Through the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Government is mobilising companies in the private sector to carry out research & development projects (R&D) contributing to the green shift and sustainable value creation. BEWI Energy is awarded NOK8m for its project to establish a circular value chain for the company’s patented protectors made from plastic. The project also aims at raising competence and awareness about the circular economy, reuse and material recycling.
BEWI Energy is a global supplier of smart and sustainable solutions to the energy sector. All the company’s products shall be reusable and recyclable. Today, the company’s most important solution is its smart and universal protector made from plastic, developed to protect pipes during storage and transport, for example in the oil- and gas industry. Most protectors today are disposed of after a single use and it is estimated that this produces approximately 38,000t of plastic waste per year only from the Norwegian and British sector. By using BEWI Energy’s reusable universal protector, this waste can be significantly reduced.
The protector will be part of a subscription that includes production, logistics, reuse and recycling. The ambition is that industrial plastics from other sources will also be included in the same circular flow, returning all products to BEWI Energy for reuse or recycling.
The R&D project BEWI Energy has received support for will also increase competence and interaction between partners in the value chain. The project is carried out in close collaboration with the research institute SINTEF, BEWI Norplasta, which will produce the protectors, and Norsea, who contributes with logistics services.
“To create a sustainable and circular value chain, the players must collaborate and share the responsibility for the products throughout the life cycle,” says BEWI Energy CEO Geir Skjevik.
“Our pipe protector is designed to increase safety and reduce the use of resources, thus reducing our customers’ CO₂ footprint. To achieve that, we need to establish a good value chain, including a sustainable collection and cleaning process, related to the reuse of materials. The support from the Research Council of Norway is a vote of confidence and means that we can start this project now,” says BEWI Energy CMO Kai Thrones.
In March 2021, BEWI Energy received the DOGA Award for best design and architecture for its universal protector:
According to the DOGA Awards jury, “BEWI Universal Protector is perhaps the opposite of flashy design, but it’s brilliant either way. It is cleverly designed and with solid execution. Everything indicates that this will be a commercial success in an oil and gas industry that is screaming for solutions that can reduce both climate impact and costs. BEWI Universal Protector is awarded the DOGA Award for design and architecture for dealing with a fairly invisible, but nevertheless significant, environmental issue. This is a top-notch innovative industrial design based on a solid business model. In other words, exactly what Norway needs.”