Innovation hub at the Rising Stars Pavilion at Europort

The initiative is the brainchild of Europort and MARPRO, the Danish maritime recruitment and consultancy firm with a Rotterdam office. “Together we decided to do something extra for promising start-up companies,” says Narjiss Ghajour, Global Event and Marketing Manager at MARPRO. “For start-ups, it’s very difficult to present themselves at trade fairs like Europort, because they don’t have sufficient marketing budgets. This initiative provides a platform for promising start-ups to showcase their innovative solutions, which might otherwise go unnoticed. The Rising Stars Pavilion is a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation in driving the maritime industry forward.

Smart logistics solutions

With start-ups not only from Europe but also from the United States and even the Republic of Korea, the Rising Stars Pavillion is spreading its wings.

One such start-up is Rovigos Inc., a Korean company dedicated to developing smart logistics solutions for the era of logistics 4.0. With a keen focus on optimizing performance and enhancing productivity, Rovigos’ team diligently examines data from diverse sources, crafting bespoke AI solutions tailored to each client’s needs.

“Embracing the spirit of the 4th Industrial Revolution and ESG management, we revolutionize ship operations through the implementation of AI and automation, while leveraging big data and AI-driven analysis to enhance maritime logistics,” explains CEO Taeyong Kim.

“Our paramount mission revolves around helping enterprises reduce costs and streamline operations by leveraging advanced AI solutions. By harnessing the power of automation and data-driven decision-making, we empower our clients to stay ahead in the competitive market.”

Rovigos Inc. attaches robust and compact modules to refrigerated containers, engineered for durability against high temperature, humidity, salinity, and extreme conditions. Their innovative solutions ensure reliable long-term shipping by minimizing container failures and quality changes caused by climate fluctuations.

SaaS warning system

Dutch GBMS joined the Rising Stars for the second time. GBMS offers a SaaS warning system, monitoring the loads in container stacks. This secures safe shipping, and reduces loss of containers. Since the last edition of Europort in 2021 GBMS secured a lot of new financing and also managed to convince a number of large ship owners of their solution. According to Joris Brouwer, one of the founders of GBMS, the warning system will be installed early next year on a container ship with a capacity of 15,000 TEU.

Airkeel is a patented, air-filled appendage mounted at the bottom of the vessel hull and produced by the Danish start-up Dacoma. It swings in an inverse-pendulum motion from side to side, actively counteracting roll motions.

The swinging motion is optimised by using adaptive control based on Machine Learning/AI. Intelligent stabilisation fully ensures the best use of Airkeel in all situations, both in adverse weather and under varying load conditions of the vessel.

Flagship

Dutch start-up Diize reduces and simplifies the Port Call Administration with their ‘Always on board’-software. Diize’s newest flagship product, “Barge Arrival Services” (BAS), was officially presented at Europort 2023. For inland liquid bulk terminals, BAS provides a frictionless vessel handling platform between barge captain and the terminal. Unlike other current solutions, the BAS platform is suitable for terminals of any digital maturity level.

BAS is a turnkey solution, it’s modular, scalable, highly secure, strictly compliant, affordable, and robust. BAS allows terminal managers to pick, switch, add and optimize the vessel management module features that fit your needs. A strategic customer and investor of Diize, Royal Vopak NV, is launching BAS at several key ARA locations in late 2023 and early 2024. BAS was chosen by Vopak due to its strategic improvements in operational efficiency, modularity, superior data privacy and security.

Operational performance

With SU|MO, from Dutch company Fuel Essence, performance data from ships, regardless of age, size, and function, are digitized. All relevant onboard data are created, accessed, stored, and combined with other internal and external data for accurate, current, and historical insights into the operational performance of your ships and organization. These insights are presented in dashboards and can be reported automatically as desired. The SUMO Performance Platform provides (near) real-time insight into operational performance. Continuous improvement demonstrably results in increased economic returns with less environmental impact. The data and insights are continuously available both on board and on shore.

Danish Pinpoint is bringing space tech down to earth, from decades of experience with building, designing and operating space tech for NASA, ESA and more. By introducing the World’s First stand-alone intelligent tracking and IoT device, that utilizes direct 2-way satellite communication.

Pinpoint is a revolutionary intelligent device that delivers automated sensor alerts, intelligent tracking, and data on-demand from anywhere on the planet.

Increasing fuel-to-power conversion

ThermoDraft is a Greek company aiming in research, development and manufacturing of innovative green products in the fields of heat to power conversion and heat upgrading. The company was founded as a spin-off of the Agricultural University of Athens, combining the strong background in heat to power conversion engines with great expertise in the field of refrigeration units. Heat is rejected mainly through the water-jacket of the main or auxiliary engines’ cooling system, exhaust gasses or lubricating oil. ThermoDraft’s ORC engines are designed to extract this multi-source considerable amounts of heat and convert it into electricity, thus, increasing the fuel-to-power conversion efficiency. That, it is finally interpreted as fuel savings in the order of 3 to 4%, with a proportional CO2 emissions reduction.

Eliminating the need for cables

ShipMesh, an innovative wireless system developed by the Dutch company Amendtec, revolutionizes data transmission to the bridge by eliminating the need for lengthy cables. Combined with clamp-on flowmeters, the system will be installed within 30-minutes. This results in significant cost savings through reduced labor, shorter installation time, minimized downtime, and fewer cables.

Starting January 1, 2025, ships over 400 GT must comply with the MRV regulation, which can be a time-consuming administrative task. ShipMesh automates this process, ensuring compliance with the regulation.

American start-up HydroNet brings the internet underwater. The company provides reliable, secure, and self-optimizing networks in contested environments enabling seamless integration of underwater assets without need for a pre-existing communication infrastructure. HydroNet can handle multiple types of modalities concurrently, such as ROVs, fixed undersea cameras, divers, fish trackers, and ropeless traps.