The Ocean Cleanup Technology

The Ocean Cleanup technology developed by the young Dutch scientist Boyan Slat has won several awards, and now a prototype device is being tested under the auspices of the Dutch government.

The first 100-meter prototype was installed in the North Sea, 20 km from the coast and it is the “first ocean cleaning system being tested under real conditions.”

The device is made of vulcanized rubber, powered by the kinetic energy of ocean waves and collects garbage passively. In this phase, sensors have been placed that will monitor the device for a year. The data collected are expected to contribute to the development of a more resilient system to the winds and waves.

The Dutch Environment Minister Sharon Dijksma described «The Ocean Cleanup» as an example that inspires the efforts to address the ever-growing problem of ocean pollution.

Slat’s ultimate goal is for Ocean Cleanup systems to be installed in areas with the strongest rotating ocean currents, where the largest volume of plastic waste discarded at sea accumulates.

Chief among them is the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

This “vortex” is essentially two huge patches of broken and crushed plastic created in the Pacific Ocean. This is a toxic slurry of plastic with a thickness of ten meters.

According to estimates, more than one million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die each year because they either swallow plastic waste or become trapped in it.

But the most dangerous thing is that this kind of “food” functions like a time bomb for humans. Surveys have shown that persistent organic pollutants (POP), such as dioxins or pesticides enter the human body through the marine species and fish oils.

The main goal of the first test is not garbage collection, but testing the resilience of the system to the adverse weather conditions of the North Sea, which are often worse than those in the Pacific Ocean.

Slat estimated a 30% probability that the prototype would fail. But a successful test means that the first fully functional prototype will be able to be deployed at sea at the end of 2017.

Source: econews.gr