Olioil and Floating Finland started a collaboration, with which both aim for the world’s seas. Operations will first be tested in Baltic Sea ports.
Jenni Honkanen TS TURKU
(Image Caption: This is what the oil spill response unit located in the archipelago looks like. A robot vessel descends from the container on top of the pontoon to collect oil from the surface of the water.)
A floating concrete pontoon and a container on top of it. Such a sight may await water travelers in the future on the coasts of Finland and later also elsewhere in the world, as well as in ports, once Olioil and Floating Finland get the results of their collaboration in the water.
The companies are jointly developing a system that allows oil spills to be combated more effectively than at present, for example in port areas.
Floating Finland, operating in Vehmaa and Turku, manufactures the floating pontoons onto which the patented oil spill response containers developed by Olioil are installed.
In the event of an oil spill, robot vessels can be launched from these containers at the push of a button. Artificial intelligence, together with satellites and drones, calculates how the oil has spread, and the robot boats automatically isolate the oil in up to half an hour by surrounding it with oil booms they tow behind them.
The intention is to install pontoons in place, for example near ports. When a ship approaches the port, the system is ready to operate.
– However, the container on top of the floating pontoon can also be easily moved to wherever it is needed, says Tommi Forsberg, Sales Director of Floating Finland.
For Turku-based Olioil, the collaboration with Floating Finland is a concrete step towards large global markets. The goal is to develop and test the oil spill response concept in ports so that the system’s operational reliability can be demonstrated to large players globally.
In the future, the intention is to install oil spill response containers on the decks of ocean-going vessels. Olioil’s CEO Kristian Laiho believes that the first ship-mounted systems could be realized in 1–2 years.
– The product must be tested before the technology is exported. Discussions with various actors have already been held in the Archipelago Sea region and abroad, he says.
According to Laiho, potential customers in the future, in addition to ports, could be, for example, shipping companies or large oil companies. According to him, shipping companies have several reasons to be interested in the increased effectiveness of oil spill response.
– Spills happen every quarter of an hour, and they must be reported to the authorities. Companies become liable for damages, which costs a lot. If the damage can be contained, it can also have an impact on ship insurance premiums, Laiho says.
According to him, it is essential that oil spill response equipment is available immediately when a spill occurs.
– There is a determined time in which oil spreads a certain distance in the sea. It’s not enough to go to the site, you already have to be there.
Olioil’s technology is not limited to oil spill response. According to Laiho, the system developed together with, among others, Elomatic and Åbo Akademi University can be utilized, for example, to identify different algae, such as blue-green algae, in water bodies.
Collecting the brown sargassum seaweed drifting from the Sargasso Sea region, which plagues the Caribbean coasts, is also manageable.
– The oil boom on the robot vessels can be replaced with, for example, a net that can be used to collect algae, Laiho explains.
For all this, Olioil is currently raising funding in its three million euro funding round. The company is backed by one previous private equity investment.
– This is not a short road, nor an IT project completed in a year. However, Finland needs billion-dollar startups, and Olioil is aiming precisely for this, Laiho says.
Floating Finland is also aiming for international growth, which the collaboration with Olioil supports.
The company behind Floating Finland is Suomen Laiturikauppa, which sells and manufactures docks for consumers. Floating Finland is an auxiliary business name introduced late last year, under which the company trades with businesses and public administration.
– First, we aim for the Baltic Sea region and then more international areas. The auxiliary business name is better suited for international trade, Forsberg says.
The largest pontoon manufactured by the company has been 20 meters long. Two of them were delivered to Sweden, where they secure vessels’ access to the shallow cruise port of Karlskrona.
– A 40-meter-long and 4.5-meter-wide pontoon also acts as a breakwater.
FACT: The duo joined forces in environmental protection
- Olioil Oy Ltd, headquartered in Turku, is a marine technology company developing new oil spill response methods.
- Olioil utilizes artificial intelligence and autonomous surface vessels to contain oil spills directly at the emission source.
- The company has ongoing international pilot projects in, among others, Africa, Egypt, and the Caribbean.
- Floating Finland (Suomen Laiturikauppa Oy) supplies floating infrastructure products. The company designs and manufactures at its own factory in Vehmaa, among other things, wave attenuators, port structures, and floating infrastructure elements that are delivered to international markets.
- Founded in 2015, Suomen Laiturikauppa currently employs about twenty people, half of them in Turku and half in Vehmaa.
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