Expertise | My Site 5

Robert Gresser Expertises and Background

Chemical Engineer, PhD , Former Executive VP Innovation Leader at Solvay. More than 25 years Industry experience in Innovation (BU and Corporate) , Energy and Environment and project leadership.

Since April Innovation Consultant (I2V : Innovation to Value)

Expertise

Recognized expertise in Carbon Economy and CCUS . Chemical industry and market knowledge, with a strong focus on Energy and Environment (H2, Biomass, renewable energies, Energy storage…).
Combined Strategic Marketing and Technical expertise to assess Innovation opportunities. Open Innovation, techno and business due diligence.
Management of the innovation specifically upstream and breakthrough innovation

Background

Chemical Engineer , PhD . Since1981 (Rhône-Poulenc, Rhodia and Solvay). 15 last years Positions: Focus on Marketing & Innovation in CO2 , Energy & Environment
- 2016-2019 Innovation Leader Solvay Corp R&I aiming to create the future businesses for Solvay. New materials and businesses for Energy, environment and industrial markets
- 2013-2016 Director Sustainable Energy Platform Solvay Corporate Research & Innovation: Develop new businesses in energy and environment related markets: ( Hydrogen, Batteries, Energy Storage, PV, CO2, biomass, Waste plastic recycling… )
- 2009-2013 Breakthrough Innovation Director Rhodia Corporate: identify new breakthrough growth areas in Energy and Environment .
- 2003-2009 Marketing & Innovation Director Consumer Rhodia BU : Connect technologies with consumer needs to identify new growth areas (laundry, personal care…)

Main activities

CO2 Economy, CCUS:

Rhodia and Solvay : Lead the Corporate CO2 Economy scouting program and projects (CCU and CCS) (2010-2019) :
- CCU/CCS Technology and business scouting and projects
- Partnership strategy in CCU/CCS and Due diligence for M&A
- Lead a cross-industry consortium on CO2 to MeOH (Air Liquide, Areva, EDF, Veolia, RTE, CEA, CNRS) 2010-2015.
Recent consulting activities for for several multinational, SME’s medium companies and academics (SATT)
- CCUS technology landscaping and opportunities for future businesses. Mapping of the key projects and players
- Segmentation of the CO2 emitters in EU and development of a CCUS offer adapted to each segments
- Analysis of the Carbon Pricing systems in Europe (ETS , Carbon taxes…) and economical/business impact for the next 10 years.
- Negative Carbon emissions identification and monetization. Direct Air Capture, technology landscaping and key players. Technico-economical analysis
- Jury for the « Orano Grand Challenge » on CO2 circularity du CO2 (Hello Tomorrow 2021 et 2022) Definition of the evaluation criteria and selection of the best start-ups.
- Definition of a framework (technical and Business) for an investment fund , to evaluate start-ups in CCUS
- Chairman of the 17th and 18th CO2 Utilisation Summit Brussels oct 2021 and Dusseldorf oct 2022

Energy, H2 , Green Chemistry
Rhodia and Solvay
- Lead the Corporate Energy platform
- Scouting and evaluation of H2 and renewable energy technologies and business models
- Lead the Corporate Battery platform at Solvay
Recent consulting activities for for several multinational, SME’s medium companies and academics (SATT)
- Systemic analysis of the pathway towards carbon neutrality in 2050 for the global energy landscape, technico-economical evaluation of the conditions for profitability of Power to X.
- Impact of the Ukrain crisis on the energy transition in Europe, « FIT for 55 and REPowerEU plans », reduction of the dependence on Russian gas.
- Opportunities for a new process for « green H2 » production from biomass
- Development and positioning of biosourced products.

Boosting the delivery of Innovation
- Process, methodology and tools for idea selection, exploration and incubation.
- Valorization of the technologies from academic labs
- Member and shareholder of the board of Qfluidics , Spin-off of Strasbourg University