Bluetec sea & coastline

the new exhibition area on Pollutec

The exhibition area dedicated to sea and coastline

Building on the success of the 2021 edition, Pollutec has decided to renew this area entirely dedicated to the ecological transition of the maritime and coastal world.

With the combination of an exhibition space, multiple conferences and debates, Bluetec sea & coastline will allow local authorities, economic and industrial stakeholders to meet, exchange and find solutions to:

Reduce their environmental impact
Prevent and limit the degradation of coastal and marine environments
Adapt their development towards resilience
Accelerate the ecological and energetic transition of maritime activities

Do you want to exhibit on Bluetec ?

Please contact a Sales Manager or fill in the form

Contact Véronique Boullier, sales manager
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The energy and ecological transition of the seas and coastlines encompasses many aspects. On the one hand, it comprises pollution reduction, preserving and restoring biodiversity, developing circularity and on the other, moving toward carbon neutrality, all while strengthening our adaptation to climate change.

Reducing pollution presupposes the greening of activities, infrastructures and ships, better management of marine waste, including plastic wastes, and enhancing monitoring in the water, in the air and in space. Beyond simple prevention, it may also involve responding in case of accidental pollution.

Preserving and restoring biodiversity is achieved through actions to protect, to conserve and to regenerate environments and species (e.g. ecological engineering). And faced with the stated deployment of deep sea exploration, this also assumes prioritising operations with reduced ecological impact.

Improving maritime economy circularity implies the roll-out of eco-design in products and services, enhancing materials’ value (the industrial co-products of sea, material and mineral activities), putting in place a ship repair and breaking industry, and strengthening the marine bio-economy (aquaculture, algae, biotechnologies).

Simply put, working towards climate neutrality requires the decarbonising of activities, infrastructures and ships (zero-emission fuels, electrification, hydrogen, new forms of propulsion etc.) and through the deployment of renewable marine energies (tidal, wave, OTEC, osmotic energy etc.).

Reinforcing our adaptation to climate change also requires actions to prevent and combat sea level rise in coastal towns and cities, as well as actions to combat warming, ocean acidification and de-oxygenation - all three of which serve to unbalance the whole marine ecosystem chain.

Today, the management of these five major challenges relies ever more on computers and AI, with new surveillance or routing technologies, autonomous marine robots or aquatic drones.

The Bluetec sea and coastline event addresses all the challenges in the ecological transition of the sea and coastline: it offers a choice of environmentally-friendly and innovative solutions (equipment, technologies, services) allowing those involved in the economic, industrial and local government sectors to reduce their environmental impact, prevent or limit the degradation of coastal and marine environments and adapt their development to make it truly resilient.

85% of marine waste is plastic waste (UNEP report, October 2021).

93% of plastic waste in the sea is smaller than 5 mm (Tara Foundation).

Almost 40 % of the EU’s population lives less than 50 km from the sea, and so is exposed to atmospheric emissions from shipping (EMTER report 2021, EMSA - EEA).

40 sites, as at the end of 2020, were approved by Brussels for the recycling of European-flagged vessels, of which 9 are outside the EU.

3% of GHG emissions are generated by global maritime traffic, with almost 50,000 ships.

35% of electricity produced by the EU will come from offshore sources by 2050 - estimate (“2020 Blue Economy Report”).

20 cm on average; that’s the rise in sea level, at global scale, between 1901 and 2018 (over 1.3 mm/year). Today, this rise is faster (over 1.9 mm/year from 1971 to 2006) and continues to accelerate (over 3.7 mm/year from 2006 to 2018). This rise will continue, how fast and how much depending on GHG emissions (IPCC Ocean and Cryosphere Report, Sept. 2019).

13% of the world’s urban population lives in coastal areas (“Management of coastal resources” Report, UNEP).

20% of France’s coastline is retreating under the effects of erosion. (Cerema)

Up to 50,000 homes will be threatened by coastal recession by 2100 (CIMER, 22^nd Jan. 2021).

400 billion US dollars annually by 2050: that’s the estimated loss to the global economy resulting from shortages of ocean products and due to rising sea levels (SystemIQ study for SWEN Capital Partners: “Investing in regeneration of ocean health - Strategic Review”, April 2021).

Exhibition sectors

Tools for monitoring and modelling water quality
Prevention and treatment of diffuse aquatic/marine pollution, macro and micro-waste (plastics, effluent, debris carried to the sea by waterways, etc.)
Detection and treatment of accidental marine pollution (clean-up and emergency operations)
Maintenance and clean-up of beaches, ports and coastal waters
Management and recovery/recycling of collected marine waste and algae

Monitoring tools (spatial applications, drones, sensors and digital systems)
Impact analysis of works and business activities
Environmental and species renaturing and regeneration solutions (ecological engineering)

Prevention and management of climatic risk - flooding, submersion and erosion - (warning systems and forecasting & planning tools)
Coastline adaption solutions (seawalls, groynes, breakwaters, etc.)
Transformation of port and pleasure-boat activities (water and waste treatment, hull cleaning, electrification of quays and infrastructures, etc.)

Renewable marine energies (tidal, wave and tidal turbines, thermal)
Desalination
Management and recovery of raw materials:
- Sustainable aquaculture, algae and micro-algae, marine biotechnology
- Co-products from the sea and fishing activities (marine leathers, shells, sails and nets, etc.)
- Marine materials and minerals
- Dredging sediments

Alternative methods of powering ships and boats (less polluting or recycled fuels, hydrogen propulsion, traction wings or kites, micro water- and wind turbines, etc.)
Onboard systems to reduce fuel consumption on ships and boats
Shipbuilding and ship-breaking (ship ecodesign, end-of-life, recycling, etc.)
Eco-products, boat maintenance and upkeep services (anti-fouling paints, maintenance work, etc.)
Treatment of ballast water and other discharges - autonomous onboard and embarked systems