Renewable energies: PUI connects businesses at the Energaïa trade show
On December 11 and 12, 2024, the University Innovation Hub (PUI), which brings together key players from the academic, research, and socio-economic sectors in Montpellier, presented its very first stand at the Energaïa. The goal: to foster new synergies with the business world and highlight its most dynamic research and laboratories in the field of sustainable energy.
Within the University Innovation Cluster (PUI), renewable energy is one of the most strategic roadmaps. On December 11 and 12, 2024, some of its representatives visited the Energaïa trade show to give visitors a glimpse of the projects underway, illustrating the collaborative dynamic within the PUI.
Supporting the energy transition
The PUI's participation in this event, which attracted nearly 22,000 people this year, had three main objectives. Firstly, to showcase the PUI's tools "and the diversity and complementarity of the partners present, such as the University of Montpellier,INRAE, CIRAD, CNRS, and Satt AxLR," explains Guilhem Thomasset, Transfer Engineer at CNRS and coordinator of the "renewable energies" thematic roadmap within the PUI. Another focus was to showcase the skills and expertise of the research laboratories "witha view to initiating collaborations." Finally, throughout the fair, the PUI sought to highlight the UM's training programs and the pool of students who could potentially be of interest to companies in the sector.
Keys to understanding
The Vice President of the University of Montpellier in charge of partnerships and innovation, Phillipe Combette, was also present at the stand. He had the opportunity to discuss topics such as "floating offshore," "dynamic cables," "hydrogen," and " photovoltaics ." In particular, he discussed the Mega Sète project led by SolarinBlue, which involves creating a one-megawatt peak offshore solar farm off the coast of Sète-Frontignan, with a view to commercial deployment in the near future. Ultimately, it could target port areas, islands, or floating wind farms, for example.
Throughout the day, four laboratories specializing in electronics, chemistry, and materials also came to share their innovations. The Charles Gerhardt Institute in Montpellier (ICGM) presented HydrogenLab, a laboratory co-created with Michelin to develop new materials for fuel cell cores and electrolysers using innovative processes. The research director at the European Institute of Membranes (IEM), Damien Voiry, shared the premises of the E-ethylene project, which aims to "produce ethylene from CO2 by electro-reduction ."
The Marcoule Institute for Separative Chemistry (ICSM) finally provided some insight into the battery recycling project it is conducting in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. On the second day, participants at the fair set out to discover the expertise of Géosciences Montpellier, from its work on geothermal energy to its Eastern Lights project, which focuses onCO2 storage and transport.The BioWooEB Unit the focus was on the Bio4Africa agricultural diversification project , while the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory (LBE) presented its Bio2E platform (environmental biotechnology and biorefinery), which is open to collaboration with academic, institutional, and industrial players in order to recover value from agricultural, industrial, and urban effluents in the form of biogas and other bioenergy.
The Montpellier PUI reflex
"It was a first. The PUI is a new coordination tool between public institutions in Montpellier, serving partnership-based research, technology transfer, and business creation. We need to raise awareness about it, " insists Guilhem Thomasset. Ultimately, he hopes that companies facing a technological impasse will instinctively turn to the PUI and forge new collaborations. "If, at the end of this type of event, we succeed in creating collaborations with the companies present, it will be a resounding success, " continues the engineer. The near future will tell.