ORIGINAL CONCEPT - The original ocean going concept from 2015 that started minds ticking all over the world, leading to the conclusion that it is possible to clean plastic from the high seas, provided that those developing such technology are supported by the responsible nations who will eventually benefit from healthier fish stocks - in the quest for food security and a circular economy.

SEAVAX COMPETITORS

There are two alternative blue water factory ships designed to skim the high seas for macro plastics. These are the Phoenix 360 and Manta Sea Cleaner, both spawned in 2016, and both valuable contributors in the arsenal of ideas to combat marine litter.

MANTA SEA CLEANERS

The Manta concept is a quad-maran, a four hulled vessel that uses energy harvested from nature to power onboard plastic processing equipment. The concept is not that far removed from the original SeaVax proof of concept boat, except that the Sea Cleaner's Manta cannot deal with micro plastics. Manta was the name earmarked for the first full size SeaVax in 2015, but as this French team appear to have absorbed that idea, the first SeaVax will be renamed - and to prevent anyone else piggy-backing, the name will not be released until nearer the time. We are all in this together and there's plenty of room out in the oceans for more than one design of plastic feeder and a little imitation, where the objectives rise above competitive squabbles. In the fight against ocean plastic we are all brothers.

The Manta concept will use state-of-the-art methods to remove the floating plastic macro-waste before it gets degraded and they irreversibly pollute marine biodiversity. The idea is to install a factory on the decks to collect, sort, compact and store up to 250 tons of plastic waste in 1m3 bales.

If sufficient numbers are produced, these ships would complement SeaVax water filters and Boyan Slat's boom method of collecting macro plastic. The Manta is not the first ship capable of dealing with large quantities of ocean waste, but it is a contender. For example, SeaVax can compact 50 tons of plastic for offloading at sea onto a converted Panamax factory ship. Where SeaVax is designed to operate in fleets, 5 units provides a significantly larger mouth area. The Manta is 49 meters wide. Five SeaVax to give the same load carrying capacity span 75 meters, at - we estimate - less cost. No figures are provided on the Sea Cleaners website, something they may want to attend to, to qualify the economics of operations.

Three collecting treadmills are to be installed between the hulls of the Manta ship to pull up big swathes of floating plastics. The idea is to deploy Manta ships in the most polluted areas; in deep water, along coasts or in the estuaries of the ten great rivers from which 90% of all plastic waste reaches our oceans.

There appears to be no way of furling the darrieus rotors, leaving the vessel potentially vulnerable to capsize, though the design looks solid enough and the sails may be lowered, so the ship may well cope is tropical storms, a well thought out concept that we look forward to seeing as a scale model for tank testing, and then perhaps a full size prototype.

SEA CLEANERS CONTACTS

The SEA CLEANERS
10 rue de la Drisse
56470 La Trinité-sur-Mer
France

Email: contact@theseacleaners.org

PHOENIX 360

The Ocean Phoenix 360 is a concept for a giant factory-ship said by the designer to be capable of eradicating the millions of tons of plastic waste that have accumulated in the North Pacific and other Oceans around the world.

Propulsion is to be diesel-electric / LNG or hydrogen, which the designer says will allow an optimal reduction of emissions of sulfur and carbon. Though the cost of diesel, LNG or hydrogen as burned fuel has to be added to the operational cost of the vessel, potentially adding a financial impediment compared to Boyan Slat's booms that use ocean currents as the transport medium.

PHOENIX TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

>> 360m in Length (393 Yd)

>> 115m in Width (125 Yd) - (roughly the width of two supertankers side by side)

>> Draft length 30m (38 Yd) - (this can be reduced to 16m / 17 Yd by de-ballasting)

OCEAN PHOENIX 360 claims to be capable of retrieving, compressing, and packing waste in accordance with road transportation regulations, this taking place before the transferal of the payload to an accompanying support ship that will take it onshore for recycling.

The specification is not yet cast in stone, with the designer suggesting subsequent outfitting with 'SWATH' hulls. In a patent-protected variant. Apparently, the ship can be of single-hull design or a multihull design. We would have said that a SWATH hull was impractical for what is after all a cargo vessel, where the displacement has to change markedly as the holds fill with plastic.

The designer claims that the vessel is capable of filtering a layer of water up to 30 meters deep and 100 meters (328 ft.) wide at twelve knot speeds. No detail of the filtering mechanism is given.

A high level of autonomy is claimed to allow 24/7 operation in the most severe weather conditions. 

PHOENIX CONTACTS

SAS OCEAN PHOENIX
455 Promenade des Anglais
Porte de l’Arenas 
Hall C - CS 13326
06206 Nice Cedex 3
France

Tel: +33 675 662 687
Fax: +33 489 830 112

Company registration No: 815 107 552 - Nice (France)

The PlanetSolar September 2013, note distinctive wave pattern

PLANET SOLAR

Not strictly an alternative to SeaVax, but nevertheless a ship that proved the concept of blue water navigation using solar energy for ocean transport. As such, one could argue a logical development chain stemming from the achievement of Raphaël Domjan and Immo Stroeher.

AUGUST 2017 - Raphaël Domjan is pictured here in the recently built robotics laboratory in Sussex, England where SeaVax, also a solar (and wind) powered vessel, is being developed as an ocean cleaning workboat. Copyright photograph © Cleaner Ocean Foundation August 25 2017.

On 27 September 2010 Tûranor PlanetSolar started on a journey around the world in Monaco. With this expedition, the initiators of the project would like to focus the public awareness on the importance of renewable energies for environmental protection. The crew of six will circumnavigate the globe solely with the aid of solar power. Captain of the expedition is Frenchman Patrick Marchesseau. Other participants are Christian Ochsenbein (Bern, Switzerland) and Jens Langwasser (Kiel, Germany); as well as project initiator, president and expedition leader Raphaël Domjan (Neuchatel, Switzerland). On 27 November 2010 the solar boat reached Miami. A significant stopover was Cancún, during the United Nations World Climate Conference.

At the centerline of the world tour, the French Canadian Captain Erwann Le Rouzic took over in New Caledonia mid May 2011, for the further circumnavigation sharing the master's responsibility with Captain Patrick Marchesseau.

On the first solar boat expedition around the globe, the Tûranor PlanetSolar has reached two records: fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by solar boat and longest distance ever covered by a solar electric vehicle.

After 584 days, Tûranor PlanetSolar returned to Monaco on 4 May 2012 having sailing around the globe.

LINKS & REFERENCE

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ACIDIFICATION - ADRIATIC - ARCTIC - ATLANTIC - BALTIC - BAY BENGAL - BERING - CARIBBEAN - CORAL - EAST CHINA

ENGLISH CH - GOC - GULF GUINEA - GULF MEXICO - INDIAN - IRC - MEDITERRANEAN - NORTH SEA - PACIFIC - PERSIAN GULF - SEA JAPAN

STH CHINA - PLASTIC - PLANKTON - PLASTIC OCEANS - SEA LEVEL RISE - UNCLOS - UNEP WOC - WWF

AMAZON - BURIGANGA - CITARUM - CONGO - CUYAHOGA - GANGES - IRTYSH - JORDAN  - LENA - MANTANZA-RIACHUELO

MARILAO - MEKONG - MISSISSIPPI - NIGER - NILE - PARANA - PASIG - SARNO - THAMES - YANGTZE - YAMUNA - YELLOW

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