• First open call to external entrepreneurs for this awards created in 2015 to promote innovation and corporate entrepreneurship inside Enagás
• The start-ups Orchestra and ADDENA are this edition’s winners, in the external and internal categories respectively
Enagás has celebrated the final of its ‘Ingenia Energy Challenge’ awards online, an event promoted by Enagás Emprende, Enagás’ open innovation and corporate entrepreneurship programme. Following the call for start-ups and scale-ups launched last January, Ingenia Energy Challenge received a total of 116 proposals from 107 participants, aimed at boosting the energy transition through innovation.
The winning project in the “external category”, which brings together all the proposals from entrepreneurs outside Enagás, was Orchestra. This start-up proposes to optimise the CO2 capture process through the development of highly selective membranes that allow CO2 to be separated from other gases. This proposal, which is already in the pilot phase in a real environment, presents an opportunity to decarbonise industries with high emissions and could be implemented at biogas upgrading plants.
The winning team in the “internal category”, which includes all the projects submitted by Enagás professionals, was ADDENA, a proposal that promotes the development of a market for bioLNG production from biogas. Its technology makes it possible to address the liquefaction of biogas on a micro-scale in plants far from the gas pipeline network and the liquefaction of evaporated gas produced in LNG supply plants to ships (bunkering) isolated from the network.
Three other projects also received accesit awards: B-Hydrogen, an internal project, and Solatom and Secure H2 storage in underground, both external projects. B-Hydrogen proposes to produce renewable hydrogen from the waste generated in the brewing process (bagasse); Solatom proposes to improve the energy efficiency of sectors such as the industrial by using solar boilers to generate heat in a renewable way; and Secure H2 storage in underground proposes to analyse the biological behaviour in underground storage facilities and the feasibility of storing mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen.
The panel for the Ingenia Energy Challenge awards is made up of Enagás executives representing all areas of the company and external professionals who are experts in entrepreneurship and innovation.
Enagás’ CEO, Marcelino Oreja, stressed that “corporate entrepreneurship provides essential support for companies like Enagás as they move towards a fair energy transition in an agile and efficient way. The proposals that have been presented at the Ingenia Energy Challenge awards are spearheading innovation for the energy transition that we at Enagás encourage and promote”.
Fernando Impuesto, General Manager of Enagás Emprende, commented that “this first open call for the Ingenia Energy Challenge awards is very special for us. It is another step in our programme, which was created in 2015, and provides an opportunity to access a wealth of talent, both inside and outside Enagás, capable of generating new growth opportunities for the company and the sector”.
Energy innovation awards
Ingenia Energy Challenge naturally evolved from ‘Ingenia Business’, a series of awards created in 2015 and initially aimed at Enagás professionals. It aimed to promote the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within the company and take advantage of all the internal knowledge and talent to develop ideas that would transform the energy sector. The excellent reception of previous editions has encouraged Enagás to go a step further and open the call to external entrepreneurs.
These awards are promoted by Enagás Emprende, the Corporate Venturing of Enagás responsible for investment in and acceleration of innovative start-ups and technologies in the field of energy transition and decarbonisation, with particular emphasis on renewable gases, sustainable mobility, energy efficiency, digitalisation and other clean technology projects.
Since 2015, Enagás Emprende has invested more than 23 million euros in a total of 14 companies (7 of them created by its professionals): Vira Gas Imaging, E4Efficiency, Scale Gas, Gas2Move, Sercomgas, SEA, Bioengas, SEaB Energy, HYGEN, DualMetha, Premery, Trovant Technology, H2Greem and Solatom.
All those taking part in these awards have received specific training in entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity. Enagás reviews all the proposals submitted and identifies those it considers most innovative and that contribute most to the energy transition process, supporting them to become viable business models with access to an entrepreneurial incubation programme.
