ON&T is a long-time supporter of the blue tech startup community and last year partnered with Ocean Exchange, an established ocean tech accelerator that runs an international awards program geared at offering unique scale-up opportunities to its winners.
Each fall, the organizers and judging committee announce the recipients of three global awards (two Neptune Awards, and the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Orcelle® Award), each of which carries a prize pot of $100,000.and the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Orcelle® Award), each of which carries a prize pot of $100,000.
ON&T, as an exclusive media partner, was onsite in Fort Lauderdale in October for the 13th edition of Ocean Exchange, and is proud to present the winners of last year’s competition in this exclusive Check the Tech spotlight.
The two Neptune Awards were given to solutions designed to advance our scien- tific understanding of the ocean and help minimize our impact on these resources, resulting in more resilient bodies of water, including healthy marine life and coast- lines. The winners were Oyster Heaven and Phoenix Waste. The Wallenius Wilhelmsen Orcelle Award, which recognizes practical solutions to making net-zero emissions a reality, was won by CarbonBridge.
Oyster Heaven: the company’s patented substrate, the Mother Reef, is an antidote to three critical problems on the market:
scarcity, permissibility, and scalability. Oyster Heaven produces brick reefs that offer unparalleled scale that is available in generic circumstances anywhere in the world where bricks are made. One factory can produce 240,000 units per day— enough for 100 hectares of submerged surface.
oysterheaven.org
Phoenix Waste Solutions: creator of the Phoenix, a mobile waste-to-energy furnace that thermally reduces 500 pounds of unsorted solid waste per hour at 2,000°F without using any auxiliary fuel, at less than half the cost and 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions of landfills. Phoenix offers a practical solution to the waste disposal issues that are faced by island or coastal communities or countries with poor waste management infrastructure.
phoenix-waste-solutions.com
CarbonBridge: producer of ultra-low carbon methanol for highly economical compliance through blending. By using microbes to convert waste gasses into methanol—instead of venting these gasses—the thermochemical processes from methanol production are bypassed. CarbonBridge can deliver negative carbon-intensity methanol at prices that are less than one-third of e-fuels and enables blending with lower-cost methanol to meet targets.
www.carbonbridge.io
The groundbreaking caliber of the 2024 winners says much about the quality of the global roster of finalists (US-based unless noted otherwise):
ADHERE GEAR WAVE (Spain); Blaze Energy; BLUEiQ; Eyesea (New Zealand); KIDEMIS (Switzerland); Newlight.blue; Oyster Heaven BV (Netherlands); Phoenix Waste Solutions; CarbonBridge Inc.; Nucleic Sensing Systems; OnDeck Fisheries AI Inc. (Canada); Seacork Studio (Canada); Soarce, Inc.; SynMatter; and ZEM Fuel System Limited (UK).
Congratulations to all, and ON&T looks forward to continuing its partnership with Ocean Exchange and supporting the blue tech startup community throughout 2025.
