Academic

Positions and collaborations

Member of the association of the French users of OpenFOAM, FOAM-U. Secretary from 2016 to 2020, treasurer from 2020 to date.

I am involved in several research collaborations. The ones reported here are those which can be traced by a shared scientific valorization item.

• RAPSODEE - Mines Albi - on beech wood self-heating.

• RIBP - Université Reims Champagne Ardenne - on microalgae photosynthesis.

• LPQM - CentraleSupélec - on a photobioreactor lighting system.

• IFPEN - Solaize - on heat transfer in packed beds.

• ABI – AgroParisTech - on flow cytometry analysis of microalgae.

• EMIR - IPEIM - on OpenFOAM application to woody biomass combustion optimization.

• I2M - Université de Bordeaux - on DEM/OpenFOAM coupling for heat transfer in packed bed reactors.

Supervision, teaching and trainings

I direct(ed) or supervise(d) Ph.D. students (2 in progress, 6 graduated - 1 award-winning -) and post-doctoral fellows as well as numerous BSc and MSc students:

• Development, modeling and optimization of CO2 separation process using membrane contactor : applied to hydrogen purification, defended by Sayali Ramdas Chavan on April 4 2022.

• Biotechnological performances of acclimated green microalgae cultures : effect of light and its modulations, defended by Wendie Levasseur on August 30 2021 (Award).

• Production de biométhane à partir de biogaz par technologie de séparation par adsorption PSA : optimisation numérique par approche multi-échelle, defended by Najib Chouikhi on December 8 2020.

• Development of a system of small pressurizable bioreactors used to assess Saccharomyces cerevisiae’s behaviour under CO₂ and O₂ pressure, defended by Na Cui on July 21 2020.

• Auto-échauffement d’un lit ventilé de matériaux carbonés : cas du bois torréfié, defended by Amina Bouzarour on December 11 2019.

• Simulation du bullage dans un photobioréacteur, defended by Wenbiao Jiang on December 5 2018.

My formal teachings activities are:

• M2 - in charge of the Non-Ideal Reactor course, ca. 30 h/y

• M2 - practicals on CFD with Comsol, ca. 14 h/y

• L3 - one-week boot camp on Heat exchangers biofouling, ca. 35 h/y

• L3 - lecture and practicals on Heat balance & transfers, ca. 14 h/y

• many other occasional or reoccurring involvements

I also provide training to OpenFOAM, usually through 2 to 3-day sessions, once or twice a year.

Finally, over the course of my Ph.D., I gave more than 250 hours of teachings, including lectures in amphitheaters.

Publications

The list of the peer-reviewed publications I authored or co-authored, as well as conferences I presented my work to. For more info, please follow my ORCID or Google Scholar profile. For the sake of convenience, I linked publishers’ websites, still, almost all of my published articles are available in open archives such as HAL.

• Microalgae bio-reactive façade: A radiative-convective model powered by hourly illumination computation and historical weather data. Pozzobon, V. (2024). Journal of Building Engineering, 90, 109407. (Preprint)

• Multi-scale investigation of heat and momentum transfer in packed-bed TES systems up to 800 K. Liu, S., Ahmadi-Senichault, A., Pozzobon, V., & Lachaud, J. (2024). Applied energy, 366, 123285. (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• Microalgal cell division tracking using CFSE. Pozzobon, V., Lagirarde, J., Arnoudts, C., & Levasseur, W. (2024). Algal research, 80, 103501. (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• Microalgae bio-reactive façade: Location and weather-based systematic optimization. Pozzobon, V. (2024). Building and Environment, 253, 111352. (Preprint) (Supplementary materials)

• Systematic formulation of brewery effluent for high-efficiency epuration and food-grade microalgae production. Pozzobon, V., Lemaire, J. & Lagirarde, J. (2024). Bioresource Technology Reports, 25, 101795. (Preprint)

• Heterotrophic culture of Scenedesmus almeriensis for lutein productivity enhancement. Camarena-Bernard, C., Jullien, T. & Pozzobon, V. (2024). Journal of Applied Phycology. 1-14 (Preprint)

• Impact of 3D printing materials on microalga Chlorella vulgaris. Pozzobon, V., Otaola, F., Arnoudts, C. & Lagirarde, J. (2023). Bioresource Technology, 389, 129807. (Preprint) (Supplementary materials)

• Assessment of Photosynthetic Carbon Capture versus Carbon Footprint of an Industrial Microalgal Process. Oliver, A., Camarena-Bernard, C., Lagirarde, J. & Pozzobon, V. (2023). Applied sciences, 13(8), 5193. (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• A Novel Strategy to Enhance Antioxidant Content in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Based on Oxygen Pressure. Cui, N., Perré, P., Michiels, E. & Pozzobon, V. (2023). Bioengineering, 10(2), 246. (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• Chlorella vulgaris acclimated cultivation under flashing light: an in-depth investigation under iso-actinic conditions. Levasseur, W., Perré, P., & Pozzobon, V. (2023). Algal research, 70, 102976. (Preprint) (Supplementary materials)

• A Numerical Study of Turbulent Combustion of a Lignocellulosic Gas Mixture in an Updraft Fixed Bed Reactor. Khlifi, S., Lajili, M., Perré, P. & Pozzobon, V. (2022). Sustainability, 14(24), 16587. (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• Lutein, violaxanthin, and zeaxanthin spectrophotometric quantification: a machine learning approach. Pozzobon, V. & Camarena-Bernard, C. (2022). Journal of Applied Phycology. 35, 1-12. (Associated repository) (Preprint) (Supplementary materials)

• Food-grade cultivation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae from potato waste. Cui, N. & Pozzobon, V. (2022). AgriEngineering, 4(4), 951-968. (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• Chlorella vulgaris cultivation under super high light intensity: an application of the flashing light effect. Pozzobon, V. (2022). Algal research, 68, 102874. (Preprint) (Supplementary materials)

• Photosynthesis in bioremediation. Levasseur, W., & Pozzobon, V. (2022). In Microbes and Microbial Biotechnology for Green Remediation (pp. 247-263). Elsevier.

• Green microalgae in intermittent light: a meta-analysis assisted by machine learning. Levasseur, W., Pozzobon, V. & Perre, P. (2021). Journal of Applied Phycology, 34, 135-158. (Preprint) (Supplementary materials)

• CO₂ Absorption Using Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors: Introducing pH Swing Absorption (pHSA) to Overcome Purity Limitation. Chavan, S. R., Perré, P., Pozzobon, V., & Lemaire, J. (2021). Membranes, 11(7), 496. (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• Nitrate and nitrite as mixed source of nitrogen for Chlorella vulgaris: fast nitrogen quantification using spectrophotometer and machine learning. Pozzobon, V., Levasseur, W., Guerin, C., & Perre, P. (2021). Journal of Applied Phycology, 33, 1-9. (Associated repository) (Preprint)

• Nitrate and nitrite as mixed source of nitrogen for Chlorella vulgaris: growth, nitrogen uptake and pigment contents. Pozzobon, V., Cui, N., Moreaud, A., Michiels, E., & Levasseur, W. (2021). Bioresource Technology, 330, 124995. (Preprint)

• Numerical determination of the volumetric heat transfer coefficient in fixed beds of wood chips. Sassanis, V., Gamet, L., Rolland, M., Ma, R., & Pozzobon, V. (2020). Chemical Engineering Journal, 417, 128009. (Associated repository) (Preprint)

• Effect of increasing oxygen partial pressure on Saccharomyces cerevisiae growth and antioxidant and enzyme productions. Cui, N., Pozzobon, V., Guerin, C., & Perre, P. (2020). Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 104(18), 7815-7826.

• Pyrolysis of wood and PVC mixtures: thermal behaviour and kinetic modelling. Ephraim, A., Pozzobon, V., Lebonnois, D., Peregrina, C., Sharrock, P., Nzihou, A., & Minh, D. P. (2020). Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, 13, 1-15.

• Machine learning processing of microalgae flow cytometry readings: illustrated with Chlorella vulgaris viability assays. Pozzobon, V., Levasseur, W., Viau, E., Michiels, E., Clement, T., & Perre, P. (2020). Journal of Applied Phycology, 32, 1-10. (Preprint)

• Mass transfer in hollow fiber membrane contactor: Computational fluid dynamics determination of the shell side resistance. Pozzobon, V., & Perré, P. (2020). Separation and Purification Technology, 241, 116674. (Preprint)

• Multiscale numerical workflow describing microalgae motion and light pattern incidence towards population growth in a photobioreactor. Pozzobon, V., & Perré, P. (2020). Journal of Theoretical Biology, 498, 110293. (Preprint)

• A review of high value-added molecules production by microalgae in light of the classification. Levasseur, W., Perré, P. & Pozzobon, V. (2020). Biotechnology Advances, 41, 107545. (Preprint)

• Desmodesmus sp. pigment and FAME profiles under different illuminations and nitrogen status. Pozzobon, V., Levasseur, W., Guerin C., Gaveau-Vaillant N., Pointcheval M., & Perré, P. (2020). Bioresource Technology Reports, 10, 100409.

• Shear stress computation in an millimeter thin flat panel photobioreactor: numerical design validated by experiments. Jiang, W., Levasseur, W., Casalinho, J., Martin, T., Puel, F., Perré, P., & Pozzobon, V. (2020). Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry, 68(1), 60-70.

• Household aluminum foil matte and bright side reflectivity measurements: Application to a photobioreactor light concentrator design. Pozzobon, V., Levasseur, W., Do, K. V., Palpant, B., & Perré, P. (2020). Biotechnology Reports, 25, e00399. (Associated repository) (Publisher open Access) (PDF file)

• Cottage cheese in a diet – a review. Pozzobon, V., & Pozzobon, C. (2019). Nutrition & Food Science, 49(6), 1265-1274. (Preprint)

• Experimental and numerical investigation binary mixture mass transfer in a gas–Liquid membrane contactor. Fougerit, V., Pozzobon, V., Pareau, D., Théoleyre, M. A., & Stambouli, M. (2019). Journal of Membrane Science, 572, 1-11.

• Impact of seconds to minutes photoperiods on Chlorella vulgaris growth rate and chlorophyll a and b content. Levasseur, W., Taidi, B., Lacombe, R., Perré, P., & Pozzobon, V. (2018). Algal research, 36, 10-16. (Preprint)

• Hydrodynamics of a packed bed of non-spherical polydisperse particles: A fully virtual approach validated by experiments. Pozzobon, V., Colin, J., & Perré, P. (2018). Chemical Engineering Journal, 354, 126-136. (Preprint)

• Biomass gasification under high solar heat flux: Advanced modeling. Pozzobon, V., Salvador, S., & Bézian, J. J. (2018). Fuel, 214, 300-313. (Preprint)

• 10% Loss of Incident Power through Solar Reactor Window: Myth or Good Rule of Thumb? Pozzobon, V. (2018). Applied Solar Energy, 54(2), 131-133. (Preprint)

• Probabilistic modeling of coupled heat transfer: A step towards optimization based on multiphysics Monte Carlo simulations. Spiesser, C., Pozzobon, V., Farges, O., & Bezian, J. J. (2018). International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 132, 387-397.

• Experimental study of torrefied wood fixed bed: thermal analysis and source term identification. Bouzarour, A., Pozzobon, V., Perre, P., & Salvador, S. (2018). Fuel, 234, 247-255.

• Resveratrol production by grapevine cells in fed-batch bioreactor: Experiments and modeling. Chastang, T., Pozzobon, V., Taidi, B., Courot, E., Clément, C., & Pareau, D. (2018). Biochemical engineering journal, 131, 9-16.

• Han’s model parameters for microalgae grown under intermittent illumination: Determined using particle swarm optimization. Pozzobon, V., & Perre, P. (2018). Journal of theoretical biology, 437, 29-35. (Preprint)

• Darcy scale modeling of smoldering: impact of heat loss. Pozzobon, V., Baud, G., Salvador, S., & Debenest, G. (2017). Combustion Science and Technology, 189(2), 340-365. (Preprint)

• Gas-liquid absorption in industrial cross-flow membrane contactors: Experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of transmembrane pressure on partial wetting. Fougerit, V., Pozzobon, V., Pareau, D., Théoleyre, M. A., & Stambouli, M. (2017). Chemical Engineering Science, 170, 561-573.

• Simulation of biomass char gasification in a downdraft reactor for syngas production. Ephraim, A., Pozzobon, V., Louisnard, O., Minh, D. P., Nzihou, A., & Sharrock, P. (2016). AIChE Journal, 62(4), 1079-1091.

• Biomass gasification under high solar heat flux: Experiments on thermally thick samples. Pozzobon, V., Salvador, S., & Bézian, J. J. (2016). Fuel, 174, 257-266. (Preprint)

• High heat flux mapping using infrared images processed by inverse methods: an application to solar concentrating systems. Pozzobon, V., & Salvador, S. (2015). Solar Energy, 117, 29-35. (Preprint)

• Radiative pyrolysis of wet wood under intermediate heat flux: Experiments and modeling. Pozzobon, V., Salvador, S., Bézian, J. J., El-Hafi, M., Le Maoult, Y., & Flamant, G. (2014). Fuel Processing Technology, 128, 319-330. (Preprint)

Invitations as guest speaker

• Modélisation biologique et design de photobioréacteurs pour la valorisation de biomasse microalgale (part of the round table: La pluridisciplinarité, un atout pour la bioraffinerie et la valorisation de la biomasse.) Pozzobon, V. (2023, March). Invited talk, Forum Labo, Paris, France.

• Machine learning activities at the Chair of Biotechnology of CentraleSupélec. Pozzobon, V. (2023, January). Invited talk, HubIA CentraleSupélec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

• Emergence of the behavior of a population from its individuals: application to a photobioreactor. Pozzobon, V. (2021, March). Invited talk, Unité PROSE, INRAE, Antony, France.

• Biomass gasification under radiative heat flux. Pozzobon, V. (2019, April). In VKI lecture series Pyrolysis phenomena in porous media, The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium.

• Granular media characterization: an application to wood chips bed. Pozzobon, V. & Perré P. (2018, November). In OpenFOAM on fixed beds days, IFPEN, Solaize, France.

• Effet de la photopériode sur la croissance des microalgues. Pozzobon, V. & Filali R. (2018, October). In Journée microalgues, European Center for Biotechnology and Bioeconomy, Pomacle, France.

• What is it to work as a PhD. Pozzobon, V. (2017, January). In Conférence métier, ENSEEIHT, Toulouse, France.

Proceedings

• Bubble formation and detachment: an investigation by experiments and simulations. Jiang, W., Pozzobon, V., Casalinho, J., Martin, T., Perre, P., & Puel, F. (2018, June). In 8th International Colloids Conference.

• Modeling the absorption of a gas mixture in a cross-flow hollow-fiber membrane module. Fougerit V., Pozzobon V., Pareau D., Théoleyre M-A., & Stambouli M. (2017, August). 13th International Conference on Gas–Liquid and Gas–Liquid–Solid Reactor Engineering (GLS13), Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium.

• Behaviour of chloride pollutants in syngas from wood waste pyro-gasification: a modeling approach. Ephraim A., Pozzobon V., Minh DP., Nzihou A., & Sharrock P. (2016, May). 6th International Conference on Energy from Biomass and Waste, Venice, Italy.

• Simulation of biochar gasification in a downdraft reactor for syngas production. Ephraim A., Pozzobon V., Louisnard O., Minh DP., Nzihou A., & Sharrock P. (2016, May). In WasteEng 2016-6th International Conference on Engineering for Waste and Biomass Valorisation.

• Beech wood gasification under high radiative heat flux. Pozzobon, V., Salvador, S., Bézian, J. J., El-Hafi, M., & Flamant, G. (2014, August). In WasteEng 2014-5th International Conference on Engineering for Waste and Biomass Valorisation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

• Gazéification de la biomasse lignocellulosique sous haute densité de flux solaire: séchage et pyrolyse. Pozzobon, V., Salvador, S., Bézian, J. J., El-Hafi, M., & Le Maoult, Y. (2013, May). In SFT Conference 2013, Geradmer, France.

Conference presentations (without proceeding)

I do not keep track of the conferences I, or a member of my team, present to. There are just too many. As a good rule of thumb, I give 4 conference talks per year.

Habilitation Thesis

My thesis is titled Modeling as a tool for chemical and biochemical engineering and was defended in September 2020 at Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, in front of the following jury:

• Prof. Olivier Masbernat (president of the jury)
• Prof. Anthony Dufour (reviewer)
• Prof. Pascal Guiraud (reviewer)
• Prof. Julien Laurent (reviewer)
• Prof. Théodore Bouchez (examinator)
• Prof. Jean-François Thovert (examinator)
• Prof. Gérald Debenest (sponsor)
• Prof. Patrick Perré (supervisor)

The text is available in full here.

Ph.D. Thesis

My thesis is titled Biomass gasification under high solar heat flux and was defended in November 2015 at Mines Albi, RAPSODEE, France, in front of the following jury:

• Prof. Michel Quintard (president of the jury)
• Prof. Jean-François Thovert (reviewer)
• Dr. Laurent Van De Steene (reviewer)
• Prof. Gilles Flamant (examinator)
• Prof. Fabrice Patisson (examinator)
• Prof. Sylvain Salvador (director)
• Dr. Jean-Jacques Bézian (director)

It was financed by Labex Solstice. The text is available in full here or on HAL open archives.