Great Bubble Barrier and AquaBattery are finalists in Postcode Lottery Green Challenge
Two start-ups from the Netherlands, The Great Bubble Barrier (Amsterdam) and AquaBattery (Delft), have been announced amongst the finalist of the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge.
The challenge is one of the largest annual international competitions in the field of sustainability innovation. The winner receives a prize of 500,000 euro, the runner-up will be awarded 200,000 euro and the remaining three finalists will receive 100,000 euro each. This year’s finalists will present their business plans on 13 September to an international jury, the press and the public.
The finalists of the Green Challenge who will pitch their green solutions on 13 September.
Plastic soup and batteries
One of the finalists is the start-up The Great Bubble Barrier that addresses the issue of the plastic soup in oceans. The company developed an air bubble screen for riverbeds that catches plastic before it arrives at sea.
Co-founder and female sea sailor Anne Marieke Eveleens (29) will pitch this entry during the finals.
TU Delft spin-off AquaBattery has developed an energy storage system that works on the basis of water and table salt instead of rare, and therefore expensive, raw materials. Because no chemical reaction is required to store and release energy, this innovation offers a sustainable solution for storing energy that has been generated from renewable resources, such as wind and solar energy. Emil Goosen (29), co-founder of AquaBattery, will represent the start-up.
Other finalists
The other finalists who will pitch their entry are from the UK, Estonia and USA, respectively:
● LettUs Grow with a method to grow crops with their roots hanging in a dense, nutritious mist
● Reverse Resources with a software tool that allows textile recyclers to gain better insight into the quality of the waste flow
● AlgiKnit with a textile fibre produced from seaweed
The finals will be held at the Gashouder venue in Amsterdam on 13 September 2018 and can be watched via livestream at www.greenchallenge.info.
Last year, the Rwandese start-up EarthEnable won the first prize with their sustainable alternative to cement.
This news item was originally published on the website of Postcode Lottery.
Photos: Postcode Lottery
Read also on this website
● Great Bubble Barrier ready for the real job: collecting plastic from world’s largest rivers, 6 February 2018
● Great bubble barrier team wins Plastic free rivers makathon, the Netherlands, 4 July 2016
● Blue battery wins Dutch Stockholm junior water prize 2015, 15 June 2015
● Wetsus and TU Graz researchers can store electric charged water to make it a battery, 2 March 2016
● Expertise: Water technology
More information
Postcode Lottery/Green Challenge
www.greenchallenge.info
The Great Bubble Barrier
Haarlem, the Netherlands
www.thegreatbubblebarrier.com/en
Aquabattery
Leiderdorp, the Netherlands
www.aquabattery.nl
Video presentation on the Blue Battery
Video presentation on The Great Bubble Barrier