On April 14, from the offices of via Lugaro, the online event "Open Innovation: university and business to give future to ideas" was broadcast, organized by La Stampa together with Italgas, in the presence of the director of the newspaper Massimo Giannini, Paolo Gallo (CEO Italgas), Guido Saracco (Dean Politecnico di Torino), Silvia Candiani (Country Manager Microsoft Italy) and Giuseppe Scellato (President I3P).

During the initiative, the three winning startups of the Ideas4Italgas competitionwere presented. The call opened in November 2020, in collaboration with I3P, launched the challenge to identify new technological solutions useful for the digital transformation of Italgas, which is investing 2 billion euros in the transition in the energy sector to become the first utility in the world with a fully digitized network.

The themes of the projects were:

• energy efficiency, industrial and residential;
• car fleet management and staff mobility;
• network infrastructure monitoring, management and control;
• safety of operators in the field;
• development of processes for filtering, transporting and storing traditional energy carriers;
• exploration of emerging energy vectors, e.g. hydrogen and gas blending.

The winning startups were selected from more than 60 that submitted applications in the fall, and Italgas will implement their solutions as part of its operational activities.

The three winners

Composite Research

Developed and patented MadFlex technology, to repair pipes quickly, durably and strong thanks to an ultralight material with unique mechanical properties. Italgas will help the startup further develop the product and bring it to certification for later use in the gas distribution industry. I3P highlighted the compelling intellectual property exploitation strategy and scalability potential of the product. Visit the Composite Research website

i-TES

Founded in 2016, it deals with energy efficiency and has devised a type of thermal battery, based on patented technology, capable of storing, managing and using the energy produced by all heat sources. The device will be installed at Italgas substations, to contain self-consumption. Visit the i-TES website

StoreH

Innovative system of energy storage and hydrogen production with a HOD (Hydrogen generation on demand) device, in response to the current problem of intermittent operation of plants powered by renewable sources. The project is at a very advanced prototyping stage in an emerging field such as hydrogen. Visit the StoreH website

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