Innovative vessel for cleaning-up activities in marine and fluvial environments

The OCEAN CLEANER TECHNOLOGY & TINCASUR consortium is now working on the OC-Tech H-2020 Phase 2 Project: a multi-task catamaran that cleans the ocean of pollutants and waste and also performs numerous port activities.

The OC-Tech project devises an innovative catamaran-vessel able to:

  • recover hydrocarbon spills,
  • deal with algal blooms and jellyfish infestations;
  • collect flotsam and jetsam.

The main benefits of OC-Tech are:

  • polyvalence: collecting all pollution episodes and has also a large deck for transporting personnel (12 p.) and loads (1.500kg/m2);
  • multi-Purpose (Cleaning + Working vessel). OC-Tech goes beyond its core cleaning activity (recurring only purpose at other cleaning assets) and can carry up to 12 people thus operating as a conveyor for other operations: ship chandlers; beacons, buoys, barriers carrier; off-shore assistance; Fire protection assistance, cleaning + repair of other ships; Prospecting, diving platform, works; port services and multi-site cleaning work (docks, beaches, boats, bridges). As a relevant feature within multipurpose character, it has velocity cleaning activities at 4 knots at Force 6 (Beaufort scale) at open sea, ports, inshore and rivers;
  • manoeuvrability: four propulsion units. 2 main propulsion units at the rear of each hull and auxiliary thruster units located in each of the bows. The bow units allow generating and controlling a water flow between the two hulls, even while stationary, offering advanced collection possibilities;
  • efficiency: collection + bagging system facilitates clean-up of 15 tons/hour of hydrocarbon spills (separation rate of 70-80%; no emulsion creation, which avoids additional effort for splitting water and hydrocarbon);
  • easy Operation: Our proprietary OC-Tech collecting system avoids the need to go back to the port to upload the recovered hydrocarbon leading to savings in fuel and [man hours] (≈55%);
  • easy Transportation: OC-Tech foresees future modular design/construction/re-assembly to be conveyed by road/sea/air, leading to faster action than other options;
  • profitability: OC-Tech will deliver cumulated revenue of €21.55M and cumulated profit of €10.365M by 2023.

More information about the project can be found at the project website.