The PortXL community gathered at the RDM Innovation Dock to celebrate the achievements of the 2022 cohort. The solutions of the 13 start-up companies vary from flywheel designs originally meant for space operations to offshore wind turbine floaters that double as hydrogen storage.

The goal of the PortXL acceleration program is to build collaborations between corporates and start- and scale-ups to accelerate innovation. More than 10 collaborations were signed to continue working with these innovators and more to come in the following months.

Highlighting future collaborations

Representatives from the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Van Oord, Gemeente Rotterdam, Shell, Damen, Boskalis, Ampelmann, InnovationQuarter, Deltares, SPEED and Provincie Zuid-Holland joined to sign collaborations. Hedi Visscher, director PortXL: ‘What an exciting ride it has been. I’m really proud of the achievements that have been presented.

The development curve of all the companies has consistently grown and together with our partners in the maritime industry collaborations have been signed.’

The 13 companies that participated

1. CleanSubSea, Australia: Their Envirocart™ System enables the in-water removal, capture, containment and filtration of marine biofouling from a vessel’s hull without damaging the antifouling paint or polluting the surrounding marine environment. No fuel nor time is wasted driving to a dry dock location.

2. QuinteQ, Netherlands: Flywheel energy storage technology based on Boeing developments that realizes up to a fifteen-fold improvement on energy storage, applicable in energy systems and grids worldwide, and returning more than 50 financial returns to investors.

They use advanced materials with high tensile strength to allow them to experience energy density improvements that far outpace breakthroughs in battery technologies.

3. Ensemble Analytics, UK: Platform for ports that assimilates data and produces detailed advice for real time decision making on workforce allocation, training and investment. Efficient decision making can turn vessels around 8% faster, reducing emissions in port and improving local air quality.

4. Conexbird, Finland: Vibration analysis hardware, supported by a software component, designed for mounting on container spreaders, and able to withstand the harsh conditions spreaders are subjected to.

5. Mathclick, Italy: AI based solutions to interpret and forecast aquatic data.

6. Finsulate, Netherlands: Revolutionary antifouling product, no paint needed. Instead, an environmentally-friendly physical adhesive barrier is applied to the hull with a 5 year expected lifetime.

7. Skygauge, Canada: The most stable drone you’ll ever see, with patented thrust-vectoring technology. Perfect for safe industrial inspections and ultrasonic testing.

8. Psiori, Germany: Creates Crane AI, which provides 3D scans of the inventory and environment and cameras detecting the position of the load. Their technology allows the crane operator to avoid mistakes or train for special occurrences.

9. DecisionHall, Netherlands: Assembles a corporation of stakeholders with global reach who employ the latest Digital Engineering techniques to significantly reduce the risk, cost, and time required to run complex sustainability and climate resilience projects.

10. Rombit Studio, Belgium: Co-creates innovative and sustainable digital products which create value and increase efficiency for their customers. By applying digitalisation and predictive analytics technology, the company connects devices and platforms to existing infrastructure.

11. Noble Gas Systems, United Stated: Focuses on developing safe and lightweight compressed gas storage systems. Recently, the company demonstrated its latest generation of conformable gas tanks, which can be configured into existing vehicle architectures.

12. MayMaan, United States: Creates engine technology that is fueled by 70% water and 30% ethanol. Their technology is designed to systematically decrease operational costs and significantly reduce your carbon footprint.

13. GBMS, Netherlands: Focuses on developing systems that can reduce the number of containers lost at sea. They develop warning systems by understanding ship motions, physics, software, and sensor technology development.

14. 12toZero, Netherlands: Developing a unique floating wind foundation specifically designed to combine buoyancy and hydrogen storage in a single structure. The combination of these functions in a single platform provides that basis for a reliable hydrogen supply for the decarbonisation of marine applications and port-based industries.