£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