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Port XL

An ecosystem of start-ups, scale-ups, corporate partners and mentors: PortXL is an acceleration program in the maritime sector. The Innovation Dock at RDM Rotterdam is therefore a logical location for the program, which was founded in 2015. On the historic wharves of the former shipyard, you’ll find companies of all sizes. The common denominator? Innovation. We spoke with Christel Pullens, Innovation & Sustainability Director and interim director at PortXL.

Christel has worked in the maritime sector all her life. And she did so all over the world: “I started my career at a shipyard in Belgium. That was in 1997. Three years ago, I chose to become an impact-driven entrepreneur and make the maritime sector more sustainable. And that is what we are pursuing with PortXL.”

## Making the maritime sector more sustainable
Christel: “PortXL works on behalf of a number of partners, including the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Van Oord, Boskalis and Damen. At the beginning of each year, we discuss the challenges in the field of sustainability. Based on those issues, our team scouts around the world for start-ups and scale-ups that have a solution for this.” PortXL’s team makes a pre-selection, from which corporate partners choose with whom to partner. “Then the selected start-ups and scale-ups come to Rotterdam to follow our program over three months. In those three months, we work together toward some form of cooperation and a concrete result.”

## Innovation
The Innovation Dock at RDM turns out to be the ideal starting point for young companies in the maritime sector. “An example of a PortXL alumni who found a workplace here is Flower Turbines. They have since outgrown the Innovation Dock and moved to a larger factory in Zoetermeer.” In addition to the acceleration program, PortXL also provides a special master class at RDM for companies. “Many parties in the maritime sector would like to collaborate and innovate but are not so sure where to start. With the ‘Master Class Innovator in a day’, we teach them how to set up their company to work well with a start-up or scale-up. With the master class, we try to take innovation more tangible. Because innovation is a profession.”

## Women at the helm
If it were up to Christel, more positions in the maritime industry would be filled by women. To make that happen, she chairs WISTA International, a network for women in management positions in the maritime industry. “WISTA is active in 56 countries and has more than 4,000 members worldwide. We are committed to providing good role models. Particularly important for young women in the industry.”

This means Christel is making a positive impact in the maritime sector in several ways, all from the Innovation Dock at RDM Rotterdam. Want to know more about PortXL’s acceleration program and/or master classes? Go to www.portxl.org.

_Photography by Eric Fecken_

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PortXL

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Cassius

“A robot doesn’t retire and doesn’t need a mould”. Enthusiastic entrepreneur Eric Barendse explains that with his 3D printing company Cassius, he wants to bring together the old and the new. With Cassius, Eric is researching how to 3D print environmentally friendly materials such as clay, loam and geopolymer with robots. In this way, he hopes to make the construction industry more sustainable and future-proof.

Since 2015, Barendse has been collaborating with a partner company that works with concrete. The moulds for apartment building façades, for example, are currently primarily made by hand by mould makers. Because of the aging population among these craftsmen and the amount of waste generated by using moulds, they turned to 3D printing. Eric: “A robot arm that is 3D printing on an industrial scale consumes a lot of data. And I provide that robot code – especially for large, complex designs. However, I started Cassius to go one step further and show the industry that 3D printing buildings can be a lot more sustainable and efficient. The digital ‘understanding’ of materials and design automation plays a big role in that.”

## Combination of physical and digital
This digitization of the construction and maritime industry is something Eric is experiencing from the front row at RDM. “The nice thing about the Innovation Dock is that all the entrepreneurs also have a link to the physical. There are many innovation hubs in the Netherlands, but there are often only people there who are developing an app or a platform or something. The companies on RDM almost all have an interface with production of a physical product. But they all have a software side as well. So, if you dig a little further, you always see that digitization is the driver. I think that’s cool, because it gives both that old, diligent port feeling, and the new feeling of digitalization and innovation.”

## Starting small at RDM
Eric: “And it’s precisely that experimentation that’s so great at RDM. Here entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to try things out. Normally when you start your business you first must rent an entire hall, to which you are often tied for five years. But of course, it can happen that you start something and find out after only two weeks that your idea is nothing at all. At RDM you can, so to speak, terminate your rent after a month without that being a disaster. Here conditions are created where entrepreneurship is less scary, where people are more daring. The courage to start something is especially important for innovation.”

## Printing a chunk of Rotterdam
Although you see 3D printing everywhere these days, not even that many people are working on this development. Eric: “There are a lot of people working with plastics, but 3D printing with concrete, or clay-like materials is still done on a small scale. There are only two buildings in the Netherlands built this way. So, the housing crisis and climate crisis will not be solved acutely with this unless scaling up very quickly. But to scale up, all teething problems must be eliminated, and we must make full use of new digital possibilities. Then we can eventually print a chunk of Rotterdam in a sustainable and affordable way. “That’s the part I hope to accomplish here at RDM.”

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Tetrahedron

High, higher, highest. In the world of offshore wind energy, the most important thing is not how heavy you can lift, but how high. The latest generation of wind turbines are huge and require structures that can install them at sea. And that is what they have figured out to perfection at Tetrahedron.

“Rotterdam is the offshore port of the world. That’s where our crane belongs. And that’s why we want to build it here with our own local network. And install it here in Rotterdam on the ship.” Speaking: Rick Markestein (Senior Design Engineer) and Wilco Stavenuiter (Director).

Wilco and Rick agree that wind turbines are the most important asset in the energy transition. Wilco: “We believe in what Frans Timmermans says [in 30 years, 25 times more wind turbines in European waters, ed.] and we want to contribute to that transition. So, we’re going full throttle!” Rick: “With all the experience we have, we simply want to do what we’re good at.” Tetrahedron stands for: triangular pyramid. As the triangle is known as a strong base for constructions (think of the Eiffel Tower) you understand that the company did not choose this name lightly. Especially if you take a closer look at the model of their crane.

Tetrahedron engineers invented and patented a groundbreaking concept for a new type of crane. One that will soon be able to reach as high as 200 meters to install the very latest wind turbines at sea. Their presence on RDM has the added advantage that talent is also nearby. Engineers from TU Delft and students from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences are always nearby. Rick: “Education is important to us. That’s where we get good trainees to partner with us in innovation.”
Of these new large wind turbines, there is only one working test model in the entire world. And that one is in ... Rotterdam! To be exact, on the Maasvlakte II, on land. “That can’t be a coincidence,” laughs Wilco. “But those turbines will soon have to be placed in the sea. And that requires a suitable crane that can be sailed there.” Rick: “We have thought about that very carefully, the secret being that we are not building bigger, but higher. And that’s really something else.”
What that real secret is then, of course, is a technical story. But the big energy companies know how to manage that. Applications are now coming in from all over the world. So Tetrahedron has something special here. And especially because they are setting it up with Dutch partners, most of whom are from Rotterdam. Wilco: “It’s really very exciting. We work in a big-boy industry, yet we’re a small boy ourselves, but with international patents, smart software and a lot of attention. Growing bigger is something we like to do together with local partners.”

“The crane we have developed costs 15 to 50 million euros depending on the implementation. So, the investment does have to be sustainably cost-effective. The good thing is wind energy has become subsidy-free. That’s a big advantage. So, I dare say that this is going to be a revolution. But we are in a hurry. Hurry because the production of such a crane takes two years from contract to completion. And the competition isn’t sitting still either.” But Rick and Wilco are confident. Almost at the same time: “Our objective fits seamlessly with that of Rotterdam: Make it happen!”

You can find Tetrahedron on Klinknagelstraat 2, at RDM in the Rotterdam Makers District.

Making the maritime sector more sustainable

Innovation

Women at the helm

Other news

Tetrahedron

Cassius