Press releases

Creation of 6-Incendie, a new spin-off company of IFP Energies nouvelles

28 February 2011

As part of its spin-off policy, IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) announces the creation of 6-Incendie, an engineering institute operating in the firefighting sector. 6-Incendie will coordinate and implement innovative R&D programs focusing on firefighting methods on behalf of public bodies, local authorities and industrial players.

The start-up was the idea of Franck Gaviot-Blanc, a process engineering research technician at IFPEN and also a volunteer firefighter in Vienne (Isère) for the past 20 years.

As part of his research activities at IFPEN, the technician examined and analyzed household waste decomposition processes in temperate atmospheres and in oxygen-depleted conditions in a thermolysis unit. As for the firefighter, he explained the mechanisms governing the development of under-ventilated fires in buildings.

Franck Gaviot Blanc’s expertise in this field was quickly recognized and, in 2006, he was invited by the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission) and the GIMAEX group to join the PROMESIS® fire research consortium, where he took over responsibility for testing. He went on to work on the optimization of fire risk control strategies in confined spaces for industrial players and the French Department of Civil Safety, and to test the OPTIMAL NOZZLE® hose technology, which he developed and patented with IFPEN and which is marketed by Desautel.

On the strength of this experience, Franck Gaviot Blanc wanted to secure the long-term future of operational research in the field of firefighting and to promote the implementation of programs aimed at improving the efficiency and safety of firefighters, as well as the prediction of unknowns and risk control.

He approached IFPEN’s spin-off unit, which decided to support him in this original and innovative start-up project. Pooling his skills with those of the PROMESIS® coordinator, Gaetan Mitanchez, he created 6-incendie: Institut d’Ingénierie, d’Intelligence et d’Innovation Incendie (Institute for Firefighting Engineering, Intelligence and Innovation).
Although the sector covered by 6-Incendie is an unusual one for IFPEN, the strategy of finding an industrial outlet for R&D know-how and skills developed at IFPEN is in line with its spin-off policy. 6-Incendie has therefore benefited from the tailored support and industrial experience of IFPEN, particularly in terms of market research and structure set-up.

Appointed the coordinating body in France for research in the field of fires in confined spaces by the French Department of Civil Safety and supported by the Chalon-sur-Saône region Agency for Regional Economic Development (ADERC), 6-Incendie has already been consulted by local authorities and industrial players within France, as well as the Belgian Ministry of the Interior and the Louisiana State Univertsity Fire and Emergency Training Institute in the USA.

IFP Energies nouvelles is a public-sector research, industrial innovation and training center active in the fields of energy, transport and the environment. Its mission is to provide public players and industry with efficient, economical, clean and sustainable technologies to take up the challenges facing society in terms of climate change, energy diversification and water resource management. It boasts world-class expertise.