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11/1/2021 Embedding innovation  | Partnerships

Five winners sustainable fuels Open Innovation Challenge

Seaweed as a feedstock for bioLPG
Seaweed is one of the feedstocks that are considered for bioLPG
SHV Energy is pleased to announce the five winners from twenty-seven proposals received as a result of our Open Innovation Challenge towards advancing bioLPG, an important biobased and renewable fuel for off-grid defossilisation. 
Winner announcement sustainable fuels innovation challenge

BioLPG is currently a by-product in the production of renewable diesel. SHV Energy wants to expand available feedstock use and prioritise the production of bioLPG as a primary fuel. To realise that and develop commercially viable and scalable facilities and processes, a wide range of sustainable feedstock including wastes and residues needs to be considered. 

SHV Energy has the bold ambition for all energy products it supplies to be from sustainable and renewable sources by 2040. As a leading global distributor of LPG and LNG, they invest in research and development to find novel ways to produce sustainable fuels such as bioLPG, bioLNG, rDME, hydrogen and other sustainable ‘future’ fuels. Innovation is considered essential to realise these goals. This first Open Innovation challenge for bioLPG has shown a large global interest in this topic. 

The winners’ research proposals focus on feedstocks like seaweed, starch, agricultural wastes and CO2. They all include novel and different catalysts and processes that will increase yields. SHV Energy is happy to announce partnerships with the following five winners of the open innovation challenge: 

Sven Bilén and co-workers  The Pennsylvania State University 
Shiju Raveendran and co-workers  Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences University of Amsterdam
Haresh Manyar and co-workers  Queen's University Belfast
Jianke Liu and co-workers  Drochaid Research Services
Dr. Tao Lin and co-workers  Nanjing EnzymeTree

Rebecca Groen, SHV Energy Director Sustainable Fuels explains “We want to increase the impact we can have and help our customers in defossilising their energy use. To realise that, we are constantly on the lookout for partnerships with organisations and individuals globally that can help us to develop the knowledge and technologies that are required. This Open Innovation challenge has delivered new and innovative partners beyond our initial expectations.” 

Dr Keith Simons, SHV Energy Principal Scientist, echoes this and is delighted with the response received. “The quality of the proposals was very high, many different and creative solutions that sparked excellent discussions with the participants. The evaluation panel had a tough job trying to find a winner, so much so that we ended up with five winners instead of one!”
Winners receive € 50.000 in financial investment in their research project and most importantly, a partnership with SHV Energy to leverage the knowledge, networks and infrastructure of both organisations for mutual benefit. 

More information about the winning proposals will be shared in a webinar scheduled for November 23rd 2021.