Elastec / American Marine Wins XPrize Challenge

From the beginning of this year, the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE set audacious and achievable targets raising the bar of oil spill cleanup in order to inspire innovation. In the case of this Competition, the our finalist teams were required to more than double the industry's previous best oil recovery rate tested in controlled conditions by exceeding 2,500 gallons per minute (with at least 70% efficiency of oil collected over water). Elastec/American Marine won the challenge and the prize worth USD1,000,000. 

The ultimate goal of this Competition was to inspire a new generation of innovative solutions that will speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil.  These ten amazing teams with such dedication and heart proved that while not everyone came out of this Competition with a check or a trophy, they all came away with more information on their systems than they could have imagined.  Information they can use to further develop their technology and change the oil cleanup industry. 

 

Elastec / American Marine, based out of Illinois, is a manufacturer of oil spill and environmental equipment with a reputation for innovation in machinery design.  A self-funded, privately held Midwest Corporation, Elastec / American Marine has grown to become one of the largest manufacturers of oil spill equipment in North America.  Their company, which started over 20 years ago as just an idea, has grown into a 100+ employee operation that has a world-renowned reputation.  Using local talent for nearly all of their fabrication, Elastec / American Marine is proof that small town values transcend to a global market.

 

Runner-up was team NOFI from Norway, testing their single-vessel unit called the Current Buster 6, which collects, separates and stores oil in an alleged current up to five knots. Their system, incorporating a flexible v-shaped surface boom towed between two vessels or alongside one (via an overhead arm), corrals oil down to the end of the V where a separator removes it from the water.