Meet the Winners of the Ocean Innovation Prize
The wait is over.
We are thrilled to announce the three winners of our US$1 million Prize to support innovations that mitigate climate change through ocean-related strategies. These creative, impactful solutions all harness the enormous potential of seaweed in sequestering carbon, reducing plastic pollution, cutting methane emissions, and producing clean energy. The prize money will be split evenly among the three winners. Here they are!
Dr. Noryawati Mulyono S.Si.
Cofounder
Indonesia
Seaweed-based solution for a plastic-free ocean
We innovate and manufacture seaweed-based bioplastic through a sustainable production process that requires no hazardous chemicals as well as cost, energy, and water-efficient. We address climate change problems directly, through seaweed cultivation that reduces CO₂ emission, and indirectly, by substituting the conventional plastic with our truly biodegradable products.
Dr. Nicolas Ugolin
Founder and lead scientist
Guadeloupe
Carbon capture and energy from Sargassum
SMO Solar Process is an innovative process using solar power to turn biomass or carbon-based waste into highly valuable products with negative CO₂ balance: activated carbon, biochar, clean hydrogen, electricity. Our project is to use SMO technology to turn invasive Sargassum algae into a carbon sink, together with producing valuable outputs.
Alexia Akbay
Founder & CEO
USA
Seaweed feed supplements reducing livestock methane emissions by 90%
Symbrosia has developed a novel seaweed feed supplement that reduces livestock methane emissions by over 90% at minimal feed inclusion rates. If 10% of the world’s cows added a sprinkle of our seaweed feed additive to their diets, 200 million tons of CO₂ equivalent would be avoided every year.
"Your support has created long term impacts, not only for Biopac, but also for seaweed farmers and the whole ecosystem when we spread our products globally. Many thanks."
Dr. Noryawati Mulyono
Biopac
Indonesia
September 16, 2023
Honorable Mentions
Two inspiring wave energy companies earned an Honorable Mention from our High-Level Judges. Discover their work below.
Patrik Möller
co-founder & CEO
Sweden
Clean energy from ocean waves
CorPower Ocean brings innovative wave energy technology, converting ocean waves into clean electricity. Wave energy help offsetting the intermittency of wind and solar power, accelerating the transition to a 100% renewable future. Our technology is based on decades of research, and inspired by the pumping-principle of the human heart.
Inna Braverman
Founder & CEO
Israel
Clean electricity from ocean and sea waves
Eco Wave Power has developed an innovative and patented technology for the generation of clean electricity from ocean and sea waves. The global utilization of the immense wave energy resource can drastically reduce the effects of fossil-fuel-based energy production on climate change while sustainably meeting global energy demand.
Thank you to our High Level Judges and Expert Evaluators!
The Blue Climate Initiative received 236 applications from over 60 countries. The winners were selected from among 21 Semi-finalists by a distinguished panel of High-Level Judges.
Craig Cogut
Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Pegasus Capital Advisors, L.P.
Richard Bailey
Chairman and CEO, Pacific Beachcomber S.C.
Daniela Fernandez
Founder and CEO, Sustainable Ocean Alliance
Françoise Gaill
Emeritus Research Director of CNRS
Margaret Leinen
Director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Vice Chancellor for Marine Science at UC San Diego
Vladimir Ryabinin
Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and Assistant Director-General of UNESCO
Jyotika Virmani
Executive Director, Schmidt Ocean Institute
Our 21 semi-finalists were previously selected by a global group of 17 Expert Evaluators for their impact potential, innovation, commercial and scale potential, capacity and feasibility, alignment with Prize principles, and the value that the potential award would bring to them.
What happened?
The winners shared the $1 million prize and attended the Blue Climate Summit. To fond out more about the progress that the prize money helped to fund, visit the web sites of Biopac, SMO Solar Process, & Symbrosia.
Collaborators
The Prize is presented by BCI as part of an endorsed programme of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and is designed to advance the goals of the Ocean Decade and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Prize is presented in collaboration with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance.