OCEAN CLEANING GROUP 1 - Triton is a passive ocean cleaning system designed to collect 500 tonnes of plastic over a 25 year period. The system is designed to clean the oceans of plastic debris in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Group one came up with a system using floating booms to funnel the surface debris towards a treatment and storage platform using the ocean currents. Surface debris is carried onto the platform using a conveyor belt, Submerged filters collect microplastic debris below the ocean surface.

SURREY UNIVERSITY 2014/15 BACKGROUND

The marine environment globally is contaminated with plastic debris, it is found floating in all the world’s oceans: everywhere from polar regions to the equator. It is known to be the cause of injury and death for numerous marine animals and birds, either because they become entangled in it or they mistake it for prey and eat it.

Large areas affected by marine debris are often found in an ocean gyre, for example the largest one is the Great Pacific garbage patch, also described as the Pacific trash vortex, it is a gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean. An ocean gyre is a rotating current that circulates within one of the world’s oceans and recent research has found that these massive systems are filled with plastic waste, because ocean currents act as a retention mechanism and prevent plastic debris from moving towards mainland coasts. This marine debris affects everything, from our environment to our economy and it affects both marine flora and fauna, from the smallest corals to giant whales.

The challenge of cleaning the ocean is large, the main challenges include the distance of marine debris from the coast, the size of the ‘garbage patches’, the cost of cleanup and photo degradation of plastic which breaks down the plastic into small parts by the combined action of sunlight and mechanical agitation from waves.

PROJECT CHALLENGE

Design a method of cleaning parts of the world’s ocean of marine debris and the method for recycling or environmentally friendly disposal of this debris. Choose the methods for detection of marine debris.

Choose a specific location for the cleanup operation or design a generic system that can be deployed anywhere. Investigate and define deployment and maintenance methods to be used. Provide a project plan taking into account time required to design, procure, manufacture, install and commission the system. Define the funding methods for the project.

The project should include the following aspects:

- Marine debris detection method;
- Marine debris capture, cleanup and recycling system;
- System design, power and communications
- Deployment methods;
- Maintenance and level of autonomy of the system.

The suggested skills needed to complete these projects included: Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. We would also have added Marine Biology, where there appears to be little reference to protecting wildlife from accidental ingestion. We imagine that this was part of the project even if it was not written up.

OCEAN CLEANING GROUP 2 - Their solution was PIRATE: Plastic Item Removal and Treatment Equipment to be deployed over the North Pacific seamount. It entailed the use of a 20 kilometer long boom designed to increase plastic concentration using ocean currents to bring plastic to the system. They would then separate the plastic using a hydrocyclonic filtration system. Finally delivering the recycled plastic to a recycling specialist. The system would cost £23.3 million pounds for a 10 year deployment.

THE MDDP GROUPS

Two groups tackled the problem in different ways.

GROUP 1 consisted of: Omer Awan, Shuna Beasley, John Hatzokis, Stewart Mills, Daniel Parkin and Yusuf Patel.

Triton is a passive ocean cleaning system designed to collect 500 tonnes of plastic over a 25 year period. The system is designed to clean the oceans of plastic debris in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.

GROUP 2 team were: Moonas Ahmad, Qasim Ejaz, Thomas, Fochini, Sam, Fowler, Chris Pellat, Stefano Mavropetros and Marious Sarpetas.

Group 1 went for a system they named: Triton. Group 2 favoured a floating boom system similar to that originally envisaged by Boyan Slat for his Ocean Cleanup Project.

GROUP 2 - Surrey University Triton project team

GROUP 1 - Surrey University PIRATE project team.

CONTACTS

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