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Insider UK
Insider UK
Technology
Peter A Walker

£8 million awarded to 20 net zero technology businesses

The Net Zero Technology Centre has announced the 20 winners of its 2022 Open Innovation Programme.

The funding competition this year focused on developing and deploying technologies that will reduce offshore emissions, accelerate clean energy production and enable delivery of the UK’s net zero ambitions.

A total of 154 businesses from across the globe applied for a share of £8m available, with the potential of a maximum of £1m awarded to each successful project.

The game technologies were put through a selection process, ensuring each supports the transition towards net zero, with an obligation of trialling and deploying technology within the UK continental shelf. The 20 successful projects should deliver £7.8bn of gross value added for the UK economy, along with an impact of 3.1Mt CO2e annually.

As well as funding, the technology developers gain access to data, facilities and technical expertise from industry.

The winning technologies fall into seven focus areas: carbon capture, utilisation and storage; hydrogen and clean fuels; renewables and energy storage; zero emissions power; venting and flaring; integrity management; late life and decommissioning.

The winning ideas are set to help meet the goals of the report and develop high value, high impact opportunities for Scotland and the UK.

Among them, emerging electrolyser technologies and materials should advance reducing the cost of green hydrogen by 60%, while novel optical sensors to prevent corrosion in carbon capture and storage operations aim to support the UK to expand the carbon capture and storage market.

The Net Zero Technology Centre's next funding competition, due to open in January 2023, will focus on digital and data architecture, smart assets and field automation.

Myrtle Dawes, solution centre director at the Net Zero Technology Centre, commented: “We’re at a pivotal point in the energy transition, with political and social pressures weighing as heavy as environmental demands.

“The technology ideas we received were diverse, credible and exciting, making the selection process tough.

“There is no single solution to achieving net zero so nurturing innovation is key to establishing an integrated energy system, so we are investing in the areas where we know technology gaps exist and where the opportunity is substantial in accelerating the energy transition.”

The winning companies:

Company

Technology Idea

Technology detail

Late Life and Decom

1. CeraPhi Energy

Turning oil and gas liabilities into geothermal assets for net zero energy

Onshore field trial/demonstration of heat and energy production via geothermal techniques

2. Welldecommissioned

Optimised decommissioning as a stepping stone into the Energy Transition

Artificial intelligence-based software solution for use in the planning and optimisation of decommissioning activities

3. Sulmara

Remote data acquisition and intelligence service for offshore energy decommissioning

A fully unmanned over the horizon surface vessel capable of gathering data real time via an onshore remote command centre

Well Integrity



4. isol8

Eternal barrier material development

Composite alloy barrier material (AlloyCrete) providing long-term well integrity assurance

5. Pipetech

Downhole scale remediation

Scale remediation tool for the cleaning of hydrocarbon wells

Integrity Management


6. Copsys Technologies

Eliminating corrosion under insulation (CUI) with Copsys Intelligent Digital Skin

Intelligent digital skin paint-based technology used to detect and locate CUI

7. SubTeraNDT

Advancing an intelligent CUI and moisture pipeline inspection sensor

Handheld millimetre wave CUI inspection

8. Advance Hall Sensors

Novel magneto-imaging system for CUI mapping

Camera providing high resolution, non-contact magnetic imaging of corrosion under insulation

Venting & Flaring



9. Expro

Real-time flare emissions measurement and control

Development and field trial of a real time flare emissions measurement and control system

10. Expro

SmarTest flare-free closed chamber formation testing

Downhole telemetry system used for the collection of reservoir data and fluid samples

Zero Emissions Power



11. HiiROC in partnership with Centrica

Decarbonising gas peakers through hydrogen and showcasing CO2 sequestration through solid carbon

Integration & demonstration of the HiiROC H2 production system into an existing ‘gas peaking’ plant (Centrica Brigg)

Renewables



12. Innovatium Group

PRISMA liquid air battery

Liquid air battery combining compressed air production and energy storage in the form of highly energy dense liquified air

13. Enertechnos Ltd

Marinisation of capacitive transfer system cable for use in the electrification of the North Sea

Subsea power cable for use in offshore wind farms

Hydrogen



14. Ceimig

Development and testing of supported iridium catalysts for PEMWE electrodes

Development of a substrate to reduce the amount of iridium required for polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEM)

15. Oort Energy

High-performance, high-pressure electrolysis and compression

Development of an integrated electrolyser and electrochemical compression stack for green hydrogen production

16. B9 Technologies

Demo of a high-efficiency flow-field electrolyser for low-cost hydrogen production

Development and validation of the B9 flow-field electrolyser stack

CCUS



17. Ai Exploration

Novel optical sensors to prevent corrosion in CCS operations

Multispectral imaging corrosion sensor in CCS environmental conditions

18. Pace CCS Ltd

Predicting corrosive aqueous phase liquids in CCS pipelines induced by polar impurities

Software/modelling system to predict the corrosion risk to CCS pipelines

19. Heriot-Watt University

Risk-based, well decommissioning modelling framework to CCUS applications

Modelling tool to analyse and predict the leakage wells in CCS fields

20. WesternGeco

The use if surface DAS and adaptive monitoring to reduce CO2 plume monitoring

A passive seismic and surface deployed distributed acoustic sensing monitoring system for CCUS applications

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