Two Technology Innovations Stand Tall at GreenTech Amsterdam
June 16, 2023 
Trap-Eye
The winners of the GreenTech Awards were announced at the opening of GreenTech Amsterdam 2023 earlier this week. Skytree took the Concept Award for its Model 5, while Biobest in collaboration with PATS won the Innovation Award for Trap-Eye.
“The winners of the Concept and Innovation Awards were selected based on the originality of the entry, the level of sustainability and the impact on social and environmental issues,” says Jolanda Heistek, chair of the jury. “Both had a very professional way of presenting which gave the jury confidence in their development journey and business plans.”
Skytree’s Model 5 technology captures CO2 directly from the air and allows for it to be either commercially utilized or permanently stored. Skytree provides Decentralized Direct Air Capture (DDAC) units that offer a scalable alternative to the current fossil fuel-based CO2 supply chain. The DDAC units enable businesses to extract clean CO2 directly from ambient air on-site for either direct usage or permanent storage. This approach satisfies the demand for CO2 while decreasing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
“This new technology of a startup is uniquely positioned to address several societal and environmental issues and can have a positive effect on the ecological footprint of horticulture,” Heistek says. “This crossover technology has the potential to revolutionizing effect on limiting fossil fuel-based CO2.”
Trap-Eye from Biobest and PATS unburdens growers from sticky trap scouting using wireless devices that identify and count insects to provide a complete population overview. Since scouting is the first crucial step of successful IPM, Trap-Eye fully automates sticky trap monitoring. It uses a dense network of scouting devices to take pictures of sticky traps, which are analyzed by an artificial neural network to count both pests and beneficial insects. This provides profitable, accurate, and high-density scouting data to make better IPM decisions anytime and anywhere.
“This is a strong collaboration with a startup and an innovative combination of technology and biology,” Heistek says. “It’s a very impressive and rapid product development journey from concept to a market-ready product. With this winner, the jury expects a major contribution to sustainability.”
Both products showcased at the show floor, as well as the 34 other innovations submitted for the awards. You can find them here.
The jury of the GreenTech Innovation & Concept Awards 2023 consists of:
- Chairman: Jolanda Heistek, Greenport West-Holland (Netherlands)
- Silke Hemming, Wageningen University Research (Germany)
- Peet van Adrichem, HortiTech B.V. (Netherlands)
- Peter Zwinkels, Tecknokas (Netherlands)
- Roel Vanderbruggen, Proefcentrum Hoogstraten (Belgium)
- Bart van Meurs, Division Q (Netherlands)
- Tijl Hoefnagels, Rubio (Netherlands)
The jury’s advisory committee consists of:
- Brian Sparks, Greenhouse Grower (U.S.)
- Leonardo Capitanio, Vivai Capitanio (Italy)
- Enrico Verhoef, Total Greenhouse Service (Mexico)
- Heinrich Dressler, Haymarket (Germany)
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