With students from Coppe, UFRJ team wins 2nd place in the iUP Decarbonization Challenge with an innovative solution for the industry
Planeta COPPE
Date: 19/11/2025

The grand final of the iUP Innovation Connections Challenge, dedicated to the theme of “Decarbonization,” awarded second place to a team formed by students from UFRJ — with a strong participation from Coppe. The competition, promoted by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) within the scope of the Human Resources Training Program (PRH), took place on the last day of the Offshore Technology Conference Brazil – OTC Brazil 2025, one of the main offshore energy events in Latin America, held between October 28th and 30th.
The award-winning team, named Zero Leak, is composed of scholarship recipients from the PRH 07 program at UFRJ and presented an innovative proposal to mitigate methane and fugitive gas emissions in oil and gas operations. Zero Leak includes doctoral students from the Civil Engineering Program (PEC/Coppe) Diego Filipe Craveiro de Souza Queiroz and Gabriela Alves Estrela, as well as undergraduate Civil Engineering students from the Polytechnic School Alexandre de Souza da Cunha, Breno Fernandes Basto de Carvalho and Bruna da Silva Gomes. All conduct research at PEC’s Offshore Structures Analysis and Reliability Laboratory (Laceo).
PRH 07, coordinated by professor Marysilvia Costa, from Coppe’s Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Porgram, trains UFRJ students with interdisciplinary skills focused on structural integrity in facilities for the oil, gas, biofuels and renewable energy industries.
For Marysilvia — also Director for Technology and Innovation at Coppe — the result symbolizes the maturation of a training trajectory: “This award represents recognition of the process we have built. The fact that the team brings together undergraduate and graduate students demonstrates that integration and diversity can generate innovative and impactful solutions for the productive sector.”
First place went to the Green Polymer team, from the PRH 01 program at UFMG, with a proposal focused on the management and reduction of emissions in the construction, installation and offshore operation phases.
Aimed exclusively at scholarship-holding university students and postdoctoral researchers affiliated with ANP’s PHR programs, the challenge seeks to bridge academic talent and the real demands of industry, encouraging the transformation of research into technological solutions focused on energy evolution and the decarbonization of the oil, gas and energy sectors.
- Decarbonization
