On Saturday, May 26, 2018, Romain Desportes, a first-year engineering student at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Châlons-en-Champagne, won the Paris edition ofEurovia's #HackTheRoad competition with his "Vialg" project.
#HackTheRoad: The hackathon created by Eurovia
On May 25 and 26, 2018, Eurovia organized six simultaneous hackathons in six French cities (Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Nantes, Bordeaux, Metz, and Saint-Étienne). Borrowed from the digital industry, the term "hackathon" refers to an event where teams must develop a project within a limited time frame. Under the name #HackTheRoad, this challenge, open to all engineering and business school students, aimed to reinvent the road in 24 hours with one issue per city:
- Aix-en-Provence - Hack the supply chain!
- Nantes - Reinvent the road with 3D printing!
- Bordeaux - Imagine the augmented worker!
- Metz - Connect site managers!
- Saint-Étienne - Hack the construction site!
- Paris - Absorb the city's pollution!
Originally from the Paris region, Romain wanted to take up the challenge by participating in the capital's #HackTheRoad challenge: "From a professional point of view, I'm interested inthe construction and publicworks sector . This Eurovia hackathon was therefore a great opportunity to make contacts in this field."
The engineering student therefore joined a team consisting of two Eurovia mentors and two students from ESITC, the École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs des Travaux de la Construction(Higher School of Civil Engineering).
The seven teams competing had the opportunity to tackle the issueof"Absorbing urban pollution!" from four different angles: visual pollution, noise pollution, reducing the urban heat island effect, and air quality. "My team and I decided to focus on air quality with a specific idea in mind: reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air," adds Romain.
The "Vialg" project, or how to absorb CO2 in an eco-friendly way
After 24 hours of deliberation, Romain's team presented the "Vialg" project to the jury members. The students started with a simple observation: thanks to the presence of microalgae in the oceans, they absorb more than 30% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere and produce 50% of oxygen (O2). However, how could this empirical observation be applied in practice to Eurovia's business challenge?
"In the city, there are more than 14 manhole covers per kilometer of road. Our goal was to integrate a device into the manhole covers that would enable microalgae to photosynthesize ," Romain explains. To do this, the students replaced the cast iron manhole covers with Plexiglas. Polymethyl methacrylate (the technical name for Plexiglas) is a thermoplastic polymer that is strong enough to withstand foot traffic and bicycles. The transparency of Plexiglas also allows microalgae to photosynthesize, which is the bioenergetic process that enables chlorophyll-containing plants to synthesize organic matter from CO2 using light energy.
"The idea is to install an aquarium filled with saltwater and microalgae beneath the manhole cover, taking care to leave a space between it and the water level. Thanks to the installation of an aeration system, the air to be purified circulates above the water. The CO2 contained in the air is then fixed by the photosynthesis of the microalgae and dissolves. The air thus exits the system depleted of CO2," explains the student.
With this solution, the "Vialg" project caught the jury's attention and was awarded first prize. The students shared the €3,000 prize money. Eurovia also offered Romain the opportunity to explore this topic further during a six-month internship.
For the engineering student, the training in energy and mechanical engineering provided at Arts et Métiers enabled Arts et Métiers to propose a viable technical solution to his group: "During the presentation, I was the technical expert for our group. In order for the water to absorb CO2, air had to be able to circulate properly. This required the correct sizing of the Plexiglas inspection cover as well as the ventilation system."
Congratulations to Romain and his team for this victory and this breath of fresh air in the world of construction!
