Massive Ocean Garbage Collector to Be Tested in North Sea
Source: ABC News
Massive Ocean Garbage Collector to Be Tested in North Sea
By CATHERINE THORBECKE Jun 23, 2016, 12:16 PM ET
A Dutch foundation aimed at removing plastic pollution from the world’s oceans launched a prototype of a new clean-up system yesterday in the North Sea.
The prototype is a 100-meter long barrier system, "which acts as an artificial coastline, passively catching and concentrating ocean debris," The Ocean Cleanup, a foundation co-sponsored by the Dutch government and marine contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., announced in a statement. .
The system -- the first ocean cleanup system to actually be tested at sea -- will go through its trial run in the North Sea, 12 nautical miles from the coast of the Netherlands, an Ocean Cleanup spokesperson told ABC News. The goal is to track how the passive barrier fares in extreme weather conditions, which are more common in the North Sea than in the Pacific Ocean.
Though the foundation estimates there's a 30 percent chance the barrier system will break under the harsh conditions, this prototype is a step towards building a 100-kilometer-long ocean garbage collector that the group plans to deploy in 2020 to clean "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch." The massive area in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii contains the largest accumulation of trash in the ocean and has been the center of many other cleanup efforts.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/massive-ocean-garbage-collector-tested-north-sea/story?id=40072075
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[font size=5]THE OCEAN CLEANUP UNVEILS FIRST PROTOTYPE[/font]
[font size=4]First sea trial of ocean cleanup system to be deployed this week[/font]
[font size=3]THE HAGUE, June 22, 2016 – The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch foundation developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, today unveiled its North Sea prototype. When installed later this week, the prototype will become the first ocean cleanup system ever tested at sea. Two of The Ocean Cleanup’s main partners, the Dutch government, and world-renowned dredging and marine contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., were represented at the unveiling.
The prototype will be installed in the North Sea, 23 km (12 NM) off the Dutch coast, where it will remain for one year. The objective is to test how The Ocean Cleanup’s floating barrier fares in extreme weather at sea – the kind of conditions the system will eventually face when deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The 100 meter-long barrier segment to be deployed in the North Sea this week will help validate the survivability of the system. Sensors will track every motion of the prototype and the loads it is subjected to. The data gathered will enable engineers to develop a system fully resistant to severe conditions during the cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. At the North Sea test site, conditions during a minor storm are more severe than those in exceptionally heavy storms (occurring once every 100 years) in the Pacific Ocean.
The Ocean Cleanup’s cleaning technology makes use of long floating barriers which act as an artificial coastline, passively catching and concentrating ocean debris. The system is powered by the ocean’s natural currents. Testing the barriers is important because of their crucial role in the cleanup concept. Although some trash may be caught during the North Sea prototype test, collecting plastic is not its objective.
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http://www.theoceancleanup.com/technology/
