Business Incubation
Business Incubation
Fluor's business incubation platform connects startups, industry and investors with in‑house expertise to enable or co‑develop technically and commercially viable solutions as an early engagement thought partner.
EPC Thought Partner
Fluor plays a vital role in the disruptive technology innovation ecosystem as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) thought partner. We provide a platform that supports early stage startups with the industrial experience needed to help enable scalability and techno-economic viability.
Our business incubation team champions this platform, fostering a strategic focus on climatetech, carbontech and sustainable industrial solutions. We provide nimble, unstructured access to our global network of cross-industry experts for high-impact engagement.
Our Partners Speak
See what Fluor's ecosystem partners say during CERAWeek.
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Trevor Best
Co-founder and CEO, Syzygy
Fluor is one of the most innovative EPCs in the space. Through their thought partnership model they are helping companies like mine bring wonderful new tech to market and providing us the kind of guidance we need around our balance of plant as we use our chemical reactor to disrupt this space.
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Dr. Chris Haase
Investment Director, Aramco Ventures*
* Role at time of interview
Fluor makes its absolute best available to the most promising companies, and for that we are very grateful.
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Roy Torbert
Head of Programs, Third Derivative
Fluor is bringing the technologies we need for the climate crisis ahead to the market faster, and with great engineering talent behind them. We are super excited to be working with them.
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Adrian Corless
CEO, Carbon Capture Inc.
We're really glad to be partnering with Fluor. We went through a process to select the right kind of EPC who can work with us in deploying new technology first at small scale with the capability to ultimately deploy at large scale. The team at Fluor have been fantastic to work with.
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Andrew Symes
Co-founder and CEO, OXCCU
What I've been really impressed with is their ability and appetite to work with small companies. They really mean it.
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Francesco Benedetti
Co-founder and CEO, Osmoses
Fluor is the worldwide leader in engineering and understands what it takes to pilot a project and scale it.
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Amram Bengio
CTO, Wootz
Working with the Fluor Business Incubation group has been a force multiplier for us both on our core manufacturing technology side as well as on the application-specific development.
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Guillermo Espiga
VP Head of Business Development, Nth Cycle
Fluor thinks big picture, getting engaged early to help optimize design on pilot projects and FOAK commercial scale facilities with nimbleness and urgency.
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Kevin Krausert
Co-founder and CEO, Avatar Innovations
Through a unique model focused on decarbonization, Fluor and Avatar Innovations are building a new energy future.
Scaleup and Commercialization
We are uniquely positioned to support innovators and early stage startups in navigating both scaleup and commercialization pathways. Key differentiators include:
As a world-class EPC provider owning 15 licensed technologies, we deliver expertise in both technology development as well as project execution.
Fluor is technology neutral, and we work with the right technology for any given project or client. We prioritize designing, scaling and building with excellence.
We have an extensive portfolio of active patents and 1,300 subject matter experts across the globe.
Techno-economic Viability
Through thought partnership, our business incubation team helps our partners analyze and co-develop their solutions across all critical factors driving techno-economic viability, including:
Techno-economic analysis and scalability
Design optimization and case configuration
Balance of plant and total system integration
Pilot plant planning and execution
Commercialization pathway
Industrial partnerships
Supply chain and commercial strategies
Estimating and project planning
Constructability and fabricability
Maintainability and operability
Technology Focus
Fluor's business incubation platform works in concert with each of our business groups, focusing on disruptive technologies with industry-defining potential. Recent and active engagements are reflected below, while our experts continue to explore opportunities within other emerging innovation areas.
Energy Solutions
• Carbon capture
• Carbon to value
• Direct air capture
• Carbon mineralization and storage
• Hydrogen – green, blue and turquoise
• Sustainable aviation fuel
• E-fuels
• Long duration energy storage
• Waste to energy
• Low carbon cement/concrete
• Methane capture
• Seaweed and algae
Urban Solutions
• Green/low carbon emission steel
• Sustainable aluminum
• Carbon nanotubes
• Sustainable mining/tailings recovery
• Lithium extraction
• Recycling plastics and batteries
• Sustainable food/alternative protein
Mission Solutions
• Nuclear fusion
• Advanced nuclear technology
• Energy resilience
Technology Accelerators
Technology accelerators have become integral to disruptive technology startups, offering mentoring, educational programming, industry networking and visibility. As such, Fluor partners with prominent accelerators that have structured programming. Since 2021, we have served as an active Carbontech Leadership Council (CLC) partner on the Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative.
With this initiative, we are helping to unlock a new carbontech economy by bringing innovative solutions to scale as rapidly as possible through the creation of a robust, powerful and collaborative new ecosystem.
C2V Cohort Champion
In 2022, Fluor stepped forward to take on an even greater responsibility as the Cohort Champion, leading the startups and serving as principal amongst the CLC.
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Accelerator Testimonials
Fluor has been a tremendous partner for the Carbon to Value Initiative (C2V), always going above and beyond to support the startups and the growth of the ecosystem. They were extremely hands-on and collaborative and established tangible results for several companies. The sharing of their rich technical and industry networks and deep understanding of early-stage innovation is particularly unusual for an EPC company. We hope C2V's journey with Fluor continues as their contribution has had a real impact on the startup’s successes and is praised across all cohorts.
Frederic Clerc
C2V Initiative Director, Urban Future Labs
Working with the Fluor team for Year 2 of the Carbon to Value Initiative was an excellent experience. They proved to be an incredibly engaged partner, always eager to add value through their in-house expertise and resources, and making every effort to be present and involved throughout all aspects of the program. Over the year-long engagement, they illustrated careful and thoughtful decision making. It was very rewarding to work with a partner that was so devoted not only to coaching and helping the startups selected to the program, but to collaborating with the program partners in a deep and meaningful way.
Marinna Teixeira
Director of Programs, Greentown Labs
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Government Grants
Fluor has been a valuable tech-to-market partner on government grants for startups, founders and industrial owners and operators in the United States, Europe and Canada. Industrial tech-to-market partners have become vital to startups and technology innovators in their ability to secure and execute technology development scope funded by non-dilutive government grants.
DAC Hub Grant with RMI
Fluor is part of a winning consortium receiving a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study the feasibility of a first-of-a-kind hub for direct air capture (DAC) in the Pacific Northwest. Working alongside RMI and other partners, this project would permanently remove past carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere and store them in subterranean basaltic rock.
DAC Hub Grant with CarbonCapture
Fluor is partnering with CarbonCapture Inc. among other partners on the construction of the Wyoming Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub. Receiving a $12.5 million DOE grant, this project will significantly accelerate the deployment of DAC-based carbon removal in the United States.
Strategic Partnerships
Fluor's business incubation team leads partnership formation with prominent startups and ecosystem stakeholders. Partnerships include:
EPC thought partnership, unstructured framework
Accelerators, structured framework
Government grants, tech-to-market partner
Tech integration: Fluor licensed technology in conjunction with startup tech
Client Testimonials
Fluor's business incubation platform gives clients and partners the opportunity to engage with our global network of cross-industry experts. We are proud to work with innovative organizations who are exploring emerging technologies to build a sustainable future.
For a growing start-up, it’s been extremely helpful to have access to Fluor’s subject matter experts. Fluor has been able to fill our knowledge gaps, to serve as another set of eyes on core technical areas, and has always taken the time to analyze and work through trade-offs. Working through their Business Incubation group has helped us get the prioritization that we need, and a means to pivot fluidly between project scope, DAC Hub initiatives, government grants and ad hoc matters with incredible nimbleness and urgency.
Robert Whyte
VP Projects, CarbonCapture Inc.
Quaise intends to unlock geothermal energy at the terawatt scale. By drilling deeper, faster, and hotter than ever, we can access Earth's most abundant carbon-free energy and repower the world's fossil fuel infrastructure. Fluor has been working with us to redefine the art of the possible. Their skilled and adaptable team quickly identified the most effective surface architecture to bring powerful heat from the Earth to industrial load centers. We appreciate their support and look forward to our continued relationship as we go from design to deployment.
Carlos Araque
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Quaise
Our mission is to change the rate of climate change in the next several decades. This requires working at enormous scale, and there are several implicit hurdles that a small startup will encounter pursuing a goal of that scope. Having access to partners at Fluor, who have deep experience working at large scales, has been invaluable. They bring access to robust engineering design and robust pricing, as well as ready partnerships across the ecosystem of services we require. Importantly, they are always prompt and attentive, helping us meet our aggressive timelines. When we were at the university bench and working primarily with students, they were effective partners in growth and education, and now that we have spun out, they have adapted to our changing needs. They are true team members, and we feel fortunate to work with them in pursuit of realizing innovation to meet our collective climate goals.
Desirée Plata
Moxair Co-founder and MIT Associate Professor
We are thrilled to be working with Fluor to help us deliver on our commitment to improving the environment. While large multinational corporates have made big commitments to carbon reduction, Fluor has shown us how serious they are by working with smaller, earlier-stage companies like CarbonFree. Their business incubation platform has helped us structure a collaboration model and execution approach that simply makes sense.
Joe Jones
Chief Technology Officer, CarbonFree
Working with Fluor during our early stages of development has been a great experience. They brought rich expertise in the areas in which we sought support, while adding greater value in ways we had not anticipated. We were able to study multiple different configurations of commercial-scale implementations of our technology as well as understand the impact of supply chain and maintenance/reliability of equipment. Overall, the interactions with the Fluor team have enabled us to make informed decisions in moving our technology forward.
Joe Zhou
Chief Executive Officer, Quidnet Energy
Fluor is in a league of its own when it comes to supporting novel cleantech projects. We initially approached Fluor with a challenging wave energy harvesting simulation project. Not only did Fluor complete the project on time and under budget, but they also developed a first-of-its-kind approach within Ansys’ software to simulate complex fluid-2D material interactions. I encourage any company looking to develop and scale innovative technology to make Fluor their first call.
Olivia Espy Huntington
Chief Operating Officer, Wootz
Fluor's business incubation platform enabled us to structure agreements within our budget constraints with tailored deliverables to position us strongly in our next steps towards commercialization. The relationship was very collaborative and responsive to our needs while still benefiting from deep functional expertise that could be called upon as required. Addressing the growing challenges of waste, energy and fuels in a sustainable and zero-carbon manner will require new business models and engineering approaches. Working with Fluor allowed us to accelerate our pace of innovation and commercialization.
Johan van Walsem
Chief Operating Officer, Sierra Energy
Fluor was an invaluable partner when it came to understanding the safety risks we encounter when handling our materials and later scaling our production. Fluor provided a targeted two-day course to our Tech Team led by their solid materials and explosive substances expert in Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands. Over these two days, five ecoLocked employees met Fluor managers and experts and took away a wealth of useful information which will help protect ecoLocked and its employees in the immediate future as well as longer-term. We are all extremely grateful for this opportunity and look forward to a strong and continued relationship long into the future.
Micheil Gordon
Chief Technology Officer, ecoLocked
Fluor mentors provided a wealth of knowledge in the engineering design and new technology licensing disciplines through the C2V program to Carbonova. We successfully worked with our mentors to modify our business model to align it with our scale-up and technology development plans.
Mina Zarabian
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Carbonova
Working with Fluor was a catalyst for Osmoses. Our mentors put in the time to thoroughly evaluate our process engineering models and guide us to the right Fluor technical experts to discuss new opportunities with existing customer needs. Working with Fluor, we identified concrete cases where the Osmoses technology would make an impact at scale. Our mentors also connected us to experts in a variety of process fields such as gasification, chemicals and hydroprocessing. If we had a question, we could always find an expert within the extensive network at Fluor! Working with Fluor has accelerated our progress, and we look forward to staying connected for future opportunities to come.
Katherine Mizrahi Rodriguez
Co-founder & VP of Engineering, Osmoses
Fluor brought a team of experienced engineers who helped us think through major challenges related to scaling our system. The Fluor team's approach allowed us to complete a preliminary process design, identify key gaps in our understanding, and modify our lab-scale performance targets to optimize the system for performance in a real operating environment.
Joe Rodden
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Lydian
The C2V program provided Carbon Upcycling with the opportunity to work with various members of Fluor's team from around the world. We were introduced to experts not only in our home country of Canada, but also in the US, the Netherlands and the UK, and every time there was a great level of interest and enthusiasm demonstrated to help address the tasks at hand.
Natalie Giglio
Senior Business Development Associate, Carbon Upcycling Technologies
We first approached Fluor as a startup with fantastic technology in need of help developing a path forward. Over the next few years, our Fluor team helped turn our ideas and experience into scalable designs and a tangible commercialization strategy. Fluor has become an invaluable partner for Aluminum Technologies on our journey to success.
Caroline T. Reily
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Aluminum Technologies
