Every year, five maritime awards are presented at the Dutch Maritime Awards Gala: the Maritime Designer Award, the Maritime KVNR Shipping Award, the Maritime Royal Netherlands Navy Van Hengel-Spengler Award, the Maritime Innovation Award and the Maritime Award: KNVTS Ship of the Year. All nominees have now been announced.
With again many competing entries, it promises to be an exciting evening on Monday, November 7. During the Maritime Awards Gala, over 700 maritime professionals will meet the press, politicians and nominees to celebrate the innovative capacity of the Dutch maritime sector. These are the nominees of this year:
Maritime Designer Award
- Jochem de Kwant MSc demonstrated that iron powder can be used as a renewable fuel for shipping, thereby drastically reducing emissions.
- Arjan van Vliet has developed a gaming application to provide more insight into stability issues of ships.
- Kirsten Odendaal MSc has shown that advanced data science techniques can be used to improve ship energy predictions.
The Maritime Designer Award is intended for individual designers, PhD students, recent graduates and start-ups who feel that their work and approach deserve more attention and broader discussion. The award is aimed at the way in which a design, a subsystem of a ship or offshore vessel is realised. Eligible candidates include original or innovative approaches to design or tool development, possibly including demonstration.
The winner will receive a cash prize of €1000, made available by the Cooperating Maritime Foundations. The jury may also decide to make a sum of up to €24,000 available to the winner from these funds to financially stimulate and facilitate further development of the design method or solution concerned.
Maritime Innovation Award
- Automooring Solutions BV developed the AMS Rope Picker Robot (AMS-RPR), a revolutionary robotic arm that allows a ship to moor and unmoor semi-autonomously.
- Wärtsilä Nederland BV came up with an exchangeable battery container that allows inland vessels to run on green power.
- Corrosion developed the UV-C Cooler, an environmentally-friendly alternative to the traditional box cooler to combat biological fouling.
Also read: New anti-fouling solution uses UV light
Netherlands Maritime Technology (NMT) established the Maritime Innovation Award at the end of 2000 on the occasion of the retirement of the then chairman, Mr Gerard Speld. The award is intended to highlight the innovative power of the maritime and offshore supply industry. In addition, the award should stimulate innovative developments within the maritime cluster.
Maritime KVNR Shipping Award
- MARIN with “crash barriers at sea”, an initiative with which MARIN has proactively and positively stimulated discussion on how to better ensure safety on the North Sea.
- Windcat Workboats with the Hydrocat 48, the first hydrogen-powered Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV). Hydrogen is often mentioned as one of the zero-emission fuels of the future and the Hydrocat 48 shows that it can be used right now.
- Van Oord with the VOX sister dredgers Ariane, Apolonia & Alexia, vessels with which the company once again distinguishes itself as a shipping company that is ahead of international regulations to minimise its impact on the climate and environment within the technological possibilities that are available.
Also read: [VIDEO] MARIN tests “crash barriers” to prevent collisions with wind turbines
The Maritime KVNR Shipping Award has been established by the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners (KVNR) to honour an organisation or individual who, through innovation, has helped the shipping industry in the Netherlands most over the past year. Since last year, it is no longer about technical innovation, but the award is now focused on, preferably Dutch, organisations and individuals who have played a distinctive role in an innovative way to the benefit of Dutch shipping.
Maritime Award: KNVTS Schip van het Jaar
- Spartacus, the world’s largest and most powerful cutter suction dredger, designed and built by Royal IHC.
- RSV Nuyina, the most advanced research vessel in the world, designed and built by Damen Naval.
- Viva, one of the largest pleasure yachts built in the Netherlands, designed and built by Feadship/Royal van Lent Shipyard.
Ships that qualify for the Maritime Award: KNVTS Ship of the Year 2022 must – especially with regard to innovative aspects – have been developed in the Netherlands, have preferably been built (for at least a large part) in the Netherlands and must have been delivered between 1 May 2021 and 30 April 2022. The jury assesses the submitted ships against the criteria Design, Economy, Sustainability and Environment, Safety and Construction Process.
Also read: Nuyina, Spartacus and Viva compete for KNVTS Ship of the Year Award
Maritime RNLN Van Hengel-Spengler Award
- Saskia Alberts with the concept design of an “Unmanned Dipping Sonar Boat”.
- LTZ3 (TD) Tom Wien with research on “Thermal runaway at lithium-ion batteries”.
- Tom de van der Schueren with his research “Digital Search for the Optimal Engine Room”.
To be eligible for the award, a student employed by the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) must carry out research as part of his or her studies, the results of which lead to new insights, concepts or innovations that contribute to better operational deployment of naval units. The RNLN Van Hengel-Spengler Award is in keeping with the innovative nature of the RNLN and was first presented in 2013, when the navy celebrated its 525th anniversary.
The award is named after two naval officers who, in the early twentieth century, laid the foundations for encrypting messages via a rotating machine. This idea gave rise to the famous German “Enigma” machine, which in turn led to efforts on the English side to break the encryption. The English scientist Alan Turing developed the concepts of a computer on this basis.
Maritime Awards Gala
The Maritime Awards Gala is made possible by main sponsors Praxis Automation Technology BV, Anker Crew Insurance, Damen Shipyards Group and NNPC. The gala will take place on Monday November 7th in De Doelen in Rotterdam.
Picture by SWZ|Maritime/G.J. de Boer.
