ZUN-H: hydrogen straight from sunlight and water
Veera Tapionkaski presented ZUN-H, an Oulu-based spin-off developing solar hydrogen panels. The panels use a photocatalytic membrane to split water under visible light, producing clean hydrogen directly out of the panel without a separate electrolyser or electricity input. The design is modular, so the same technology can serve a small installation or be combined into a larger plant.
ZUN-H sells the production system rather than hydrogen itself, which positions the company as a technology provider for industrial customers who need hydrogen for their own processes. The team recently unveiled a commercial-sized panel and is now moving into system pilots, with field trials planned in sunnier conditions to see how the panels behave in real life. Collaboration with the University of Oulu continues alongside the company’s own development work.
H2Optimal: designing energy systems that pay off
Alejandro Ibáñez-Rioja presented an optimisation tool developed at LUT University for the cost-optimal design and control of sector-coupled energy systems. Using a digital twin approach, the software combines data on renewables, electricity prices and equipment specifications to find configurations that minimise cost and project risk. Early target markets include hydrogen plants, data centres and renewable energy installations.
The project is on a research-to-business path with a spin-off planned by the end of the year, starting with consulting and pilot cases before the full software launch. The team’s honest reflection resonated with the room: the hardest part has not been the technology but the business side, from finding the right customers to sharpening the market focus, which has already shifted from hydrogen toward data centres and renewables based on industry feedback.
CASE: turning captured carbon into something useful
Tero Joronen presented an adsorption-based carbon capture technology developed in the BioCCU and R2B projects in Tampere. The system uses temperature-supported vacuum swing adsorption with activated carbon, and is built to be robust, modular and energy efficient. It reaches high CO2 purity and recovery without chemicals, which makes it a good fit for industrial flue gas streams.
With many large Power-to-X projects postponed, the near-term focus is on smaller, local uses, such as supplying CO2 to breweries and other industrial users, while the team looks for pre-commercial pilots and paying customers. Joronen is also building a platform for rapid piloting and failure analysis, with the aim of helping promising projects reach commercialisation faster.
The shared challenge: from research to revenue
The presentations led into a wider discussion on what research-based startups actually need to succeed. A few points came up again and again. Talking to customers early and often is essential, both to find product-market fit and to build the evidence investors expect. Technical teams need business expertise beside them, whether as team members or advisors. And validation has to happen across commercial, market and societal readiness, which means involving customers, regulators and industry partners rather than only perfecting the technology.
This is exactly the gap CLIC’s ecosystem work aims to narrow, by connecting research, industry and investors early enough to matter. Seeing three spin-offs at three different stages in one afternoon made the point concrete.
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