The Ocean Cleanup Project

Update

After performing a visual inspection in Hawaii, it was much more apparent that the structural malfunction originated at the dovetail welds. An underwater photo of the break showed concentric rings that would increase up through the HDPE pipe, indicating that a fatigue fracture had propagated from an initial crack located between two welds for the dovetail, which could have only resulted from this aspect of the design.

TheOceanCleanup.com, Updates, March 29, 2019 - System 001 Learnings Root-causes Summarized.

The break was caused by their design assumptions. The stabilizers caused stress upon a certain segment of the welds that are used to connect each section. They have redesign that already.

As far as plastic floating into the system and leaving (and collecting behind it), their findings are that wind moves the plastic much faster than they designed the system for (System 001 moves too slow allowing plastic to float out or run into it). Since nobody has really done this before they used best guesses for their model of the surface conditions. With new, real world, data, they have re-engineered how their skimmer operates. So...

They will refabricate back at the home office in San Francisco and re-launch in a couple months!

Source: The Ocean Cleanup website

Here is the video on RCA (can't watch right now but will in a bit, hence the post).

An 8-meter (26-foot) sperm whale was found dead off Sardinia with 22 kilograms (48.5 pounds) of plastic in its belly, prompting the World Wildlife Foundation to sound an alarm Monday over the dangers of plastic waste in the Mediterranean Sea.

phys.org - WWF sounds alarm after 48 lbs of plastic found in dead whale.

More than 2/3rd of its stomach was full of plastics. Female sperm whale was also pregnant but unable to eat and digest food spelled doom for mother and baby.

Sometimes humans suck!

We have a new launch time and a new system.

So after the original design suffered a stress break the Ocean Cleanup Project performed a RCA. From those findings they have revamped System-001. It has a new design which removed the stabilizer frames (the part that caused the fracture last time out). They have scaled down (the web just says, "factor of 3" but that does not really help out with the concept of "size" as in, "factor of 3 of what?"!!). They also decided to build modular so if their tests pan out they can get more systems together, more quickly. They have removed some of the bulky electronics and have a new screen design.

New name too! System-001/B

They also have two options they will try out. Travel faster than the plastic; or, anchor it in place. That is what they are going to try to do to keep plastic from leaving the scoop once it enters. And as their title says, they re-launch in June (a few short days away!)

SYSTEM DESIGN UPGRADES COMPLETED, TO BE RELAUNCHED IN JUNE.

Here is to a better campaign this time round!

Hello ATS, it is 2023 and about time to see how the PGP cleanup has progressed.

First, in 2022, TOCP launched System-002. They were addressing how plastic floated into and then out of the open maw! Then they discovered that some plastic overfilled the capture area. They detected strains that the “wings” were placing on the structure. And they tracked plastic flows in the Pacific gyre to get an idea of what awaits the next System.

In addition to the challenges, they had success! The team figured out a rollout plan for System-03. This will be the full-sized version of the OC floating device. With some new calculations, and a new approach to cleaning out the pen (these will be 365, 24x7, automated nets), they did not require a fleet of 100s so they dropped the extra zero in System names and 03 will evolve from the already deployed 002 version. Upgrading at sea saves time from hauling the device to and from port.

Theocrancleanup.com, July 21, 2022: TRANSITION TO SYSTEM 03 BEGINS.

Deployment is scheduled for Q2 2023.

And late last year, they filled up System 002 in 2.5 hours!! (Twitter)

I know that it both good and bad news, but it also makes their clean out strategy make economic sense (less total ships, more short trips).

The fact that they will deploy 03 this spring is really exciting! Then we can see what these things can really do!!

And the river clean ups also continue (the other initiative they have to have less ocean plastic to clean up).

It has taken a while but thanks for reading along!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

The updates are appreciated. It's good to see some positive news.

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

System 03 is The Ocean Cleanup’s third iteration of cleaning technology and was deployed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) in August 2023 following testing with System 001 and the success of System 002...

oceancleanup.org, 31 Aug 2023 - System-03-a-Beginners Guide.

That was their update on the last day of August, 2023. So, it has been some 10 years from idea gestation, testing, then two iterations of tests (the very Tom Hanks' movie influenced nicknames of Wilson and Jenny!)

With an opening of 2.2 km System-003 is huge! They will be harvesting plastic for use in Kia vehicle and for sale as harvested sunglasses (same source, some good info including a sized photo comparison and a rebranding of a jacket with Sys-3 mission patch-I think my twitter retweet skills are lacking). This is the first in the fleet. With the river catchers also being deployed, they actually have a shot at cleaning up the GPGP!

Here is to the next 10 years! May the Great Pacific Garbage Patch be just a warning story we tell to the grand kids about waste and the environment.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: VictorVonDoom

System 03 is The Ocean Cleanup’s third iteration of cleaning technology and was deployed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) in August 2023 following testing with System 001 and the success of System 002...

oceancleanup.org, 31 Aug 2023 - System-03-a-Beginners Guide.

That was their update on the last day of August, 2023. So, it has been some 10 years from idea gestation, testing, then two iterations of tests (the very Tom Hanks' movie influenced nicknames of Wilson and Jenny!)

With an opening of 2.2 km System-003 is huge! They will be harvesting plastic for use in Kia vehicle and for sale as harvested sunglasses (same source, some good info including a sized photo comparison and a rebranding of a jacket with Sys-3 mission patch-I think my twitter retweet skills are lacking). This is the first in the fleet. With the river catchers also being deployed, they actually have a shot at cleaning up the GPGP!

Here is to the next 10 years! May the Great Pacific Garbage Patch be just a warning story we tell to the grand kids about waste and the environment.

Great work and now we have system 3 Josh, from the Tom Hanks movie "Big".