The ECOBILGE project is awarded with the 2025 Timón Innovation Award

The project has been developed by teachers of Palma's Nautical Fishing School, suggests mitigating disperse pollution caused by the crafts fleet.

The ECOBILGE project, developed by Felipe Esteve and Javier Carbajosa, teachers at Palma's Nautical Fishing School, has been distinguished with the 2025 Timón Innovation Award of Gaceta Náutica. The award, equipped with 3.000 euros thanks to the support of the Balearics Portuary Authority (APB), recognizes initiatives capable of adding practical solutions to the current challenges of the nautical sector. This year's call has had the participation of 13 projects, the major numbers of nominees from the creation of the award.

The jury —integrated by Javier Segovia, head of Technological Development and Innovation Department of the APB; Teresa Alcázar, responsible of infrastructures of the same department; Antoni Martorell, researcher of Marine Robotics Department and Intelligent Systems of the UIB, and Elena Pipó, director of Gaceta Náutica— has valued the originality of the system and its direct focus on resolution of a portuary problem. ECOBILGE suggests a compact system of bilge waters treatment for small lenght boats, oriented to eliminating oils, hydrocarbons and microimpurities before discharging it to the sea.

The solution is based on a sequential system that combines gravitational separtion, coalescing filtration and selective absorbtion, with the goal to reduce the presence of pollutants in docks and portuary areas significantly.

The system has been conceived to adapt to the limitations of space and boosting recreational boating, which traditionally lacks teams equivalent to separators of water-oil present in a myor lenght boat. Its installation does not require structural modification and can be integrated in line with the existing bilge pump.

Authors of the project point out that portuary watera support the accumulated impact of thousands of ships that evacuate their bilges directly into the sea,  often times automatically. This diffuse discharge contributes to the presence of oils, microplastics and other waste that affects sensitive ecosystems.

ECOBILGE pretends to reduce this polluting load and ease the fulfillment of the statal and autonomic normative that prohibits the discharge of oily waters proceeding from bilges to the public maritime domain. In addition, its design adds a safety mechanism that guarantees the capacity of bilge in case of an emergency, even if the system detects obstructions.

The project is supported in the Spanish and European law regarding prevention of marine pollution, as well as requests of the MARPOL Accord. The devloping team points out that the adoption of the system would allow reducing the environmental print of the recreational fleet and improving the quality of water in ports and marinas.

With over 25.000 registered ships, a 75 % of them of under 10 meters, the implantation of systems such as ECOBILGE would have a measurable impact in the waste reduction. According to the project's calculations, the installation of the system in a significant part of these boats would allow treating thousands of oily water liters every year.

The first runner-up of the Innovation Timón Award has befallen of the Marinas Azules project, an initiative of Balearic Marine Cluster oriented to studying the implantation of modular and self-sufficient desalination plants in sports marinas. This initiative suggests the production of water through inverse osmosis fed with renewable energy with networks differentiated for consume and cleaning, and with environmental management systems that allow reducing pressure upon insular aquifers. Developed in collaboration with Marina Port de Mallorca, Astilleros de Mallorca, Port Adriano, Alcudiamar, Marina Ibiza, Marina Santa Eulària and the Club Náutico Cala Gamba, the study analyzes the viability of reaching the hydric self-suffiency in portuary facilities through scalable solutions.

The second runner-up has been given to the proposal presented by IRP engineering and Alicante's Univeristy, which suggest the creation of artifiial reefs formed with electrolosys and "fed" brine coming from desalination plants. The system uses high focus of present ions in the rejection of inverse osmosys to accelerate the mineralization of light cathodic nets and generate a stony coverage apt for the instalaltion in marinas and sports ports.

The 10th Timón Awards, organizaded by Gaceta Náutica, are sponsored by the Autoridad Portuaria de Baleares, Ports IB, Redeia y D-Marin, and has the collaboration of Bufete Frau, Sa Calma Boats, Portcall, Cruceros Margarita, Alcudiamar, Club de Vela Port d’Andratx, Puerto Portals, Port Adriano, Astilleros de Mallorca, León Von Ondarza Abogados, Asociación de Clubes Náuticos de Baleares, ANADE, Real Club Náutico de Palma, Bodegas José Luis Ferrer and Exclusive Rent 4 Events. This year's gala will be celebrated on November 21st at Palma's Port Center (institutional headquarters of the Autoridad Portuaria de Baleares) at 7:30 p.m.