Oil Spill Cleanup Contest Will Award $1 Million Grand Prize
People with oil spill ideas and suggestions should be interested to know that The X PRIZE Foundation today announced the $1.4 Million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE.
The Oil Cleanup CHALLENGE is a $1.4 Million competition designed to inspire a new generation of innovative solutions that will speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil resulting from spillage from ocean platforms, tankers, and other sources.
This X CHALLENGE is a one-year competition that begins on August 1, 2010 and culminates in the summer of 2011, with head-to-head competitive demonstrations taking place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHMSETT) in Leonardo, New Jersey, USA (www.ohmsett.com).
A $1 Million Prize will be awarded to the team that demonstrates the ability to recover oil on the sea surface at the highest oil recovery rate (ORR) and the highest Recovery Efficiency (RE).
The Challenge has two phases:
Phase I. From August 2010 – April 2011, teams from around the world are invited to register for this competition, and to submit their approach to clean up oil slicks created by spills or leaks from ships or tankers (e.g. Exxon Valdez) land drainage, waste disposal, or oil platform spill (e.g. Deepwater Horizon). An expert panel of judges from industry and academia will evaluate all of the proposals along the following criteria:
- Technical approach and commercialization plan
- No negative environmental impact
- Scalability of and ability to deploy technology; cost and human labor of implementation
- Improvement of technology over today’s baseline booms and skimmers
Phase II. The judges will select up to 10 of the top teams to demonstrate their ability to efficiently and rapidly clean up oil on the ocean surface in a head-to-head competition. These proofs of capability, which will determine the winner, will take place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHSMETT) in New Jersey. The top team that demonstrates the ability to recover oil on the sea-water surface at the highest oil recovery rate (ORR) and recovery efficiency (RE) will win the $1 million Grand Purse. Second place will win $300,000 and third place will win $100,000 in purses.
For more information, visit the following links:
The $1 million grand prize is less than the $10 million prize for the best oil spill idea that was suggested June 28, 2010 by X PRIZE Foundation Vice-President Francis Beland.
