Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 15 June 2018 – Van Oord is collaborating with three start-ups who have been scouted via innovation platform PortXL. On 14 June, the contracts were signed in the presence of CEO Pieter van Oord. In the search for new cooperative partners, Van Oord focused on two innovation themes: sustainability and digitisation.
Van Oord is the main sponsor of PortXL for the third year. The choice of the themes sustainability and digitisation was based on the need to combine external knowledge with internal innovations. These cooperative ventures are encouraging innovation outside the maritime engineering sector.
Contracts
The first contract is a collaboration with ECOncrete. ECOncrete supplies sustainable solutions for the construction of ecological infrastructure. On the instructions of Van Oord, a research project is being started at several wind farms of the Dutch coast. The project involves testing various seabed materials that protect the foundations of offshore wind farms and boost the growth of oyster beds. The oyster beds will prevent the erosion of the seabed around the wind turbine foundations and increase the biodiversity in the North Sea.
The Canadian start-up Ionada is developing new techniques (scrubbers) for cleaning the exhaust gasses of ship engines. The product therefore prevents emissions of harmful pollutants, including sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide.
The start-up CargoLedger supplies blockchain solutions for logistics processes. Van Oord signed a contract for a database solution for sharing reports and data of drone activities with regulatory bodies and suppliers.
These promising collaborative ventures mean that the third edition of the PortXL programme is again a success. For Van Oord, this was its motivation to also join the fourth edition in 2019 as the main sponsor.
