The winners have been announced: The Maritime Cluster Northern Germany has once again honored innovative ideas and projects as part of the MCN Cup. A large number of candidates were selected from four categories. New: the “Junior Cup”.
The winners were announced yesterday at an awards gala in Hamburg. In the Helmut Schmidt Auditorium of Bucerius Law School, the winners in four categories received their awards for sustainable maritime projects and products.
“The impressive quality of the submissions underlines the great importance that innovation, sustainability and the goal of climate neutrality have for the maritime industry. We are delighted if the MCN Cup succeeds in providing additional incentives and drawing more public attention to these efforts,” said MCN Managing Director Jessica Wegener at the awards ceremony.
MCN Cup: spoiled for choice
As part of the event – moderated by HANSA Deputy Editor-in-Chief Michael Meyer and MCN Deputy Managing Director Katrin Caldwell – Michael Braungart, the pioneer of a cradle-to-cradle circular economy, made a passionate plea for more innovation in a keynote speech. This enthusiasm for innovation is certainly present in the local industry, as the many submissions made clear. The expert jury was spoiled for choice.
The MCN Cup, which has been awarded every two years since 2021 and for which HANSA is the exclusive media partner this year, is aimed at companies, scientists, universities, institutes or individuals with a connection to the maritime industry who use innovative solutions to improve ecological, economic and social sustainability along the maritime value chain. An expert jury decides on the award winners. The five coastal federal states of Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein are the patrons of the MCN Cup.
Category A
Operation of existing ships
In Category A, the Laboratory for Piston Machines at Stralsund University of Applied Sciences and Noris Automation came out on top. The consortium was recognized for a novel system for contactless operational monitoring of connecting rod and crosshead bearings in large engines, which is intended to help improve fire safety on board ships. Other nominees in this category were 3Dock (Hamburg) with the topic “Implementation of additive manufacturing” and MOL Katalysatortechnik (Merseburg/Saale) with the topic “Catalytic water revolution”.
Category B
Processes in ports and maritime logistics
The winner in category B is East Energy from Rostock, which aims to contribute to the decarbonization of shipping by producing renewable methanol from biogenic CO2 and green hydrogen. The planned annual production at the Stavenhagen site is expected to be around 15,200 tons of eMethanol. Also nominated were bremenports (Bremerhaven) with the project “Tide2Use – Intelligent pumping station and lock control” and the Technology Transfer Center (ttz) Bremerhaven with the joint project “MariSynFuel – Synthetic methanol as a maritime fuel for shipping”.
Category C
Digitalization of the maritime industry
ITK-Engineering from Braunschweig emerged as the winner of Category C. The VIPort project aims to use digital technology to support the planning of sustainable port infrastructures, in particular environmentally friendly port energy systems. The other nominees in this category were ma-co maritimes competenzcentrum (Hamburg) with the project “PortSkill 4.0 – training hub for German port companies” and Vesselity Maritime Analytics GmbH (Rostock), which submitted an approach to reducing emissions from the global merchant fleet through predictive hull cleaning.
Category D
Maritime jobs of tomorrow
The German Maritime Museum – Leibniz Institute of Maritime History in Bremerhaven won the MCN Junior Cup, which was awarded for the first time in Category D. The museum has set itself the special task of using innovative approaches to inspire young people for jobs in the maritime industry. Career starters, students and trainees were able to apply in this category. The other nominees were Bremen University of Applied Sciences together with Hapag-Lloyd (Hamburg) with the topic “The Role of Maritime Informatics in Decarbonizing Maritime Transport” and Topas Industriemathematik Innovation (Bremen) with the transfer approach “Science and business: technicians as mediators between the worlds”.
