Nom of the internship supervisors: Thomas Karbowiak & Julie Chanut

Duration: 6 months

Starting date: 2027 – Flexible, to be agreed upon with the selected candidate 

Laboratory name : PAM lab, PCAV team Physico-Chimie des Aliments et du Vin

Candidate profile: Master’s student (M2) or final-year engineering student with an interest in physical chemistry, food science, wine science, transport phenomena or modelling.

What you will learn:  the internship will provide hands-on experience in food physical chemistry, oxygen measurement, mass transfer and diffusion, experimental data analysis and mathematical modelling.

Scientific context and objectives
Why do some foods and wines oxidize rapidly whereas others remain stable for much longer?
Before reacting with food or wine components, oxygen must first enter the product, dissolve and diffuse through the matrix. The rates of these processes can vary considerably depending on the composition and physical properties of the product.
However, oxidation studies often rely on simplifying assumptions, considering that equilibrium between air and the liquid phase is instantaneous and that dissolved oxygen is immediately and homogeneously distributed throughout the product.
The aim of this internship is to challenge these assumptions by quantifying oxygen transport and diffusion in different food matrices and separating these physical processes from oxygen consumption
through chemical reactions.

Combining experiments and modelling
The project will combine experimental measurements, physical chemistry and modelling.
Following a focused review of available oxygen measurement techniques and reference transport parameters, experiments will be conducted on different model systems, including water, model wine
solutions and oils.
Oxygen concentrations will be monitored over time under different storage conditions to determine key parameters such as oxygen solubility, partition coefficients, mass-transfer kinetics and diffusion
coefficients. 
The experimental results will then be used to develop and validate a model describing oxygen transport within the different matrices.
Ultimately, this approach will contribute to coupling oxygen transport with oxidation reactions in order to better predict product evolution and the shelf life of food and wine during storage