Helios awarded SEK 2 million by the Swedish Energy Agency for wastewater treatment in ports

Helios Innovations has been awarded SEK 2 million by the Swedish Energy Agency to further develop and validate CONTESS for the treatment of oily wastewater from ships. The project will advance the technology for use in ports, with the aim of reducing energy consumption and waste transport while recovering valuable oil resources.

The oily waste delivered by ships to ports contains large quantities of water, along with oil, cleaning chemicals and other contaminants. These waste streams are currently often transported to external treatment facilities, where incineration is one of the methods used. This means that large quantities of water are transported and treated using energy-intensive methods, while oil that could be recycled is lost.

A CONTESS unit enables treatment directly where the waste is received. The solution combines electrically powered low-temperature evaporation with pretreatment and oil separation, allowing water to be treated directly at the port and oil to be recovered for further recycling. The technology fits inside a 20-foot container and can be adapted to the conditions at each port.

During the project, the solution will be developed and tested in actual port operations. The aim is to reduce waste volumes by at least 90 percent and validate energy consumption, treatment performance, operational reliability and the quality of the recovered oil.

The results will provide the basis for offering the solution to more ports in Sweden and across Europe. The project thus represents a step towards more energy- and resource-efficient management of maritime waste streams, enabling the recovery of both water and oil.

The project is co-financed by the Swedish Energy Agency under the call Verifiering av innovationer med kund 2026:1 (Validation of innovations with customers 2026:1).