Blue Campus
Preparing a new generation
of engineers and entrepreneurs
Opening of the Blue Campus in March 2024
Porrima will undergo full refit and have a bamboo interior before setting sail again in November 2024.
We welcome all those who had registered for the Blue Campus – and who are out for adventure and extreme learning – to join the team around Captain Frederic Dahirel to lay the basis for the restoration of Porrima.
We are immediately proceeding with the construction of three additional smaller scale Porrima ships.
We offer the opportunity to 25 young and eager talent to join us and have a unique experience in life to take the ship that was just recognized as one of the 15 most unusual ships in history back to her glory, with the intelligent kites, the solar power and the hydrogen from sea water.
We look forward to learn to know the would-be-pioneers :
Write to contact@bluecampus.ch
© Pierre Dufraisse
We learn from the masters who teach what is not taught and they inspire us to do what we never thought we could do like changing the world for the better and steering business towards sustainability faster than ever imagined transforming scarcity to abundance and eradicating poverty with ethics at the core!
This is the Blue Campus
The solar panels will be replaced by recycled solar panels. The new kite will be 60 square meters instead of the 40 now. The batteries will be liquid immersion packs. The carbon floaters with daggers and new engines are made with a novel version of fiber. And, the energy system will be completely driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The interior design will be completely renewed: the Zen approach to a simple and functional yet minimalistic approach will be completely made by a grandmaster of bamboo.
The same Porrima platform of technologies and design will be used to equip three new smaller versions of Porrima. The “babies” will enjoy the same platform of design, technologies and interior. We maintain our goal to arrive in April 2025 in Osaka, Japan for the World Expo and will determine the exact outings as the restoration progresses. However, being based in Kaohsiung, we are very close to our destination.
This trailblazing ship has introduced, tested and proven novel technologies over the past decade. She will add innovations like kites with AI to generate traction and power, back-up power systems with hydrogen produced from sea water, and robotics to transfer wind power to traction on a ship, all coordinated through a smart system (that will be continuously improved).
The process of deciding which technologies to use, how to install, operate and maintain is a unique learning opportunity that will inspire a generation to come
Students
Months
Modules
At the PORRIMA Foundation we view this as a once in a life time opportunity to secure access to, acceleration and democratization of all core technologies and business models to steer society towards sustainability. We will immediately cluster all relevant innovations to create novel business models applying all what we know and have learned to small islands. There are 600,000 small inhabited islands around the world that rely today on diesel generators. We can offer a comprehensive solution that has been proven to operate on a ship, which is like a tiny island.
This learning by doing implies nothing less than the creation of a new generation of business and engineering leaders.
Gunter Pauli
Gunter Pauli has worked over the past decades introducing novel technologies with a focus on the translation of these innovations into industrial initiatives. After separating from ECOVER, the ecological pioneer where he constructed the first zero emissions factory, he was invited in 1994 by the Rector of the United Nations University and the Japanese Government to lead a think tank of academia and business leaders to imagine a world without emissions in preparation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
This three year assignment culminated in the creation of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI), an independent think tank that has been ranked by the University of Pennsylvania as one of the ten most creative around the world every year since the ranking was launched.
After more than a decade of focus on the implementation of projects, the vision and the experiences were summarized in 2009 in the Report to the Club of Rome The Blue Economy. Translated in over 50 languages and distributed by the millions, this book demonstrates how to create business models, industries and jobs that transform the local reality, while taking the Common Good and Resilience as the priority. The report which established the concept of the “Blue Economy” worldwide describes how to develop entrepreneurial initiatives around hundreds of innovations.
Blue Innovations (Suisse) S.A., a company associated with ZERI since its inception and working with the same philosopy, accepted the responsibility to design and operate the Blue Odyssey by the MS PORRIMA. This experimental vessel is a platform of new technologies that are not taught at any university, nor used by engineering companies. This initiative offers an opportunity to fast track the design of the business models for an accelerated dissemination of game changing technologies that are proven to operate on the ship. The key bottleneck in the fast tracking of these innovations is (1) talent, and (2) the capacity to industrialize.
This initiative is an ongoing and unfolding reality that only the true innovators will survive. MS PORRIMA in Kaohsiung will be home of the hands-on workshops of the Blue Campus. This will also be the location where we start industrializing this class of maritime transport that will be known as “zero emissions”.
The academic and entrepreneurial initiative starts with a Campus around the ship that undergoes a major transformation. After the creation of this a novel learning platform we expect a continuity through the industrialization of the technologies applied to small inhabited islands.
This is the core mission: transform society building resilience through accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship.
© Pierre Dufraisse
About Blue Campus ?
Change accelerates. Universities and companies have a hard time keeping up with the latest technologies and pedagogical innovations. “The Blue Campus” (BC) permits students, academia and professors to learn first hand from the people who are designing innovations, revolutionizing technologies, and implementing these, using new business models that put ethics at the core. Based on the book “The Blue Economy”, we endeavor to put the common good with resilience at par with competitiveness. The BC accelerates learning, offering access to the breakthrough technologies that have successfully operated on MS PORRIMA over the past decade, and the associated business models that are not taught at university, nor practiced by businesses as they are at the cutting-edge of their respective discipline.
The BC builds on a clear ethical principle: being positive and committing to do good. We do not condone collateral damage, nor do we accept “doing less bad” as an improvement.
We measure our success by the number of projects that are started. We value entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Therefore we work closely with investment funds that assemble the legacy investors we need to accelerate this transition to a sustainable society.
The students are expected to participate in the courses along the principles of Satish Kumar of Schumacher College, implying that the university is largely self-organizing in food and maintenance with high responsibility for the well-being of all. Musical instruments and the arts are considered part of the technological and business experiences. There will also be a special platform for marshal arts and meditation.
© Audrey Meunier
Why the Blue Campus in Kaohsiung, R.O.C. ?
The MS PORRIMA is a 12 year old revolutionary ship originally built in Kiel (Germany) that has demonstrated the successful implementation of numerous technologies in a record time. A decade ago, PORRIMA was the first ship ever to circumnavigate the world with solar power only. The subsequent innovations include turning wind power into base load energy and producing hydrogen from seawater with excess solar power. Now we are adding recycled solar panels, immersion batteries and a complete new interior design made with pop-up tables, chairs and beds, a ZEN space of simplicity decorated with functional origami.
The Blue Campus (BC) recognizes the emergency with which we need to acting requires talent. Since MS PORRIMA will undergo a 9 to 12 months refit, integrating a dozen novel technologies while placed in a dry dock. This window offers an exceptional opportunity to immerse students and academia in interconnected challenges and solutions:
(1) to learn about the global issues and the local challenges based on the Blue Economy concepts that can be resolved with technologies and business models implemented with a proof of concept readily available thanks to MS PORRIMA, thus transforming reality at an accelerated pace;
(2) to learn how to install, maintain and operate these novel technologies using the technologies on land in dedicated buildings that are pioneering for over a decade, working with the people who invented them and produced the equipment, while working with those who install and maintain the innovations. It is the chance to be amongst the first to operate at scale and compare the revolution of yesterday with the breakthroughs of tomorrow;
(3) to create a platform for entrepreneurship since each of the technologies can be taken forward by the graduating students with their creative adaptations to the business models ensuring the dissemination and democratization of these innovations around the world. This is the basis for the building up of talent and start-ups as the basis for industrialization;
(4) to put these technologies in the starting blocks for improvements, since we are only at the very beginning and the exposure to the first use in a sea environment will trigger many innovative ideas that go beyond what we imagined at first. This will also permit to adjust the core innovations to the local realities;
(5) to create a squad of thinkers and doers who will influence the pathway to the future with strong R&D and visionary business concepts that will have a long term impact. The goal is to bridge the gap that exists today between the academic world and the culture of testing and analysis which has led to a major paralysis. Once we bridge the gap through the building of talent, we empower academic and research institutions to fast track innovation and its dissemination by creating a market;
(6) To transform the energy and water systems on small islands since all proven technologies on Porrima can have a permanent application on islands which are today dependent on diesel generators to meet basic needs, with the opportunity to industrialize the technologies with business models that attract international audience, students, clients and investors alike.
This coincides with the leadership of Stan Shih, the founder of the ACER Group of Companies, partner of Blue Innovations. Stan pioneered entrepreneurship in the electronics industry like no other. It is not just teaching the students theory, it is preparing them for a professional and entrepreneurial career that helps to transform the country and the continent. By doing so, the Blue Campus is influencing the way towards a sustainable society faster and more profoundly than we ever imagined.
© Pierre Dufraisse
Blue Campuses in the past
The island implemented an economic and renewable energy reconversion relaunching its economy on the basis of the concepts of The Blue Economy, building on 8 different sectors. Each business embraced sustainability and attracted talent. The population increased from 5,800 to 12,600. This social and economic expansion has been driven by the desire to operate 100% on renewable energies only. Now El Hierro is preparing for the second transformation, introducing innovations like the kite and hydrogen, starting from wind and sea water all based on the pioneering work of MS PORRIMA.
When El Hierro decided to explore the next phase of sustainable development, a second edition of the BC was organized for 30 students (limits imposed by COVID), deepening the understanding, especially from a political and financial point of view. The BC in El Hierro will be repeated each year offering a select group of policy makers the chance to learn how to turn the demise of an island or a coastal village around.
© Ferdinando Iannone
First Blue Campus students in El Hierro (2016)
Which Technologies are part of the Blue Campus?
There are a dozen technologies that will be subject of study, research and practice at the BC.
These individual themes will be integrated into one complex system over the course of the BC as students advance learning the technologies and processes. The emphasis is put on how to integrate these into a system be it a community or an industry as is outlined.
Each module including the theoretical study, and the hands-on learning at the dry-dock will last for three months. The students are expected to take the compulsory courses at the outset, then at least 4 core technology modules out of 12. Finally, the students participate in the “integration” sessions blending the clusters of technologies with AI and automated learning.
The courses are conceived as questions to which answers are sought with the opportunity to test and trial on site.
THE QUESTIONS ADDRESSED INCLUDE:
1. How to deploy solar power on a boat?
2. How to design a boat for solar power with a microgrid in multiple voltages as well as AC and DC ?
3. How to integrate hydrogen with solar on a boat ?
4. How to produce hydrogen without electrolyzers or compressors?
The students will be well versed in the requirements, dimensions and performance.
5. How to use robotics and AI in kite power technologies?
Today, it uses algorithms to operate as automatic pilot.
The integration with other technologies using AI imposes itself.
6. How to design a ship for kite power and hydrogen?
7. Recycled solar panels
The first panels installed in 2010 have worked great.
Now Porrima will install the latest version of solar, 1% improvement in performance
but these recycled panels represents a 60% reduction in carbon footprint
8. Immersion batteries
And were very expensive. The new battery packs designed by former Tesla and Panasonic
engineers will remain cool, and will have minimum 6,000 charging cycles, costing one third
of what the last pack purchased.
9. A reversible engine system
The new engine permits the three part helices to reverse. When the SkySails is pulling the
boat, then the drive train of the electric engine reverses and generates power. The fourth
power source on Porrima, making it independent and fossil free.
10. A new category of ships
PORRIMA was always forced to have a diesel generator and 1,200 liters of back-up fuel on board
just in case. After sailing 160,000 kilometers around the world, Porrima has proven the viability
of renewables. However, classification agencies IMPOSE diesel. We will create a new class of ships.
11. Upcycling fishing nets to outdoor clothing
the sea. However, we can collect the plastics, especially the Nylon 6 which is very persistent,
recondition into fibers and cloth and produce outdoor clothing.
12. How to provide the ultimate fuel back-up with biodiesel from algae?
This includes back-ups. Therefore the MS Porrima will have a generator on board operating with biodiesel.
How to generate fuel from algae and install these farming units around ports?
13. How to design business models that render each the activities commercially viable?
14. How to operate weather forecast systems submerged in the sea?
There is a new way of predicting the weather by analyzing the sea water. This technology has been developed and is just about to be commercialized.
15. How to utilize light as a communication tool underwater?
16. How to deploy hydrophones and sound filtration as data collection?
17. How to combine wind, solar and hydrogen with AI and robotics?
18. How to derive applications for communities and industries?
If one can produce water and power from sun, sea and wind, then we can design sustainable coastal village.
However, this implies we can re-design the supply chain of major industries like “how to produce blue ammoniac using the best of above?”
19. How to secure superfoods on a sailing ship?
The MS Porrima foresees one special room of at least 100 m3 to produce superfoods. The health of everyone on board requires the continuous availability of high quality nutrition.
Therefore using the limited space on the ship to cultivate spirulina, chlorella, kombucha, germinated sprouts, and mushrooms ensures health and nutrition for staff and passengers on board the MS Porrima.
20. The Cardoon Cluster for the Rehabilitation of Mining Grounds and Agricultural Land.
21. The Seaweed Cluster for the Regeneration of the Sea.
This is based on the business model of The Seaweed Company.
22. The Stone Paper Cluster for making paper and cardboard for mining waste.
How to convert the sterile of mines into paper that uses 67% less energy than cellulose paper, consumes no water and is recyclable in a B2B environment forever. This is based on the implemented business model by Lung Meng with 5 production plants in China and its research center in Tainan (R.O.C.). Stone paper will be widely used in Porrima, and it offers a change to learn to know the complete production system.
23. The Case of Small Islands
Since the island of El Hierro is a reference that is being applied to many islands in the South Pacific, this will allow the students who have a special interest in the regeneration of local communities (especially islands and coastal villages) to understand in details the local economic development.
25. The Power of Integrated Systems Design.
The basis of the transformation is the integration of multiple technologies and business models into an operating model that has low risk and high performance. The goal is not to issue further critique to the existing reality, the culture of the MS Porrima is to be positive.
Since we are not substituting a product for another one, a process for a better one, but are changing systems transforming the reality, we organize a special course on systems design
The System Dynamics, originally developed at MIT by Prof. Jay Forrester and used by the Club of Rome offers mathematical modeling demonstrating feedback loops and multiplier effects ensuring transparency of data and performance.
26. The philosophy and the initiatives of The Blue Economy.
A selected review of implemented projects based on the “Solutions Book Series” that already include plastics, coffee, paper and diapers.
At the conclusion of the course, there will be multiple seminars converging on the integration into pragmatic solutions for society.
Convergence of Blue Technologies
into Re-Industrialization
The technologies integrated and operating on the MS PORRIMA are of special relevance for the strategic interests to countries keen on relaunching their industrial activities. The Blue Economy prescribes that the future of communities and jobs are driven by using all locally available resources and focus on the generation of multiple revenues with a high value. We are not competing on cost but on the generation of value for the community, the Planet and for business. There is no better case than the MS PORRIMA.
Concretely: the combination of kite power, with a support from solar, and a conversion into hydrogen offers a first part of the production of “blue hydrogen”.
This will permit the creation of a local infrastructure that responds to the key basic needs that have remained unmet. A shortage of water and energy is transformed into a framework of abundance. This allows the transformation of local resources under very competitive conditions generating value.
When we combine this availability of water and power -where there was only dependency on fossil fuels- with novel business models like stone paper that uses no water at all then we can plan for local transformation in the communities. This permits us to secure the conditions for growth. The result could be the permanent generation of drinking water in regions that have been suffering from fresh water shortages for centuries; and that abundance could be extended to the production of blue ammoniac, one of the most basic chemicals and yet one of the least eco-friendly causing many emissions.
Since the MS PORRIMA contains all relevant technologies that address the needs for water, food, energy, housing, the Blue Campus permits the definition of a program that builds on the existing yet pioneering technologies and will ultimately permit the industrialization of communities which are zero emissions and competitive from the start.
The key limiting factor as always is talent: who knows how to operate the technologies, who has designed the integrated business models that generate more cash, and reduces risks, who has the bird’s eye view to imagine the integration into AI, and the deployment of robotics to secure performance 24 hours a day? Our goal is not just to share and teach. The purpose is to create a platform of transformation.
International Partners of the
PORRIMA Blue Campus
PORRIMA Foundation (Switzerland)
This Foundation operates the MS PORRIMA and leads the promotion of its technologies. It is based in Lausanne. It is the lead organization for the Blue Campus. It has Swiss tax-exempt status. The Directors of the Foundation are Dr. Adriana Marais, Prof. Dr. Davor Pavuna, Mr. Eric Sarasin and Maitre laurent Lemaire.
PORRIMA Inc.
Dr. Adriana Marais
Mr . Eric Sarasin
Dr. Davor Pavuna
Blue Innovations Group
(Lausanne, Tokyo & Riyadh)
This business group coordinates the development of novel technologies and secures their translation from concept and idea to competitive business. It works with all the technology providers and secures the integration into MS PORRIMA, and the concrete initiatives undertaken. The coordinator of the innovations is Gunter Pauli.
Blue Education S.A.S.
(France)
This entrepreneurial unit creates the education platforms through the use of fables for children, to continuous education based on the Blue Economy courses (like the ones produced with Scanderia S.A.), and university online. The responsible is Axel Rihs.
SkySails
(Germany)
24 hours a day. The founder and partner is Stephan Wrage.
StanShih Foundation
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
EPFL (Switzerland)
This leading university and engineering school of Switzerland is a key partners through Prof. Dr. Davor Pavuna, Quantum Physics who is on the board of the PORRIMA Foundation.
The Zermatt Summit
(Switzerland)
Blue Territories and Innovations
(France)
ZERI Network
(Tokyo, Japan – Porto Alegre, Brazil)
This network of scientists created in 1994 as preparation platform for the Kyoto Protocol (1997) assembles creative solutions to the pressing problems of the world, bringing together the best of science from around the world. This is headed since its creation by Yusuke Saraya.
Academic and Business Partners
IESE (Business School), ACER (Artificial Intelligence and computing infrastructure), KREAB (marketing) in addition to the existing project partners Novamont SpA (cardoon), Lung Meng (stone paper), and The Seaweed Company (seaweed).
All the persons involved form the Advisory Council of the Blue Campus.
Wistron
RePV
Their innovation utilizes an Easy-to-Disassemble module powered by RePV EVA, allowing for full recycling and reproduction of retired PV systems. RePV Tech enables high-purity recycling of silver, glass plates, and silicon cells in their original format with a recycling rate of 92% and reduces CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions by 60% for PV systems.
FORMOSA PLASTICS GROUP
SINGTEX and ECOALF
From R&D, raw material production, yarns, fabrics, to post processing, and recycling. Singtex is committed to use the recycled Nylon 6 for outdoor wear in cooperation with leading brands like EcoAlf from Spain.
XING Mobility’s patented immersion-cooling technology offers superior thermal management to offer versatile battery systems with ultra-fast charging capability and unprecedented safety
Access to Online Editions
While the focus is on a residential and experiential learning experience with the updates as the Blue Odyssey advances. The concepts and the theory of each of the technologies and subjects will be available through online courses. However, we plan between 2023 and 2025 at least 9 additional BC modules to be organized around the Blue Odyssey stops, each time in the presence of the ship and the advanced implementation of novel technologies.
Continuity on Site, Next Editions and Updates
The 2023-2025 Blue Campus will have a regular follow-up online and physical presence.
ONLINE UPDATES
First there will be ongoing updates for all the students online with the advances of the experiences on the MS PORRIMA. There will be a constant presence of students known as “The Astronauts of the Sea” in Kaohsiung and later on board the MS PORRIMA covering various disciplines. The “Astronauts of the Sea” will report on the use of the technologies at sea, their necessary improvements, the maintenance, and the lessons learned with advancements in the technologies. This will be an online community.
PHYSICAL COURSES
Second, during the Blue Odyssey in South East Asia there will be BC Modules offered on the site of the stop-overs.
FUTURE OF THE KAOHSIUNG SITE
In cooperation with NOVATEC and StanShih Foundation, will continue to operate as a living laboratory, integrating and improving technologies, finetuning the business models and securing an internationalization of the know-how, offering young graduates the chance to partake in the implementation across the world, turning Porrima – where ever the original ship or its babies are located – into a center of competences and talent, helping other nations to adopt this transition towards sustainable and competitive businesses.
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