Driving Innovation in Upstream Operations: How IMI’s Growth Hub supports practical solutions

Asset performance must be optimised, downtime minimised and environmental expectations addressed simultaneously.

Innovation plays a key role in addressing these competing demands. At IMI, the Growth Hub provides a structured innovation process designed to identify operational challenges, develop practical solutions and scale them for industry use.

Originally developed from a growth accelerator process first trialled by IMI in 2018, the Growth Hub has evolved into a stage-gated innovation model focused on solving real operational problems. In 2025 alone, solutions developed through this approach generated £206 million in orders for IMI’s Process Automation sector.

The Growth Hub functions as an innovation engine, bringing together IMI specialists and customers to identify operational challenges and test potential solutions quickly.

Ideas are developed through short innovation sprints, where teams use a “test and learn” approach to evaluate concepts and gather early feedback from customers.

Key principles of the model include:

Concepts that do not demonstrate sufficient value are stopped early in the process. This ensures resources are focused on solutions that deliver measurable operational benefits.

The model aims to support both short-term operational improvements and longer-term industry priorities, including:

Since its launch, several solutions developed through the Growth Hub are now delivered by IMI’s Process Automation sector. These include:

Each solution focuses on improving reliability, reducing maintenance complexity or supporting more sustainable operations.

Traditional like-for-like valve replacements can be expensive and complex, particularly for welded inline valves. Replacement often requires cutting, re-welding, engineering modifications and post-weld inspection, which increases costs and extends downtime.

To address this challenge, IMI developed Retrofit3D additive-manufactured valve components, allowing plant operators to resolve control valve performance issues without replacing the entire valve body.

The customised trim is designed to fit within existing valve bodies and topworks. This approach can reduce the need for major pipework modifications.

The additive-manufactured trim originally incorporated DRAG technology, which directs process fluid through a multi-stage, multi-path design to gradually reduce differential pressure. This helps to:

Through our Retrofit3D solution, IMI can now provide a wide range of additive-manufactured trim components. Because the solution replaces the internal trim components, installation can often be completed during standard maintenance intervals, reducing plant downtime and capital expenditure.

Wet steam is commonly encountered during power plant start-up, when condensate can form due to insufficient drainage, incomplete system pre-heating or operational sequencing issues.

This condition can lead to condensate erosion, which damages turbine bypass valve internals and reduces component life.

IMI developed EroSolve Wet Steam valve trim technology to mitigate this problem without requiring significant system redesign. The solution has now been installed in more than 750 locations worldwide.

The trim design improves valve performance by:

By reducing erosion damage, the technology helps extend valve service life while improving operational reliability during plant start-up.

The Growth Hub has also supported innovations linked to industrial decarbonisation.

Hydrogen is widely expected to play a role in reducing emissions in sectors where direct electrification is difficult. The Paris Agreement, adopted during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, identifies hydrogen as one of several technologies that could support long-term carbon neutrality targets.

To support emerging hydrogen applications, IMI developed IMI VIVO hydrogen electrolysers through the Growth Hub programme.

An electrolyser converts water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. When powered by renewable energy, this process can produce hydrogen with low associated carbon emissions.

The IMI VIVO system is designed as a turnkey packaged solution that includes:

This modular configuration allows installations to be tailored to the requirements of individual facilities and scaled to match operational demand.

The Growth Hub demonstrates the value of customer-driven innovation in complex industrial environments.

By combining operational insight from engineers with the technical expertise of IMI specialists, the programme helps develop solutions that address real operational constraints.

This approach supports improvements in:

As industrial sectors continue to evolve, practical innovation based on operational experience will remain essential for improving performance while meeting sustainability expectations.

To learn more about IMI’s range of valve retrofit and upgrades, visit: https://processautomation.imiplc.com/services/retrofit-and-upgrades

A version of this article originally appeared in World Pipelines magazine.