Joule Discovery Lab kicks off

The Joule Discovery Lab, to be held in Novara from 13 to 17 November 2023, features five startup companies. A fully immersive week to evaluate technological and innovative solutions in the fields of agritech and lithium battery recycling, capable of meeting Eni's business and R&D needs. 

During the Bootcamp days, each startup will be working on its business idea with Eni's R&D experts and mentors, Gellify and Seedble coaches and facilitators to assess the project.

An essential part of the process is to listen and discuss with the other startups in order to develop a proposal for joint experimentation and present it during the Pitch Day, the final day, at the Eni Research Centre in San Donato Milanese.

During the five days, sessions were organised to gain a better understanding of Eni's project challenges, so that a value proposition could be developed to meet real business needs.

In this edition of the Joule Discovery Lab startups were selected to develop projects that meet the needs of the Novara Research Centre, which identified two themes in particular: 

• The valorisation of agricultural waste from oilseed crops (castor, cotton, camelina, olive, etc.) to produce second-generation biofuels. Macro applications include the reuse of waste materials, the design of new detoxification or processing processes, and the development of new production processes to make biofuels more efficient.
• Pre-treatment and recycling of spent lithium-ion and rechargeable batteries. Macro applications include new recycling or remanufacturing processes and methods to give batteries a second life.

These are the five startups selected to take part in the Joule Discovery Lab in Novara:

• BEF Biosystems: an innovative biotechnology startup founded in 2016, specialising in the breeding of insects, the production of technologies for their life cycle management and the production of derivatives for animal feed.

• Symbiagro: dedicated to the research and development of innovative biofertilisers and biostimulants capable of combining increased soil fertility with crop quality, while fully respecting the environment and the health of all living things.

• 9-Tech: a startup exploring new solutions for recovering strategic materials from e-waste. Their most advanced researched technologies is the recycling of photovoltaic waste.

• Tech4Lib: recovers valuable materials from spent batteries using microwave technology.

• RarEarth: this startup has developed an innovative recycling process that can recover rare earths from motor magnets in end-of-life electric vehicles.