Meet the Finalists: Clean Maritime Innovator Award

Over the coming days, Maritime UK will be profiling each of the finalists in this year’s Maritime UK Awards. Winners will be announced on 12 November in an event live streamed from Plymouth. Registration is open here.

Further signifying their commitment to contributing to the decarbonisation of the maritime sector, Artemis Technologiesare proud sponsors of the Clean Maritime Innovator Award.

The Clean Maritime Innovator Award, which will be awarded for the first time at the 2020 Maritime UK Awards later this month, and which originally formed part of the Department for Transport’s Clean Maritime Awards, will be given to a company or individual that has developed, tested or operated innovative technologies in the UK that have made a significant contribution to the transition to zero emissions for the maritime sector.

The winner of the award will be announced at a virtual live-streamed event broadcast from Plymouth, Britain’s Ocean City on Thursday 12 November from 5pm.

Iain Percy, CEO of Artemis Technologies said:

“Artemis Technologies is proud to support these awards that recognise the achievements of the UK maritime sector, and in particular, the work of those trailblazing companies helping the sector achieve its net-zero and emissions reduction targets.”

Highly respected experts from a variety of businesses and government departments were involved in the judging panel for this year’s Maritime UK Awards, which celebrate the achievements of the UK’s maritime sector, which adds £46.1bn to the UK economy every year, and supports 1.1 million jobs.

Shortlisted in the Clean Maritime Innovator category are three organisations that have demonstrated their innovative contributions towards a cleaner maritime sector: ARC Marine, Babcock International and HST Marine.

ARCMarine is an eco-engineering company specialising in the design and manufacturing of nature-inclusive subsea protection and advances ecological monitoring services. Their newly developed Reef Cubes are the only artificial reef technology in the world that do not contain plastics or Portland cement, and therefore has a CO2 footprint 90% less than standard products. In June 2020, ARC Marine produced the first carbon-neutral Reef Cube, and in total 150 ReefCubes have been deployed as part of the DEFRA & CEFAS Seafood Innovation project.

Babcock LGE provide cargo handling and fuel gas supply systems to the LPG, LNG and ethane carrier markets. They have recently developed ecoSMRT® , the LNG reliquefaction technology for LNG ships, which reduces carbon footprint by 40% compared to no reliquefaction system installed. Significantly, ecoSMRT® is much more power efficient than traditional systems and gives up to 20% more reliquefaction capacity per kW. This clean maritime innovation developed by Babcock LGE has so far been fitted on 7 ships with a further 38 on order.

HSTMarine own and operate offshore vessels and have recently developed a hybrid Chartwell 24 crew transfer vessel, which will provide support to the offshore wind sector. The product of extensive research and development and dialogue between HST Marine and Diverse Marine alongside wind farm owners and the wider offshore supply chain, the vessel makes use of a hybrid propulsion system. At low speeds, this allows for silent, zero-emissions operation, enabling the vessel to comply with port air quality requirements.

Harry Theochari, Chair of Maritime UK, said:

“We’re delighted to announce the finalists for the Maritime UK Awards 2020. Across all fourteen categories we can see some genuinely world-beating products, services, and operators. I’m particularly pleased to see some fantastic projects being showcased in the new Clean Maritime categories. Given the importance the sector places on getting to net zero, it is important that we celebrate the progress made on that journey and connect people together so that they can achieve more than on their own. These awards help do just that. The quality of entries this year is testament to the strength and commitment of our maritime sector to be world-class despite the most challenging of circumstances.”

Ben Murray, Director of Maritime UK, said:

“We were determined that these awards would go ahead, and in an ideal world would have been one of the first occasions at which colleagues from across the sector could come back together following COVID-19. With that not being possible due to new restrictions, we think it’s really important to celebrate the remarkable work that has been going on – in responding to COVID-19, and in spite of it – which sends a message of resilience and ambition.”

The 2020 Maritime UK Awards are hosted by Maritime UK South West and delivered by Plymouth City Council. Diamond Sponsors are the MLA College and the University of Plymouth.

Tickets to the live-streamed event are free and open to everyone. To register visit the official website.