Nor-Shipping has announced the winners of its prestigious Next Generation Ship Award, the Young Entrepreneur Award and the inaugural Ocean Solutions Award on the first day of Nor-Shipping 2022. Havila Voyages’ Havila Capella, Christiaan Nijst, Founder & Director, Value Maritime, and Daphne Technology were crowned with their respective titles this morning in front of an audience of 1000 C-level executives at Nor-Shipping’s Open Leadership Conference.

Global spotlight

The awards are a central feature of Nor-Shipping, Your Arena for Ocean Solutions, taking place this week (4-7 April) in Oslo and Lillestrøm. In addition to the accolades, winners receive the spotlight of attention at the event, with an international community of tens of thousands of ocean decisionmakers gathered for the first time since the pandemic, as well as global industry recognition.

As Nor-Shipping Director Sidsel Norvik points out, that acclaim is much-deserved:

“We saw a huge influx of entries across the awards categories this year, with players from all over the world demonstrating how they’re responding to key industry challenges with innovation, ambition and determination,” she notes. “This gave our juries a series of very difficult tasks, leading to heated debate… but that’s a challenge we, and they, were delighted to have.

“All of the shortlisted nominees, and indeed the majority of the entries, would have been worthy winners – so high was the calibre across the board. So, Havila Voyages, Christiaan Nijst and Daphne Technology can be enormously proud of their achievements against such a strong field. With such vision and talent on show, I think we can be rightly optimistic about what lies ahead for our industry. I look forward to seeing our award winners making further headlines in the future.”

Sustainable success

This year saw the first outing for the Ocean Solutions Award, launched to celebrate Nor-Shipping exhibitors with breakthrough innovations at, or approaching, the commercialisation stage. Daphne Technology won for a solution that simultaneously reduces all toxic and climate pollutant emissions for ships powered by heavy/residual fuel, LNG, and future fuels. Its long-term strategy is to capture and convert pollutants into upcycled and useful products, both offshore and land-based.

The Young Entrepreneur Award is a joint initiative between Nor-Shipping and YoungShip International showcasing emerging maritime talent and solutions (all nominees must be under the age of 40). Christiaan Nijst, Founder & Director, Value Maritime, caught the judges’ eyes for his ambition with the firm’s Filtree System; an Exhaust Gas Cleaning System that filters sulphur as well as (ultra-fine) particulate matter out of the exhaust, while ensuring the wash water used is filtered and neutralized before discharge.

Finally, the always anticipated Next Generation Ship Award went to coastal cruise ferry Havila Capella. This unique vessel is set to be powered by battery and liquid natural gas, cutting CO2 emissions by around 25% and NOx emissions by 80–95%. The battery packs were, at the time of delivery, the world’s largest on board a ship, with an output of 6.1MW. The vessel, which also boasts a waste energy recovery system and Wavefoil retractable bow foil device, was built at Tersan Shipyard in Turkey.

Something for everyone

Alongside the awards initiaitives, other highlights from Nor-Shipping 2022’s activity programme include, The Ocean Leadership Conference, Brazil@Nor-Shipping, the Blue Talks, Nor-Shipping’s Technical Seminars, The International Ship Autonomy and Sustainability Summit, the Young@Nor-Shipping programme, The Maritime Hydrogen Conference, The Quality Flag Forum and many more.