The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, G+ Global Offshore Wind Health & Safety Organisation, KTN and the Workboat Association have chosen five organisations for initiatives to improve operational safety during the Covid-19 pandemic on crew transfer vessels (CTVs).
The five finalists will now demonstrate their initiatives.
They are Flameskill, which offers a CTAS particle filtration head top to protect users from solid and liquid particles and micro-organisms, helping to ensure the safety of technicians in a confined working space.
Entex’s Disinfex Booth and portable disinfecting unit generates a dry fog of non-toxic disinfectant that kills viruses, pathogens and bacteria.
The former eliminates those that might be carried by a person passing through the booth and the latter can be used inside a room or vessel cabin to completely fill the space, disinfect the environment and the surfaces within it.
Canary Sentinel has pioneered an early warning service for symptoms related to Covid-19 via a real-time health monitoring app.
Sea Sure has designed an air filtration and extraction hood to be fitted to seats on transfer vessels, allowing crew members to be seated in close proximity.
Life’s Shield is running a research and development project seeking to validate a UV light unit that kills viruses and pathogens almost instantly, while being safe for humans.
Social distancing has severely reducing the number of offshore wind turbine technicians permitted to undertake wind farm inspections, maintenance and repairs, and so a cross-sector CTV innovation challenge was launched using the KTN innovation exchange (KTN-iX) to find solutions to this pressing industry challenge.
G+ General Manager Kate Harvey said: “For offshore wind, the pandemic presents additional challenges in what is already a complex working environment.
“We’ve been impressed at the breadth and ingenuity shown in response to our call for proposals.
“As offshore wind capacity grows, the sector continues to work tirelessly to uphold the highest safety standards.
“These varying solutions will allow vital operations to be carried out in a more efficient and safe manner.”
Workboat Association chief executive Kerrie Forster said: “We have been really pleased to see the large number and variety of entries into the challenge, the winners have all got something very different to offer, which if implemented in combination would provide some coordinated a versatile controls to prevent the spread of virus’s whilst travelling on board workboats.”
KTN knowledge transfer manager for energy John Ransford said: “We were delighted with the level of responses on KTN-iX to this Covid-19 challenge.
“It was a crucial problem to solve for this industry, but we can also see potential for cross-over into other transport modes.
“The transfer of skills and knowledge from other sectors is a key driver for the iX platform and allows the challenge holder to explore potential solutions they might not otherwise have considered or been able to access easily.
“We are keen to see the results of the demonstrations.”