Candidates for the 2022 Blue Innovation Awards

Marlinks is a Flemish SME that develops systems with optical detection technology for the continuous monitoring of submarine cables. Marlinks uses specialised technology, more specifically 'Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)', to measure the acoustic vibrations along the submarine cables.

Distributed Acoustic Sensing enables continuous, real-time measurements along the entire length of a fiber optic cable. Marlinks has now come up with a new solution that uses this technology to monitor the cable protection system (CPS) of an offshore wind farm.

The Moray Base is the conceptual design of a foundation for floating offshore wind turbines. MULTI.engineering is responding to developments in the offshore wind sector, where floating installations are increasingly being used.

Unlike existing wind floater concepts, the Moray Base is designed to use similar product technologies to the successful monopile manufacturing process and the supply chain for bottom-fixed wind turbines.

Special vessels are used to transport personnel and materials to offshore wind turbines quickly and efficiently: crew transfer vessels or CTVs. These vessels traditionally run on diesel.

With the Hydrocat, CMB.TECH has designed the world's first hydrogen CTV. The vessel is powered by a dual fuel engine that runs on a combination of hydrogen and diesel.

The sea is very interesting for generating wind energy due to its large surface area and often powerful winds, but not every seabed is equally suitable for installing wind turbines. Extensive research is therefore necessary to determine where offshore wind turbines can be installed.

DEME has now developed a groundbreaking solution that makes it possible to develop and operate offshore wind farms in an economical and environmentally friendly way on a rocky seabed, where conventional installation methods are not suitable.

Every year, a lot of plastic from companies and consumers ends up in rivers and canals, and through these waterways this waste ultimately ends up in our North Sea and the ocean.

To tackle this problem at source, the partners in the DeMARC project are designing a reliable operational system for collecting plastic waste in waterways.

Multi-use of the available space at sea can contribute to the sustainable and efficient use of ocean resources, delivering tangible economic and environmental benefits. This Belgian demonstration project focuses specifically on the combination of offshore wind, aquaculture and the restoration of flat oysters and seaweed cultivation.

The UNITED project is a good example of collaboration between science and the marine industry, partly thanks to the diversity of the partners within the consortium.

In our society, both households and industry use large amounts of water. Since we are faced with a water shortage in Belgium, it is important to reuse the available water as much as possible.

Aquaduin is a drinking water company that places maximum emphasis on natural wastewater purification. For example, the potential of willow fields to further purify wastewater is being investigated. This initiative is part of the European Interreg project FRESH4Cs.

Flanders Hydraulics has recently acquired a second towing tank in Ostend. To diversify the use of the towing tank, a test platform for autonomous shipping has been developed in this basin.

This platform uses a ROS (Robot Operating System) to accurately measure the position of ships in the basin. This makes it possible to control the ship using autonomous control algorithms.