And, the winners of the New Energy Challenge 2023 are...

This year, Shell partnered with Rockstart, Unknown Group and YES!Delft for the 8th edition of the New Energy Challenge. Being one of the world’s most active investors and collaborators with start-ups and scale-ups in climate, mobility and energy tech, Shell hosts this event on an annual basis. This year’s edition invited entrepreneurs working at the interface between the energy- and agricultural transition to pitch their solutions in domains like sustainable fertilizers, biofuels, regenerative agriculture, soil biochemistry and more. As the energy and the agricultural sectors are both experiencing the biggest transition in their history, they are finding each other in the middle, where mother nature provides a solution on the short- and medium term to capture carbon at scale.

Besides more ‘engineered’ solutions like Direct Air Capture (‘DAC’), Carbon Capture and Sequestration (‘CCS’) or emerging technologies like enhanced mineralization to capture carbon, nature provides a more short-term and proven solution to capturing carbon at scale: through photosynthesis and microbial activity, nature has capacity to store carbon at material quantities in crops, biomass and in - to a lesser extend - in soils, which will help to transition from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy in the coming decades.

At the New Energy Challenge , we had ten amazing start-ups pitching for three prizes, but more importantly, we had an opportunity to contribute to learning between these entrepreneurs and offering opportunities to work with a corporate like Shell, who is actively building the future energy system. Through Shell Gamechanger and Shell Ventures we don’t just offer funding, we support entrepreneurs in the energy and mobility system with techno-economic feasibility studies, deep technical expertise, pilots and tests and lab space (at our energy transitions campus in Amsterdam and Houston). Why? Because a lot of exciting innovation in the energy sector happens through start-ups, who collectively outspend and outsmart the corporate R&D programs in the energy industry.

We have no illusion that we can teach entrepreneurs how to do what they do best, but we can support them on their journey to reach impact at scale. And, at Shell, we do understand scale.

Here are some of the finalists who pitched to us during the New Energy Challenge 2023:

- Biodel AG is a US-based company that develops bio-based products that enable farmers to transition to regenerative agriculture and offers accelerated pathways towards carbon storage at scale. Their products include a patended plant extract that stimulates yields and a microbial product that builds soils, reduces salt impacts and replaces synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

- Boost Biomes is a US-based company that addresses persistent challenges that the industry is facing with microbial soil enhancements product. Their microbial platform reduces the use of chemical crop protection products, enhances yields and reduces NOx, CO2 and methane emissions from agriculture.

- Freetilizer is a Portuguese start-up that uses a variety of enzymes in a controlled reactor to convert organic by-products like chicken menure into solid and liquid organic fertilizer within 24 hours, in support of the cicular economy targets.

- Kvasir Technologies is a Danish Company that has developed a process to converts plant biomass in climate-friendly fuels for the shipping industry. This is important, as incumbent marine fuels contribute materially to global warming through CO2 and NOx emissions.

- Unibaio from Argentina develops biodegradable nanocapsules to reduce up to 80% of harmful chemicals in pestices, improving plant and product health. Throught their bio-based product, they can improve the delivery of chemical crop protection products like glyphosates, a pesticide also known as ‘Roundup’ - and hence materially reduce the use of these products.

And the winners are:

- Freetilizer , who wins the first phase of the Gamechanger track to conduct a techno-economic feasibility study. Their solution is well aligned with Shell’s ambition to be a leader in biogas from waste products.

And:

- Kvasir Technologies , who are solving a material challenge around the emissions caused by marine fuels and at the same time may face less problems with expected biomass shortages, as their technology allows for feedstock flexibility, including straw, which is more abundantly available.

?Kvasir has been offered to become part of the part of the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam ecosystem for events, lab space, etc, and Shell Ventures will help them in fostering relationships and collaborations with Shell’s low carbon fuels business. Recognizing that more mature start-ups benefit less from prize money and more from strategic collaborations with potential ‘launching‘ customers like Shell, willing to help validate the technology through pilots and tests.

Meanwhile, we will continue the dialogue with the other finalists mentioned, as their solutions are very promising and of potential future interest to Shell and Shell Ventures.

Congrats to Freetilizer and Kvasir Technologies for winning the 2023 edition of the New Energy Challenge!