that saves researchers from having to go out every day to take samples that will only be analyzed several days later. We are talking about real-world anticipation of possible contamination and other pollution peaks."

At €25,000 per solution with a monthly subscription, the solution would quickly become profitable. It is already operational in several ports, both in France and abroad (Slovenia, etc.) and should soon arrive in the port of Golfe-Juan. With equity capital from the outset, MolluSCAN-eye already generated €100,000 in revenue last year, a figure that should double or triple this year. "We should raise funds soon to bring in one or more investors from the blue economy to support our growth."

It's impossible not to mention the solution implemented by Klearia, a deeptech company based in Nice that works hand in hand with IMREDD. Its CEO, Clément Nanteuil, is a pro at mini-laboratories, that small technology that allows you to obtain selected information in a minimum of space and time. This is the case, for example, for diagnosing pregnancy, Covid, blood sugar levels, etc. He adapted the technology to water. And especially on an industrial scale, with a "test" that isn't disposable, called PANDa.

This mini-laboratory (the size of a small fitting room) immediately detects around fifteen pollutants and helps inform decision-making to optimize water resource management. "We make the invisible visible because we are concerned about the concentration of heavy metals, pesticides, and eternal pollutants in the water we consume, which are implicated in certain cancers, infertility, etc. We want to be an impactful company." Its solution targets large water treatment centers, both public and private, i.e., sanitation or drinking water treatment plants.

Klearia was born in 2012. The PANDa solution is patented and certified by the Solar Impulse Foundation. It has already received a €2 million grant since its launch. Klearia, having found a growth driver in cosmetics (manufacturing alcohol-free perfumes for major brands using nanoemulsions), is expected to break even this year. Eight employees are working to disseminate the PANDa solution, which has been in pilot mode with Suez since 2022, and are in contact with the three major French water management groups. The deeptech, which is about to scale up, intends to protect health and the environment with its disruptive innovation. Its revenue has doubled in one year and is expected to triple in the next financial year.

From Mougins, Lucien Tanghe created Reshell , a device to combat the acidification of our seas and oceans. "Marine waters are equipped with a skin, a thin film of 0.03 mm that absorbs the CO2 we release. Except that this skin absorbs far too much carbon dioxide, which increases the acidity of the water. Everything that lives underwater is affected by this acidity. To combat this phenomenon, calcium carbonate is an excellent natural process and oyster shells are made up of 96% of it."

Reshell's idea is to give back to the sea what it helped to create. In France, more than 130,000 tons of oysters are produced each year. And oyster shells are waste that is difficult to recycle. Hence the intervention of Lucien Tanghe, who wants to collect these shells from oyster shops, restaurants, and other vendors, to make 16 m3 gabions to be submerged 10 meters deep, 50 meters from the coast. "Obviously, this solution, whose cost is estimated at 1 euro per m3, will not immediately reduce the acidity of the sea. But little by little, and space by space, we can revive our seas and oceans, and ourselves by extension."

Reshell is in talks with several municipalities in the department to test its solution. Its teams have already collected three tons of oyster shells and are aiming to collect 50 tons this year.