Prof. Victoire de Margerie announces the list of nominees for the 2023 WMF Scale Up and Start Up Challenges

The World Materials Forum 9th edition will be in Nancy from July 6th to 7th 2022.

For the 7th year in a row, Start Up nominees from the entire world will present on their booths innovative and impactful solutions in order to Use Materials Smarter, Less and Longer.

And for the 3rd time, Scale Up nominees will show us during the Gala dinner how they are industrializing the breakthrough innovation for which they have been nominated at a previous WMF Start Up Challenge.

Our Jury met on April 5th and appreciated the impressive quality of applications received for both Challenges.

You will find below the composition of the jury and the list of nominated companies (5 for the Scale Up Challenge and 13 for the Start Up Challenge).

All Awards will be announced during the WMF Gala dinner on July 6th in Nancy.

The jury

  • Jeet Adani, Chief Financial Officer Adani (India)
  • Tadeu Carneiro, Chairman & CEO BostonMetal (USA)
  • Edith Coune, Secretary General InnovationFund (Belgium)
  • Bronwyn Fox, Chief Scientist CSIRO (Australia)
  • Stéphane Mangin, Université de Lorraine (France) – Vice Chair
  • Victoire de Margerie, Founder & Vice Chair WMF (France) – Chair
  • Shirley Meng, University of Chicago/Argonne National Lab (USA)
  • Hartwig Michels, President Petrochemicals BASF (Germany)
  • Bernard Pinatel, President Refining & Chemicals Total (France)
  • Alberto Salleo, Stanford University (USA)
  • Nick Stanage, CEO Hexcel (USA)
  • Karim Zaghib, Concordia University (Canada)

The list of nominated companies - Scale Up Challenge

CITRINE INFORMATICS (California)
Greg Mulholland
Best in Class Machine learning for product development in the materials and chemicals industry

ETS (USA)
Joey Kabel
Combination of old technology (bricks) and modern technology (semi conductor doping) to provide for low cost thermal energy storage

MAGREESOURCE (France)
Erick Petit
Recycled magnet powder from hydrogen decrepitation of end of life magnets

NELUMBO (California)
Liam Berryman
Low cost/low energy process for lightweight and recyclable nanoscale coatings

SAKOWIN (France)
Gérard Gatt
Decarbonized Hydrogen through energy efficient bio methane plasmolysis

The list of nominated companies - Start Up Challenge

BASQUEVOLT (Spain) 
Francisco Carranza
New polymer electrolyte that are cathode agnostic and make lower cost EV battery chemistries - no high temperature requested. 
 
BOSTON MATERIALS (USA) 
Anvesh Gurijala
New fiber for composite materials 
 
CQUESTER (California) 
Clement Cid
Low cost CO2 capture and verification 
 
ENZINC (California)
Michael Burz 
New zinc nickel battery chemistry - microsponge that prevents dentrite - with same energy density and lower cost than LFP 
 
EXTRACTHIVE (France) 
Frederic Goettmann
Recycled carbon fibers from thermoset composites 
 
GEYSER BATTERIES (Finland) 
Andrey Shigaev
New storage battery chemistry with lower cost and zero solvant, nickel and cobalt. Further development with electrodes made with by product of H2 captured carbon 
 
INLYTEENERGY (California) 
Antonio Baclig
Salt and iron battery for grid storage with abundant materials, long life time and safety - and half the cost vs LIB or Vanadium Redox
 
LIMELIGHT STEEL (California) 
Olivia Dippo
Zero CO2 and half energy consuming Iron process thanks to replacing traditional blast furnace by fully electric laser furnace 
 
MECAWARE (France) 
Arnaud Villers dArbouet
Lower cost battery recycling tech thanks to no need of water treatment unit and lower footprint altogether
 
METASEISMIC (California) - 
Noemi Bonessio
AI designed bio based metal materials fully reusable and with high shock/vibration protection as an alternative to foam for packaging sensitive electronic devices/parts 
 
MITRACHEM (California) - 
Vivas Kumar
Using AI to develop new LFP EV battery chemistry with same performance of LIB and use of abundant materials
 
MOBESCRAP(France) 
Eric Louvert
Recycling of multilayer and composite materials thanks to high intensity/ high frequency process
 
MYKOR (UK)
Olivia Page
Alternative to EPS as Building Material with 40% less energy and 90% less water thanks to waste from paper bound by mushroom fungal adhesives