Congratulations to the 10 Finalist Teams!

Hello Everyone,

 

It has finally arrived! Today, the X PRIZE Foundation  announced the Finalist Teams competing in the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE and we couldn’t be more proud.  These hard-working teams are about to develop technology that may influence the of future oil spill recovery technology and effect an  entire industry.

 

Five teams from the United States qualified to move on and the remaining five teams are all from Scandinavian countries.  They are (drum roll please):

 

• CRUCIAL, USA
• Elastec, USA
• Koseq, Netherlands
• Lamor, Finland
• NOFI, Norway
• OilShaver, Norway
• OilWhale, Finland
• PPR, USA
• Voraxial, USA
• Vor-Tek, USA

 With $1.4 million on the line, teams are excited to begin this journey and so are we. We look forward to seeing all the teams test in New Jersey this summer.

 

Congratulations again and welcome to the Final Countdown!

 

Good luck!

Alex at X PRIZE

IOSC 2011: Booth 851

Greetings from Portland!

This is going to be a big week for the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. We are currently preparing for at the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC), in Portland, OR where we will be showcasing the Finalist Teams and chatting up the conference attendees about the Competition which is moving full speed ahead. The conference brings together people from around the world, enabling them to discuss in various formats the best responses to oil spill cleanup. This year, the X PRIZE Foundation has sent members of our team to the conference to meet and greet everyone that stops by our booth. Everyone is looking forward to a week filled with discussions of innovation, oil spill cleanup technology, and of course, our Competition!

We will be at booth #851 in the Oregon Convention Center Exhibit Hall so if you're in the Portland area be sure to stop by and say hello!

May 23: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
May 24: 10:00am - 500pm
May 25: 10:00am - 5:00pm
May 26: 10:00am - 2:00pm

Next week after the conference, we'll have a special guest-blogger who will give us the full run-down of the events.

I can’t wait for the announcement of our Finalist Teams!  Stay tuned!

Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: Dennis Takahashi-Kelso

Introducing Dennis!

Dennis serves as the Executive Vice President of Ocean Conservancy. Kelso's distinguished career has covered every aspect of ocean conservation, including public service in natural resources conservation, university teaching, research on fisheries and environmental policy and environmental grant making. Most recently he served as the Program Officer for Marine Fisheries Conservation at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Executive where his responsibilities included strategy development and grant making for fisheries conservation policy reforms and for market interventions to encourage sustainable fishing and aquaculture. Prior to that, Kelso was a member of the faculty of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz where his research examined changes in Pacific Coast fisheries, particularly as a result of the shift toward production of farm-raised rather than wild-caught salmon.

Before coming to California to pursue his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, Kelso had an extensive and industrious career in conservation in the state of Alaska, serving as Alaska Commissioner of Environmental Conservation, a member of Alaska Governor Steve Cowper's cabinet, Deputy Commissioner of Fish and Game, and director of Alaska Division of Subsistence Hunting and Fishing. When the tanker Exxon Valdez went aground in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Kelso directed the state's oversight of the cleanup and enforcement of environmental laws. He also served as Chair of the Alaska Emergency Response Commission and a member of the Alaska Coastal Policy Council, the Alaska Land Use Council, and the Alaska Water Resources Board. In addition to his doctorate from UC Berkeley, Kelso also holds a law degree from Harvard University.

Our judges are very qualified and excited to participate! Can't wait for more!

Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: Henry R. "Skip" Przelomski

Hello Everyone,

Our next judge is Skip Przelomski!

Mr. Przelomski has been Vice President and Senior Technical Advisor of the Clean Caribbean & Americas (CCA) since 1991. His major responsibilities are to maintain and use for immediate deployment a multi-million dollar stockpile of air mobile oil spill response equipment covering all technically accepted methods of oil spill response. Hand-in-hand with the maintenance of the equipment, he is relied upon to maintain expertise and knowledge of oil spill response strategies, methods, issues and equipment developments, in order to recommend modifications and improvements in the inventory to the President and members of the CCA, and to provide technical advice on actual spills.

Mr. Przelomski developed specifications and oversaw the procurement of approximately $6 million dollars of response equipment for the CCA. He has deployed to numerous spills in the Caribbean and Latin America since coming to the CCA and has been a key participant in technical seminars, conferences, and working groups in the U.S. and Latin America, particularly on the subject of dispersant use and in-situ burning. He has also participated in numerous oil spill response exercises as an advisor and controller.

Mr. Przelomski is an active member of the Hazardous Substances and Oil Spill Response Committee F-20 of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). ASTM is a nonprofit organization devoted to the development of voluntary full consensus standards for materials, products, systems and services. The mission of the F-20 Committee is to be the foremost developer, producer and custodian of voluntary, world class consensus standards, specifications, test methods, guides, terminology and practices for the design, construction and operation of oil and hazardous substance response equipment, technology, and techniques.
During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response in the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Przelomski headed up the CCA deployment team operating the CCA Airborne Dispersant Delivery System (ADDS) out of Stennis International Airport, Kiln, MS. Over 360,000 gallons of dispersant were safely sprayed on the oil slick during 81 missions.

Prior to the CCA, Mr. Przelomski served twenty years in the U.S. Coast Guard and retired as a Commander in June 1991. The majority of his career was spent in the marine safety and environmental response field. His last tour of duty was as Assistant Chief, Marine Safety Division of the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami, Florida. Two of his duties were to serve as the Coast Guard Alternate Co-Chair, to the Caribbean Regional Response Team and to the Region IV Response Team.

More to come,
Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: Don Toenshoff

Hey Readers!

I would like to introduce to you, Don Toenshoff!

Donald A. Toenshoff, Jr., became Executive Vice President of the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) in April 1996. His responsibilities at MSRC include the executive leadership of: MSRC’s Health & Safety program, MSRC’s marine engineering & maintenance functions; MSRC’s vessel dry-docking program; the MSRC Marine Operations Division; federal regulatory spill response classifications; MSRC’s Quality Assurance & Quality Control programs; the MSRC dispersant program; and MIS & Telecommunications.

From 1998 to early 2010, Don provided leadership to MSRC’s Eastern Region, which includes the coastal region from Maine to Georgia, and the Mid-continent Region.
He previously spent four years during the creation and with the National Response Corporation (NRC) as Executive Vice President. His responsibilities at NRC included the development and oversight of the NRC program; commercial oversight of oil spill response activities; oversight of the NRC Training Institute; business development; and development of NRC’s operational infrastructure. Concurrently, he was Director of Clean Pacific, providing regional U.S. West Coast oil spill response services.

He presently is on the Board of Directors of SCAA, the Spill Control Association of America. Additionally, he is a member of APICOM, the Association of Petroleum Industry Co-Operative Managers.

Mr. Toenshoff represented the oil spill response industry on the U.S. Coast Guard Vessel Response Plan Negotiated Rulemaking Committee in 1992, which developed the present oil spill response planning guidelines, under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

He previously held positions with Phibro Energy, Inc. (Commercial Petroleum Operations); Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation (Marine Operations Port Captain); and Stolt-Nielsen, Inc. (Fleet Operations and Sea-Going Deck Officer)

Mr. Toenshoff is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point (BS, Marine Transportation, 1984); University of Bridgeport College of Business and Public Management (MBA, International Business, 1990), and has attended the Columbia Business School Executive Program (1995) and the University of Virginia Darden Business School Executive Program (2000)

Mr. Toenshoff is the recipient of: The Women’s Propeller Club of the United States Port of New York 1983 Heroism Award; the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 1983 Special Award for Heroism, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Outstanding Professional Achievement recognition (2004).

 

More tomorrow,

Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: John Joe Dec

Hey Readers!

So, as you all know, our final judges have been selected for the competition. So, for the next few days, I'll be spotlighting a few of the judges, so you can learn all about them, and the knowledge they will bring to the judging panel. It's set to be a great competition!

John Joe Dec

John Joe Dec (JJ) is a retired United States Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team, environment equipment specialist and oil spill response professional. During the BP oil spill, Mr. Dec outfitted more than 30 Coast Guard and commercial boats to skim oil near and offshore, training more than 200 crew members along the way. He also assists with classroom and field oil spill training, as well as field demonstrations for the Coast Guard Oil Spill Response Training course at OHMSETT. Mr. Dec began working in the oil spill field in 1984 at Marine Safety Office Hawaii then at Marine Safety Office Guam. There, he was a Response Supervisor with the Gulf Strike Team responsible for contracting all necessary personnel, equipment, and supplies to support Coast Guard led responses to oil and hazardous substance spills from the Mexico/U. S. border through the navigable U.S waters.

Mr. Dec then went on to the First Coast Guard District in Boston, MA. He was required to travel on short notice to the location of any ICS Command Post to personally support the Incident Commander. Under the overall direction of the Incident Commander, he interfaced regularly with contractors, making independent judgments as to the type and amount of oil spill equipment and supplies needed. Mr. Dec also maintained close relationships with other engineering and operating organization elements, government agencies, proven professional engineers, and industry and technical organizations to keep abreast of the latest developments in the Engineering/Environmental Response fields. He developed a local database of available response equipment and expertise, as well as coordinated oil spill equipment training for Coast Guard response personnel. Mr. Dec was also responsible for conducting inspections on oil spill response companies, evaluating types and kinds of skimmers, booms and trained personnel.

More later,

Alex at X PRIZE

Final Teams Announcement Coming Soon!

Hey Readers,

I know you are all waiting anxiously for the announcement of the final teams for the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE competition! Well, it's going to happen later this month! We will be announcing our teams around the date of the International Oil Spill Conference, which takes place in Portland, OR, May 23-26!

Just a few more weeks!!

Alex at X PRIZE

CNN Loves Us!

Hey Readers,

I have some exciting news for you all. In my last post, I wrote about the success of X PRIZE Foundation's annual Visioneering Event. One of the attendees of the weekend event was Ali Velshi, from CNN News. Since the event, he has interviewed Wendy Schmidt about the Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, and the clip aired on CNN a few days ago! Check it out HERE.

Ali also spoke on CNN about incentivized competitions, and how they spark innovation. For that clip, click HERE.

The videos are definitely worth watching!

More soon,
Alex at X PRIZE

Visioneering 2011!

Hey All!

The weekend of April 16-17 was a great weekend for the X PRIZE Foundation. We had our annual Visioneering event, where we hosted more than 100 CEO's, philanthropists, and heads of innovation. The event took place at FOX Studios, in Century City, Los Angeles, and was an overall success. The weekend focused on identifying the world's biggest problems, which can potentially be solved through incentivized competitions. More than 50 prize concepts were generated, debated, and then narrowed down to the top eight, which will guide our work for the next year!

Wendy Schmidt spoke at the reception about the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, where we are now in the competition, and her passion for cleaning up the Gulf.

Take a look!

Alex at X PRIZE 

Our Judges Announced!

Hello Faithful Readers,

On this day, one year ago, something unimaginable happened. But, The X PRIZE Foundation is proud to announce that today, we have our final eight judges for our Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE!

We have been working extremely hard to develop this competition, and lay out what the actual test will look like. We have met with experts in oceanography, and in oil to determine the best way to present this, and we are pleased to announce the judges! Please see below an excerpt taken directly from the press release:

"The X PRIZE Foundation today announced its roster of judges for the $1.4 Million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. As the one year anniversary (April 20) of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill reminds us of last year’s tragedy, the X CHALLENGE’s goal of inspiring entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists worldwide to develop innovative, rapidly deployable, and highly efficient methods of capturing crude oil from the ocean surface remains more relevant and timely than ever.

“This X CHALLENGE was developed as a result of the increasing awareness and disappointment at the inefficiency of our oil spill cleanup capabilities,” said Wendy Schmidt, President of The Schmidt Family Foundation and title sponsor of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. “As we look back on the last year and remember the disaster of the Gulf oil spill, I’m more optimistic than ever that this X CHALLENGE will help inspire new and innovative oil spill technologies that will allow us to respond faster and minimize the environmental impact of any future spills.”

“The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE has received an overwhelming response since the competition was first announced and we’re amazed by the amount of teams and individuals who have expressed an interest in competing, particularly given the current relevance of oil spill cleanup technologies,” said Francis Beland, Vice President of Prize Development at the X PRIZE Foundation. “Our slate of judges brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience to this competition. We’re honored to have such an elite group of individuals working with us to determine our final group of competitors and to be on-hand to judge the testing at OHMSETT this summer.”

The members of the judging panel are experts in fields such as oceanography and the oil industry, and include:

• John Joe Dec, retired United States Coast Guard hazardous substance spill response professional;
• Eugene Johnson, retired United States Coast Guard Captain and former Chief of Marine Safety for the Fifth U.S. Coast Guard District;
• Hung Nguyen, of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE);
• Skip Przelomski, Vice President and Senior Technical Advisor of the Clean Caribbean & Americas (CCA);
• Dennis Takahashi-Kelso, Executive Vice President of Ocean Conservancy;
• Donald A. Toenshoff, Jr., Executive Vice President of the Marine Spill Response Corporation;
• Peter K. Velez, Global Emergency Response Manager for Shell International Exploration and Production;
• and Dave Westerholm, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration"

To read more about Phases I and II of the competition, click to read the full press release.

Alex at X PRIZE

One Year Later

Hey Everyone!

So, as you probably know, today is the one-year anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill. One year anniversaries of tragic events tend to bring up a lot of emotions in people. Anger, sadness, confusion, maybe a little shock at how far we have or haven't come. But, I believe that it is most important to focus only on positive things. I don't want to discount the terrible tragedy that happened one year ago, because it was horrible, and the images still stay with me today, but I feel that it will not move me in a direction of healing, and helping, to focus on anything less than positive things.

We can't dwell on something that has already happened, and we have to somehow move on, and try our best to clean up the mess in the Gulf, and fix the situation as best we can. Then, we must move to preventing future problems of the same nature.

What are your thoughts on this day, one year later?

NRDC Blog Article

Hey All,

Today, I came across a great blog post from the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) website, about the oil spill and who is really affected the most by this tragedy. It's written by Peter Lehner, the Executive Director of NRDC, and is definitely worth a read: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/oil_industry_says_its_the_vict.html.

Yes, everyone has their own opinion about the Gulf spill and the harm it caused, however I do feel that we can all agree on one point: we need to clean up the oil and the mess that was made, and work to prevent future spills by subsequently coming up with innovative and energy efficient ways to live!

More later,
Alex at X PRIZE

OHMSETT

Hey All,

This has been an exciting few weeks for the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. Last week, some of our staff traveled to OHMSETT, located in Leonardo, NJ, to scout out the location of our $1M competition!

This summer, the semi-finals, and the finals of the competition will take place at OHMSETT's facilities. OHMSETT is the National Oil Spill Response Test Facility, and is actually an acronym for "Oil and Hazardous Material Stimulated Environmental Test Tank." Whew, that's a mouthful!

Our team scouted the testing tank, watched a practice cleanup in wave conditions, and saw some older skimmers used for cleaning up surface oil. Here is a picture of the group on the bridge, above the tank!

We are very excited to see what kinds of new technology our teams will show us this summer!

More later,
Alex at X PRIZE

Deep-Water Drilling Resumes

Last May, in response to the worst off-shore oil spill in the history of the U.S., The Obama Administration suspended all drilling in waters deeper than 5,000ft, in the Gulf of Mexico. After millions of barrels of oil flowed into the ocean from the well, and after a series of failed attempts to stop the flow, the BP Horizon “Macondo” well was finally capped, in late July, 2010. But was it too late? In 86 days, an approximate five million barrels (185 million gallons) of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, killing animals as big as dolphins and seals, and as small as tiny shrimp. Eleven heroic oil-rig workers that lost their lives in the explosion.

While BP worked frantically to clean up the mess, with the help of numerous environmental organizations, our incentivized competition, and kind volunteers, everyone wondered what this would mean for the oil industry. The halt on deep-water drilling also angered many Gulf coast residents, as they depend on oil drilling for jobs and money. The halt finally ended in October, with some restrictions. The Obama Administration ended the moratorium, saying deep-water drilling could resume, with much tighter rules and regulations.  These rules set higher standards for well design, stricter rules for blowout preventers, more emergency response training, and more safety certifications. BP’s Horizon rig was five years overdue for a 90-day safety inspection when it exploded. In addition to the stricter rules, the same approval process applies to companies drilling-offshore, in addition to obtaining the permit needed to drill. For the complete list of rules, click here. 

All that to say, Monday, March 1, 2011 marked a big day in the oil industry, as the Interior Department approved Noble Energy’s permit to drill 6,500ft deep in the Gulf, the first new permit since the spill in the Gulf last year. Before, permits were almost immediately approved, but now, they will only be approved on a well-by-well basis, making sure that every safety precaution is taken.

Many are angry it has taken almost a year to resume drilling, and six other permits await approval as we speak. However, the current situation in the Gulf is far from over, and the damage to the Gulf and it’s residents will most likely be permanent. What do you think?

Alex at X PRIZE

A Little Bit About Wendy

For those of you who don't know anything about our generous benefactor, Wendy Schmidt, I have listed a few of her many accomplishments and passions. I hope this gives you a better understanding of Wendy, and our competition!

Wendy is: The President of The Schmidt Family Foundation, which strives to advance the development of clean energy and support the wiser use of natural resources.

Wendy is: On the boards of The Natural Resources Defense Council, The California Academy of Sciences, The Nantucket Dreamland Foundation, and of course, The X PRIZE Foundation.

Wendy is: The founder of The Schmidt Family Foundation's 11th Hour Project, and Climate Central.

Wendy is: The donor and full supporter of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. Read the press release.

Wendy is: The wife of Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.

We love to see the mark Wendy has left on the lives of others, and on the earth, and thank her for leading by example.

Alex at X PRIZE

Registration Closed!

Hey Readers!

Yes, it's true. I'm about 15 days late in announcing this, but if you follow us on twitter, you can predict my next sentence. Registration for the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE officially closed on February 15th!

We had literally hundreds of teams, from all over the world preregister for the competition, and I am so completely excited to see the number of teams who will actually be competing!

More to come!
Alex at X PRIZE

So...What is the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE?

Some of you readers might be wondering...what exactly is the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE? Well, allow me to explain.


The Short Version:
1. 185 Million gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf.
2. The X PRIZE Foundation teamed up with Wendy Schmidt (who donated her own money), to create an X CHALLENGE, that would be awarded in 2011.
3. The X PRIZE Foundation is offering $1M to the team that can recover oil on the sea surface the fastest.


The Long Version:
The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE is a $1.4 Million competition designed to inspire a new generation of innovative solutions that will speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil resulting from spillage from ocean platforms, tankers, and other sources.


This X CHALLENGE, announced on July 29, 2010, is a one-year competition that begins on August 1, 2010 and culminates in the summer of 2011, with head-to-head competitive demonstrations taking place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHMSETT) in Leonardo, New Jersey, USA.

A $1 Million Prize will be awarded to the team that demonstrates the ability to recover oil on the sea surface at the highest oil recovery rate (ORR) and the highest Oil Recovery Efficiency (ORE).

The Even Longer Version:
For even more detailed information, check out the Competition Details.

So...now you know!

More soon,
Alex at X PRIZE Foundation

Welcome!

Welcome to the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE official blog! Here you will find the latest and most interesting news surrounding our search for the team who will find an innovative solution to speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil resulting from spillage.  This competition will be competitive, crazy at times, and probably bring you to tears. But, what X PRIZE competition doesn't? The winner will receive $1 Million. That's huge! Watch below, a short clip of Wendy Schmidt herself, president of the Schmidt Family Foundation and co-founder of the Schmidt Marine Science Research Institute, who has graciously donated her own money for this competition.

Our registration deadline has just been extended, and is now February 15! To register your team, click here: http://www.iprizecleanoceans.org/Page/Home


More soon,
Alex at X PRIZE Foundation