Hong Kong marine tech start-up Clearbot launches new solar-powered, self-driving boats to clean up ocean waste in India

Name: Jellyfishbot, the robot that collects trash from the sea
Uploaded: 2024-02-09T00:30:16.000Z
Duration: 1 min 53 s
Description: Jellyfishbot, the robot that collects trash from the sea

Clearbot’s latest fleet of floating cleaners will each be able to pick up 500kg of water-borne plastic and other rubbish – double the current capacity

‘We want to be the leader that brings in the electric revolution, like Tesla has done for cars,’ says co-founder and chief technology officer

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Clearbot’s solar-powered self-driving boat in India, which accounts for around 13 per cent of all plastics in the world’s oceans. Photo: Clearbot

Martin Choi

Published: 8:30am, 9 Feb 2024

Hong Kong-based marine tech start-up Clearbot is set to launch a new generation of bigger solar-powered autonomous boats to boost its efforts to clean up polluted waters in India.

Clearbot’s latest fleet of self-driving electric boats will each have the capacity to pick up around 500kg of plastic waste and other rubbish from the ocean when they are expected to be deployed in March. That is double the capacity of each of the company’s current water-borne robotic cleaners operating in the seas and lakes of India.

The start-up founded by University of Hong Kong graduates is hoping to electrify the marine services industry, according to Utkarsh Goel, co-founder and chief technology officer.

“We want to build these boats that do this dirty, dirty job that is happening with [manned, diesel] boats around the world and automate them and make them more sustainable,” said Goel in an interview.

Established in 2019, Clearbot started off as a student project to help Indonesian surfers clean up waterways efficiently, as locals were unable to deal with the flow of rubbish. The project led Goel and co-founder Sidhant Gupta to understand the demand for sustainable infrastructure in the marine services industry globally.

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Jellyfishbot, the robot that collects trash from the sea

In the past year, Clearbot has deployed 13 boats which can each collect up to 250kg of plastic waste per day to tackle projects in Hong Kong and India, Goel said. The self-navigating electric vessels collect waste from the surface of the water and deposit it in designated areas for collection and recycling.

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