From “self-healing” paint to tackle corrosion to a battery which can store energy as “liquified air”, 20 winners have been unveiled as part of a £10 million technology funding competition.
The Aberdeen-based Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) launched its Open Innovation Programme in March.
It is aimed at developing technology which can reduce emissions offshore, accelerate clean energy production and, ultimately, help to deliver the UK’s net-zero ambitions.
Of 154 applicants for the first £8m tranche, 20 have been selected – most of them based in the north-east.
A second round for the remainder of the funding be announced later.
“If we could have, we would have supported more.”
Rebecca Allison, head of emissions reduction, NZTC.
The NZTC competition winners were selected across categories, including carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), hydrogen and clean fuels, renewables and energy storage, zero emissions power, venting and flaring, integrity management, and late life and decommissioning.
Among the successes is Copsys, which has designed an “intelligent digital skin” paint-based technology which can detect and mitigate corrosion.
Energy services firm Expro was the big winner in the venting and flaring category.
North-east winners include Aberdeen-based Sulmara Subsea, whose uncrewed drone system is expected to significantly reduce the size of vessel needed for offshore surveys and wind farm inspections.
Selection process
Rebecca Allison, NZTC’s head of emissions reduction, said whittling the competition roster down to 20 was a tough call.
That meant a £1m increase to this funding round, which was initially billed at £7m.
Ms Allison added: “There have been some really exciting technologies come through in the programme – each and every one of them has real potential.
“They went through a robust screening in the industry to see how viable they were.
“If we could have, we would have supported more.”
NZTC head of emissions reduction Rebecca Allison.
Each one of the projects has at least one industry sponsor and an NZTC project manager associated with it to provide technical expertise, guidance or feedback on development, depending on its maturity.
Several are already in field trials, with NZTC facilitating links in the wider energy industry to help the technology developers move their projects towards commercialisation.
NZTC is sponsored by industry and £180m of UK and Scottish government investment as part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, signed in 2016.
It made a “conscious decision” to launch a competition targeting pressing areas for technology developers amid the energy transition rather than a more typical open call.
‘Affordable technology for the net-zero future’
Ms Allison added: “We really wanted to put out a large call to action to stimulate a development community and reach out to other industries in the UK and globally to see which technologies are suitable for our space.
“We’ve always had solutions centres specific to industry challenges, so we looked across these areas and asked ‘where are some of the technology gaps, and what has the supply chain got that we can then accelerate and de-risk research and get it into a trial situation?’
“This is affordable technology for the net-zero future.”
NZTC competition winners
* Late life and decommissioning – CeraPhi Energy, Welldecommissioned, Sulmara Subsea
* Well integrity – isol8, Pipetech
* Integrity management/corrosion under insulation – Copsys Technologies, SubTeraNDT, Advance Hall Sensors
* Venting and flaring – Expro (two projects)
* Zero emissions power – HiiROC, in partnership with Centrica
* Renewables – Innovatium Group, Enertechnos
* Hydrogen – Ceimig, Oort Energy, B9 Technologies
* CCUS – Ai Exploration, Pace CCS, Heriot-Watt University, WesternGeco
Sulmara Subsea won for its concept for an unmanned vessel capable of gathering valuable data offshore.
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