About us
Who we are
Founded in 2006, HINICIO is a leading technical and strategic consulting firm specializing in hydrogen and its derivatives, sustainable transport, and industrial decarbonization. With a portfolio of over 900 projects across 45 countries, we advise governments, companies, and international organizations, including, investment banks, multilateral entities, and venture capital firms. Our services include the formulation of corporate and national strategies, the development of public policies, advisory for investment decisions, and the execution of studies and projects of high technological and economic complexity.
We specialize in renewable energy, renewable and low-carbon hydrogen, BESS, e-mobility and transportation, methane, ammonia, methanol, SAF, and CCUS. We support our clients along the entire value chain, from idea conception to final investment decision. Our experience in strategy development across various levels, combined with our expertise in project and product planning, design, optimization, and certification, enables us to understand the technical and operational fundamentals that shape energy value chains, as well as the complexities and opportunities of hard-to-abate sectors.
Our renowned track record in regulatory affairs and public policy, including the foundations we laid for the regulatory framework for renewable and low-emission hydrogen in the European Union and the Americas, has enabled us to understand that each project design must be tailored to local and regional conditions. We adapt operational designs, market projections, and potential financing frameworks to ensure end-to-end optimization, from plant capacity to certification processes. This has qualified our projects to be positioned in the H2 premium market. Additionally, our experience in due diligence, negotiation of renewable energy PPAs, offtake agreements, and support tenders, as well as subsidies and tax credits, consolidates the financial success of our projects and the confidence of our clients.
Our technical expertise is based on our systems engineering capabilities, which allow us to fully integrate a broad spectrum of technologies into a robust system architecture. This includes renewable energy, electrolysers, transmission lines, BESS, hydrogen storage, pipelines, chemical reactors, and port logistics, among others. With this approach, backed by our advanced project design optimization tools, we offer a unique value proposition: an end-to-end solution that maximizes operational efficiency and meets market demands.
For 18 years, our distinctive capabilities have spanned the entire hydrogen and its derivatives value chain, supporting projects in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This effort has positioned us as a global reference company in Power-to-X projects, recognized by industry and government sectors. We have received awards such as ‘Best Hydrogen Industry Service Provider in LAC’ in 2022 and 2024, ‘Reuters: Top 10 Hydrogen Consultancy Firms’ in 2023, and ‘Clean Hydrogen Partnership’s Best Success Story Award for CertifHy’ in 2022, among others.
Headquartered in Brussels, HINICIO has offices in Paris, Rotterdam, Washington D.C., Santiago de Chile, and Bogotá. We are also part of the Vulcain Group since 2022.
Our mission is to support the transformation of the global energy system.
Our history
Our history started supporting the evolution of the hydrogen and fuel cell industry in Europe with a small team of experts who shared a common vision: developing a clean hydrogen economy to contribute to achieving a more sustainable world. This team was led by Patrick Maio, co-founder of the European Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technology Platform and current CEO of Hinicio, who then started working with the World Fuel Cell Council, coordinating some of the first hydrogen development projects in the EU.
Due to a rapid understanding of the vital role of hydrogen in the energy transition, Hinicio established its headquarters in Brussels, and soon after, it opened its second office in Paris. With these two offices in place, Hinicio expanded its services toward developing strategic studies and roadmaps to support public and private clients to prepare for the sustainable energy revolution across the world. By 2016, with a background of more than 150 projects in Europe and Asia, Hinicio got a membership to the FCH JU in Europe(now the Clean Hydrogen Partnership) and offered pioneering consulting services such as Go-To-Market Strategies, Business Models, and Project management assistance.
In 2014, after our consolidation in the H2 market in Europe, Hinicio started working on CertifHy as the first GO certification system for Europe, a project that is now supported by the European Commission and envisioned the expansion of the clean hydrogen interest in other regions. In 2015 Hinicio opened the first office in Latin America and set up additional commercial agreements in Asia and the MENA region. Due to our efforts, by 2024 we have offices in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the U.S., Chile, and Colombia.
Vision and values
At Hinicio, we see hydrogen as playing a central role in the future energy system to achieve climate objectives.
Our mission is to advise our clients and support the building of successful strategies, projects, and public policies, leading and accelerating the transformation of the energy system globally. We strive to be their preferred partner to help them achieve their climate objectives. To do so, we attract best-in-class human capital.
We are a company that fully believes in unity, structure and creativity as part of the main tools to promote change around the world. That is why we have developed a strong set of values and principles which guides our way to take decisions, advise our clients, support our allies and create healthy work environments. Our set of corporate values are:
Engagement
Engagement
-We are engaged and committed to finding solutions and deliver
-We strive to build trusted, long-term relationships
People First
People First
-We actively support and develop our people to work from their intrinsic motivation and passion for our mission, vision, and colleagues
-We create the right environment for colleagues to have fun and grow closer together as one team, cross borders
-We promote empathic relationships
Excellence
Excellence
-We strive to exceed expectations, but not at any cost
-We strive for high quality in everything we do
-Excellence is no reason for excess. We manage our resources efficiently
Customer-Centric
Customer-Centric
-We take particular attention to helping anticipate client’s needs
-As an agile organization, we leverage our flexibility to our client's benefit
-We are open and available
Integrity
Integrity
-We say what we do and do what we say, remaining true to our values
-We do not hide problems: we surface them early on and do our best to solve them
-If we doubt, we look for advice from our peers and more senior colleagues
Result-Oriented
Result-Oriented
-We pay particular attention to clarifying goals.
-We measure progress regularly and provide feedback
-We propose pragmatic solutions
Sustainable Innovation
Sustainable Innovation
-We embrace positive change
-Our innovations should be good for society and the planet
-Our innovations should be sound economically and environmentally
Locations & Alliances
With 18 years of experience in the industry, Hinicio is recognized as a leading technical and strategic consulting firm specializing in hydrogen and its derivatives, sustainable mobility, and industrial decarbonization. The company has a dedicated hydrogen competence center across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, with offices in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the U.S., Chile, and Colombia.
+900 studies and projects in more than 45 countries
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
At Hinicio, we are committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Our human capital is the most important asset we have. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and company’s achievement as well.
We embrace our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.
Hinicio’s diversity initiatives are applied – but not limited to – our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; layoffs; terminations; and the ongoing development of a work environment built on the premise of gender and diversity equity that encourages and enforces:
- Respectful communication and cooperation between all employees.
- Teamwork and employee participation, permitting the representation of all groups and employee perspectives.
- Work/life balance through flexible work schedules to accommodate employees’ varying needs.
- Employer and employee contributions to the communities we serve to promote a greater understanding and respect for diversity.
HINICIATIVES | Our extra mile with purpose in the long run
Hinicio contributes to societal goals by engaging in volunteering and supporting fundraising efforts and ethically-oriented practices that benefit its employees, communities, and the planet.
We focus our efforts on the following initiatives:
Donations and corporate philanthropy
- Donation of masks to a hospital in Belgium as a corporate response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Donation to a charitable organization in Colombia by our LATAM Business Unit to help indigenous communities in a state of vulnerability.
- Donation for the purchase of renewable energy equipment in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
Community volunteering
Planting trees initiatives during our team building activities in Europe and Latin America
Corporate social marketing
Since 2018, we have been sending Trees Gift Cards to our clients. Throughout this initiative, we already have planted around 5000 trees in Bolivia, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Nepal.
Socially-responsible business practices
Our goal is to become a net-zero climate impact company. We want to manage our environmental footprint. Therefore, in each of our offices, we lead our efforts for decarbonizing our internal activities, and we monitor our results.
Memberships & Alliances
Memberships & Alliances
