The interview was originally published in Revue CentraleSupélec Alumni (Revue n°34 – 3e trimestre 2026). It has been translated into English for the Protein4Impact website.

What is the main objective of the project on agro-industrial residues?

Protein4Impact is a European project that aims to develop new, viable sources of protein for human consumption from agro-industrial residues. I would emphasise the term “viable”, because this viability is assessed from different perspectives – technical, industrial, economic, social and environmental. This is precisely the main challenge of the project. We are studying different agricultural co-products as well as various processing strategies.

What technological innovations are you developing to transform these residues into food ingredients?

Our team (CS) is working on a reactive extrusion process. During this process, the material – for example, brewer’s spent grain – is shaped and processed simultaneously in an extruder (pictured), through the combined effects of pressure, temperature and mechanical shear.

We have explored different operating conditions by varying the parameters and carrying out numerous experiments, with the aim of exploiting mechanical, thermal and chemical energy to modify and fractionate the biomass. This allows us to obtain protein-rich fractions from residues, particularly brewer’s spent grain.

How can this project inspire new practices in the agricultural and agri-food sectors?

This study is part of a biorefinery approach applied to residues produced in large quantities across Europe – brewer’s spent grain.

Through the processes developed, we have not only succeeded in obtaining new sources of protein, but also in producing bio-based materials from secondary co-products. In this way, the biomass can be further valorised and used to its full potential.