Gasum launched the open innovation competition in January. Each winner offered a different carbon storage solution at the final event.

The Nordic energy company Gasum launched the GasumHackathon innovation competition last January together with together with the BioEconomy Business Accelerator BioPaavo by JAMK University of Applied Sciences and growth company consultancy Kasvu Open.  The purpose of the competition was to find a partner with near commercial solutions and interest to take the lead in creating value from the biogenic CO₂ produced as a side stream at Gasum’s biogas plants in Finland and Sweden.

Out of the five final entrants two winners have now been chosen. Carbonaide’s solution is to use biogenic CO₂ in concrete manufacturing, enabling combination of carbon use and storage, while in the Inherit Carbon Solutions’ mature concept the CO₂ will be permanently stored in geological storage.

“The competition has been very exciting and interesting, and the level of the entrants and their solutions was very high. We decided on Carbonaide and Inherit Carbon Solutions as the winners because they had clear value propositions based on carbon reduction, potential fast implementation and good pitches”, says Mikko Syrjänen, Director, Business Development at Gasum.

“However, because of the high quality of all participants, Gasum is willing to continue discussions with all participating teams”, Syrjänen continues.

The winning teams were very happy about the result and look forward to cooperating with Gasum to deloping their solutions. Both Finnish Carbonaide and Norwegian Inherit Carbon Solutions also saw possibilities in cooperating with one another.

The winner was chosen on 19 April at the hackathon day held in Espoo, Finland by a jury consisting of representatives from Gasum, JAMK University of Applied Sciences and Kasvu Open.

“The hackathon process has been very smooth: well organized and structured. We have also received new connections because of the good visibility of the process”, says jury member Viljami Kinnunen, Senior Process Engineer at Gasum.

114 000 tons of biogenic CO₂

Gasum currently operates a network of nine biogas plants and two upgrading plants in Finland as well as seven biogas plants in Sweden. In addition, Gasum is developing several biogas plant projects in the Nordic countries.

Gasum produces annually up to 114 000 tons of biogenic CO₂ as a side stream of the biogas upgrading process, of which nearly one third is in high concentration (>95% CO₂).

Unlike CO₂ from fossil fuels, biogenic CO₂ from biogas plants originates from the decomposition of organic wastes and side-streams and is not considered a greenhouse gas emission. The biogenic CO₂ from biogas upgrading is today released into the atmosphere but capturing it could even further improve the sustainability of biogas.

Investing strongly in biogas in the coming years is part of Gasum’s strategy to help customers move towards a carbon neutral energy future. Gasum’s goal is to bring 7 TWh of renewable gas yearly to market by 2027 for a 1.8 million ton CO₂ emissions saving. Read more about Gasum’s strategic goal >