The Tribune

A Freeport-based processor of oil and other ships’ waste plans to quadruple its capacity after being selected for financial and technical assistance by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Clean Marine Group and its patented technology, which breaks down oil and water emulsions and processes contaminated water, was among five Caribbean winners selected by the IDB as part of its the Blue Tech Challenge.

“With a capacity to process in excess of 50 million gallons of waste from cruise ships and other commercial vessels every year, the facility will now be expanded to receive up to 200 million gallons per annum,” the IDB said of the forthcoming benefits to Clean Marine Group.

The company is developing a “MARPOL1 Port reception facility” in Freeport, with MARPOL standing for the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. It describes its mission as to “protect the marine environment by collecting and processing waste oils, oily mixtures, effluent and other waste streams from the normal operation of ships”.

Clean Marine Group’s website says of its project: “Clean Marine Group has secured the Grand Bahama Port Authority license to operate a MARPOL port reception Facility in Freeport Harbour.

“Our plant has emissions below the world’s most stringent environmental levels, with 97 percent of the oil recovered being recycled and 100 percent of the waste water being recovered to a potable state.

“Our hydrocarbon recovery plant and tank farm will have capacity to process 120,000 tons of oily waste per annum.”

Clean Marine Group says full details of its facility, which is intended to service The Bahamas, US east coast and wider Caribbean, will be published in “early 2019”.

Describing how its process works, the company says all a ship’s “slops, tank washings, effluent and oily wastes” will be offloaded into a barge. From there, the waste’s composition will be tested to determine the best treatment and end usage.

“Resulting outputs are a commodity standard IFO180 oil, decanted sludge and potable water for re-use,” it added.

Clean Marine Group was selected as one of five winners, the others coming from Barbados, Belize, Haiti and St Lucia, by the IDB operating through its IDB Lab, Natural Capital Lab and Sustainable Islands Platform, in alliance with the Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility.

The Blue-Tech Challenge, which was launched in September 2018 and closed for applicants on November 30, aimed to identify businesses that apply new technologies or solutions to facilitate the long-term sustainability of the ocean economy across the Caribbean.

Fifty applications were submitted by persons or groups in 12 of the 14 target Caribbean countries, with proposals focusing on topics such as recycling, pollution, sargassum reuse, marine exploration, clean energy and coral restoration.

The applications were evaluated by criteria such as the level of innovation; level of social and environmental impact; scalability potential; financial sustainability; and viability of execution. Due diligence on the applicants was conducted by IDB specialists, together with members of a Blue-Tech advisory panel from the University of West Indies, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), MIT Media Lab, National Geographic, Surfing Tsunamis, Althelia Ocean Fund, and IDB Invest.

The selected entities, including Clean Marine Group, will now initiate project design for their financing and/or technical assistance proposals. These are now part of the IDB’s network of global innovators in the region, and poised to exchange knowledge, expertise and best practices.