“Marine oil spill accident, now robots solve”… ‘Sheco’ dreams of a clean sea with unmanned robots

Input 2020.12.17 06:00

“In Korea, there are an average of 280 oil spill accidents every year. It’s about once or twice every two days. But now, it’s not easy because people are removing them all by themselves.”

Kwon Ki-seong, CEO of Sheco, a marine pollutant removal equipment developer, said this by introducing’Shecobot’, which controls oil spills on the sea. 92% of oil spill accidents are small-scale accidents with less than 1000 liters, but now people have to collect oiled adsorption guns directly on the ship using a puller, which is inconvenient.

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CEO Kwon said, “The existing method not only harms the health of the pollutants who have to smell the toxic oil, but also the environmental and economic damage due to the carbon generated when the adsorber used to remove the oil is incinerated.” I said.

Sheko focused on unmanned control. This is because most of the oil spilled on the sea such as bunker C oil is harmful to humans. Accordingly, all controls such as movement and screw operation of the robot put into the sea can be controlled wirelessly. The image recognition system detects the location of the oil covered in the sea, and a screw device works to suck it up. As the contaminants pass through the filter, the oil flows into the collection bin and the water flows back into the sea.

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The size of 95cm wide, 125cm long, and 65cm high can collect up to 100ℓ of oil per unit. The weight of the robot is about 58 kg, which is only about half the weight of the existing skimmer, which is usually over 100 kg. Representative Kwon explained that the robot has also added the ability to work in a semi-submersible form in the sea so that it is not overturned by wind and waves.

It can also reduce the cost required for control. According to Sheko, the use of SheCobot not only reduces the total time taken the same way as existing people by 20%, but also saves about 5 billion won a year in control costs. The effect of reducing the work of adsorber by 100 days per year appears.

Furthermore, Sheco focused on carbon neutrality (net zero) by preventing the generation of secondary waste. The adsorption cloth is not buried due to its nature and must be disposed of through incineration. Accordingly, the commercialization of Shekobot set a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80% when incineration of adsorbents. It is equivalent to the amount of oxygen absorbed by 32 large zelkova trees, 224 adults per year, and 1142g of fine dust per year.

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Kwon, who graduated from the Department of Trade at Incheon University, started a related business as an on-campus startup in 2017. “I studied marine insurance when I was in my second year of college, and I was naturally interested when I learned that the area where the amount of damage or the amount of insurance is enormous is a marine oil spill related to shipowners’ liability insurance (P&I).” “I started a business with Sang-hoon Han, Technical Director of Sheko, who had experience in making robots that control marine stigma.”

In July of last year, CEO Kwon registered Sheco as a corporation developing equipment for removing marine pollutants. Currently, 7 employees including Kwon are working. Sheco plans to complete a prototype Shekobot earlier this month with a development cost of 300 million won over the past two years, and sell it to the Maritime Police Agency, the Port Authority, and the shipyard within this year.

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In 2017, the first year of its founding, Sheco won the Grand Prize and the Minister of Employment and Labor Award in the National Startup National Social Venture Competition. In 2018, it is showing its potential by receiving the Excellence Prize in the Marine Fisheries Startup Competition hosted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the grand prize at the Robot Startup Competition.

This year, a total of six patents were applied and registered through the accelerator operation program with support from the Institute for the Promotion of Oceans and Fisheries Science and Technology (KIMST). In addition, it received support for win-win partnerships between conglomerates and venture companies, discovering customers and signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU), and IR consulting. Recently, SK Innovation has attracted an investment of 500 million won through Impact Partnering, and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Incheon Port Authority.

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