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AUTONOMOUS OCEAN CLEAN-UP DEVICES with ENERGY HARVESTING Business Plan and Preliminary Technical Report

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AUTONOMOUS OCEAN CLEAN-UP DEVICES with ENERGY HARVESTING Business Plan and Preliminary Technical Report US. Department of Energy Marine Energy Collegiate Competition Powering the Blue Economy AUTONOMOUS OCEAN CLEAN-UP DEVICES WITH ENERGY HARVESTING Business Plan and Preliminary Technical Report Team Lead: Jianuo Huang, Lara Kornblut Emma Desmond Ishan Pradhan Jack Goewey Jeff Grasberger John Lebron Jordan Moquillaza Jack Palmer Jack Tribble Jiajun Zhang Linda Nguyen Sam Janousek Xian Wu Zhaoheng Chen Zhao Yu Lead Advisor: Dr. Lei Zuo, Dr. Feng Qian Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Executive Summary There are over 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in the ocean. This pollution costs the global economy trillions of dollars per year and endangers all marine life. Researchers estimate that the societal cost of ocean plastic debris is around 2.5 trillion USD annually. This huge cost means there is a huge potential market for ocean clean-up. Currently, most ocean cleanup efforts are done manually onshore, but this method is very costly. The rising need to remove and recycle the offshore garbage has inspired our team to produce the concept of an ocean-energy-powered autonomous garbage-collection boat, which we hope will bring a change to the current market. This autonomous self-powered plastic collection boat harvests energy from waves and currents using a unique passive-pitch-angle-control hydraulic turbine to power the collection of offshore garbage. The hydropower turbine produces 70 kilowatts of power, which is more than enough to drive the boat and power the collection mechanism. This system collects ocean debris with more efficiency and less cost than traditional methods. Governments and environmental agencies around the world are directing billions of dollars to assist the removal of plastics that can provide assistance and funding for our proposed device. Right now, there are not many ocean cleanup companies taking advantage of this burgeoning market. With significant funding from a variety of sources, our team can fully establish the device as a unique and important part of the marine debris cleanup industry. 1. Background Every year, around 8 million tons of plastic debris makes its way into the ocean (National Ocean Service, 2020). At the current rate, the weight of plastic in the ocean will surpass the weight of fish by 2050 (Rachel, 2019). This gargantuan amount of plastic in the ocean already has devastating effects on both the environment and the economy. The global economy loses up to 18 billion US dollars due to marine plastic pollution (Aziz, 2020). The impact on the environment and human health is a major concern of plastic pollution. The contamination of coastal water causes around 250 million clinical cases of human diseases each year. Plastics in the ocean kill 100 million marine animals annually. When Figure 1. Pacific garbage patch combatting this disaster by cleaning up the oceans, it is imperative to utilize clean energy (such as ocean energy) because Climate Change has unlimited potential to cause economic and environmental harm. Ocean energy stores in the form of wave, current, tides, and heat to meet the total worldwide demand for many times over (Takahash, 1996). However, ocean energy deployments are proceeding at slower pace than expected and ocean energy market is still to be established (Magagna etc., 2015). 2. Concept Overview While many existing ocean cleaning projects rely on gas powered boats and manned collection, these methods are inefficient and costly. Our team is proposing an ocean-energy-powered autonomous garbage- collection boat consisting of an ocean wave energy harvesting turbine and a garbage collecting boat. Although similar concepts exist, the specific mechanisms employed are unique to this design. Figure 2. Ocean-energy-powered autonomous garbage-collection boats; Left: Idling and harvesting energy; Right: Collecting Garbage The turbine mounted on the boat harvests energy from ocean waves when the boat is idling. Unlike traditional hydroelectric turbines which are powered by the flow of water, the wave turbine can convert the oscillating wave motion into a unidirectional rotation by its special hydrofoil blade design. This novel turbine concept provides a practical on-board energy harvesting solution and is worth being further studied in the future because of its potential as a non-traditional ocean energy harvesting device. Meanwhile, the garbage collecting system is an autonomous, with an active floating boom which can direct garbage into the collection mechanism. Each time the device is cleaning the ocean surface, an active boom will be deployed around the target cleaning area. Then a motor winch on the main collecting boat will be used to bring back the boom and any garbage in the circled area. This garbage collecting boat is designed to be as energy efficient as possible. The most common ocean debris cleaning methods are boats with garbage pickup mechanisms, and passive floating boom garbage traps. The team identified advantages from each method and designed this combined system which can balance between energy and collection efficiency. Table 1. Target Specification of a Full-Scale System 3. Market Opportunities 3.1 Problems and Needs Plastic pollution harms the global economy as well as the environment globally as shown in Figure 2. According to a 2019 study, the societal cost of ocean plastic is $2.5 trillion a year (Beaumont, 2019). A separate study estimates the natural capital cost of plastic debris from consumer goods to be $75 billion a year (The Ocean Cleanup, 2020). Companies face a huge amount of risk due to the possibility of incurring this cost. Legislative changes to force companies to pay for the damages they cause, which are being considered by some governments, would further generate significant funds for cleaning up the oceans. An additional $13 billion in damages is caused to marine ecosystems due to pollution from litter. Because trillions of potential dollars in damages could be saved through ocean cleanup, there is potentially an extremely large market value. Figure 3. Global map with each country shaded according to the estimated mass of mismanaged plastic waste [millions of metric tons (MT)] generated in 2010 by populations living within 50 km of the coast. (Jambeck etc., 2015) Furthermore, plastic debris in the ocean negatively impacts industry. Boats and fishing nets of the fishing industry are damaged or destroyed by encountering debris. The amount of fishable stock decreases as ecosystems are destroyed by marine plastic. Ocean plastic pollution also negatively affects the tourism industry. One study of tourist locations in Alabama, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and California estimates that hundreds of millions of dollars are lost due to plastic debris affecting the beauty of the areas or disrupting water sports. Furthermore, states and localities are forced to spend money to clean up beaches. For example, in the United Kingdom, $24 million a year is spent to remove litter from beaches and most of the money is spent on labor (Snowden, 2019). Our solution for ocean cleanup could mean large savings for the fishing industry and increased profits for businesses in beach tourist areas. Besides the damage caused to the global economy, plastic pollution is also seriously affecting both human health and the environment. The medical and health cost of plastic pollution in the ocean is about $16 billion every year. Almost all marine animals ingest plastic throughout their lives and North Pacific fish specifically ingest 13,000 tons of plastic each year and the majority of fish consumed by humans have already ingested plastic. Not only are the lives of fish at stake, but also the people that rely on the fish for food are thereby ingesting harmful plastics. Coral reefs, which house around a quarter of marine life, have an 89% chance of dying when they come in contact with plastic debris. Marine birds are also impacted with more than 90% of all seabirds are found to have ingested plastic. More importantly, the amount of plastic waste in the ocean keeps increasing radically as seen in fig.4. The potential of Figure 4. Estimated mass of mismanaged plastic governments and companies recognizing and waste (millions of metric tons) input to the ocean addressing the various damages caused by ocean by populations living within 50 km of a coast in plastic pollution means that there is a huge 192 countries, plotted as a cumulative sum from unrealized market for ocean cleanup. 2010 to 2025 While some companies are attempting ocean-cleanup, traditional methods involve either hiring laborers to clean-up beaches, or using fuel powered vessels to collect garbage in the water. Both methods are not cost effective and burning fuel to collect debris is an unsustainable solution. There are also new products being developed which passively collect loose garbage found on the ocean surface. These unpowered vessels may be environmentally sustainable, but they are inefficient when it comes to collecting trash. Our device will succeed in this market for ocean clean-up by leveraging the advantages of a self-sustaining autonomous system that harnesses energy from the ocean. This system has greater sustainability and a lower cost of maintenance than traditional ocean cleanup efforts in addition to being more effective at collecting trash. Ocean energy harvesting, whether thermal or mechanical, is completely renewable, non-invasive at a small scale, and reliable. As such, the system operates safely and consistently to aid in ocean cleanup. A successfully commercialized ocean powered product will be a valuable and marketable asset as we seek to remove harmful and costly plastic pollution from our oceans. By accessing the vast amounts of mostly untapped energy stored in the ocean through waves, this device is both a cost-efficient and sustainable solution. 3.2 Target Market and Market Projection We will target the marine debris removal market. A wide variety of entities wish to mitigate plastic pollution within our waterways, and the versatility of our product will allow us to target multiple parties.
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