UTIS in an interview with Business Portugal Magazine
“Innovation has always been a driver of our daily activities. An example of excellence in entrepreneurship and leadership, UTIS has been awarded in the Services category of the ‘Export & Internationalization Awards.’ In an interview with Business Portugal Magazine, CEO Paulo Gonçalo shares UTIS’s commitment to innovation and the development of projects that enhance climate transition, positioning UTIS as a privileged company that significantly impacts our planet.”
UTIS, awarded for exporting Hydrogen technology for Global Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization
UTIS received the Internationalization Award in the Services category at the 13th edition of the Export & Internationalization Awards. An initiative by Novobanco and Jornal de Negócios, in partnership with Iberinform, aimed at rewarding and promoting the success of national companies in exporting and internationalizing their activities.
Translation Interview
UTIS is a Portuguese company founded in 2018 and a pioneer in cutting-edge technology applied to combustion optimization. How would you describe the company’s trajectory and assess its positioning in an increasingly dynamic and challenging market?
UTIS, with an international dimension, offers superior quality products and services thanks to its investment in excellent human resources, cutting-edge technological research, and top-of-the-line certified materials. Its mission is to provide exceptional quality services and manufacture products that reduce the use of fossil fuels, pollutant emissions, and energy consumption, thus helping to make mobility and industries greener and more sustainable, strongly contributing to decarbonization.
What are the main solutions and services provided? Innovation is part of UTIS’s DNA, as evidenced by the development of an innovative product called UC3. What are its main characteristics and advantages?
UTIS possesses innovative and revolutionary technology for optimizing internal and continuous combustion equipment, internationally patented, contributing and complying, since its inception, with the European Union’s climate and energy objectives. Innovation plays a relevant role in our company, with a unique set of technicians and scientists of the highest caliber, highly specialized in various areas of optimizing combustion of fossil fuels through unique processes, resulting in an unparalleled portfolio of equipment and processes. UTIS takes pride in its role and commitment to innovation and the development of projects that enhance energy transition, allowing it to continue leading and remaining at the global forefront, offering innovative and sustainable solutions with the highest quality standards, placing us in a privileged position among companies that significantly impact our planet favorably.
UTIS develops sustainable solutions that contribute to the economy, sustainability, energy efficiency, and decarbonization. In your view, is Hydrogen the fuel of the future? Do we still have a long way to go in terms of energy efficiency and decarbonization? What should be the strategy?
UTIS’s genome includes ingenious and patented technology designed to optimize internal and continuous combustion processes. This revolutionary innovation substantially reduces dependence on fossil fuels, lowers pollutant emissions, and reduces energy consumption. In doing so, UTIS contributes to the sustainability of mobility and industries, helping to produce goods with a lower environmental impact. The role of hydrogen as a cornerstone of clean energy garners support from governments and energy companies worldwide, especially in the European Union. It is a critical element in the economy’s decarbonization process. UTIS remains committed to collaborating and identifying, researching, and implementing its technology with its customers’ sustainability goals in mind, recognizing the crucial role of hydrogen in this context. The cement and steel industry, which significantly contributes to CO2 emissions, is now at the forefront of global efforts to combat climate change. Industry leaders are committed to achieving “Net Zero” carbon emissions from the production of their products by 2050, aligning with the 1.5°C target outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Since 2018, UTIS technology has positioned itself as a solution aligned with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) objectives, ensuring market competitiveness through increased energy efficiency and contributing to global decarbonization.
UTIS customizes solutions tailored to the unique needs of each client in pursuit of energy efficiency. Having executed over 124 projects in 27 countries in the cement and boiler industry, the integration of hydrogen and oxygen has produced transformative results. This process significantly enhances combustion efficiency, leading to optimization and CO2 reduction in industrial processes. This underscores the industry’s commitment to sustainability, strategic growth, and innovation.
UTIS’s main commitment is to continue investing in technological research, highly qualified Portuguese labor, and sustainable practices to ensure a better and fairer world, both environmentally, socially, and economically. The strong commitment of top management results in our operations in our facilities and our clients’ factories, continuously seeking sustainability according to international laws, standards, regulations, and certifications; applying state-of-the-art environmental management systems. Furthermore, noteworthy contributions to this growth include expanding UC3 technology to other verticals, namely, steel, biomass, and incineration, and hydrogen production for Hydrogen Refueling Stations (HRS). Redefining priority geographies, strengthening commercial and marketing structures, creating new patents with increased and diversified connections to universities, ensuring continuous training for all employees, and continued investment in procurement and maintenance as an export target of around 98% of its production, are some of the essential vectors considered for its long-term sustainability. Finally, customer proximity was another critical factor identified, leading to the establishment of two UTIS branches in Brazil and Oceania in 2023 to support the exponential growth of these markets, ensuring excellent after-sales service.
UTIS recently received the Internationalization Award in the Services category at the 13th edition of the Export & Internationalization Awards. What does this distinction represent for the company in terms of visibility and recognition in the market? And internally?
UTIS is a company committed to continuing to invest in technological research, highly qualified labor, and sustainable practices, so most of our investments are intangible. Thus, UTIS’s Sustainability Committee defined small tips throughout the year under the motto, “Every day we can contribute a little with small actions, which have a great impact,” mitigation actions extremely important in the continuous improvement process of the company, resulting in leadership in global environmental issues, saving financial resources; meeting stakeholder expectations, and promoting a local low-carbon economy. Strengthening and continuous investment in R&D, continuous investment in the qualification of our human resources and talent search, a substantial increase in the number of employees in 2023, coupled with a policy of remuneration, performance-based rewards, and continuous professional training, collaborating and participating in cultural and sports activities that help promote personal skills, creativity, and self-improvement, and a significant improvement in UTIS’s cooperation/interaction with our stakeholders, allow us to consider ourselves as an active partner in the development of the Country and the World.