HARBOUR FILTER PROJECT
CLEANA MARINAWHAT IS THE HARBOUR FILTER
The Harbour Filter – For too long the marina we work from has seemed too dirty. We are regularly arriving at work to find considerable amounts of floating contaminants throughout the harbour. An investigation led to no viable way to clean the sea resulting in daily frustration.
Motivated to deliver change we developed a concept which was borrowed from the bilge of our vessel that would enable the collection and removal of the floating contaminants within the harbour, then pump clean water back into the sea.
YOUR GENEROSITY WILL CREATE A BETTER, CLEANER FUTURE FOR OUR OCEANS:
The first prototype of our harbour filter utilised a system like how our bilge works, it consisted of a stainless-steel unit with a basic pump and filtration system and soakers. The pump draws water in through inlets at the water’s surface, this water is drawn through the soakers and clean water is pumped back out from below the waterline.
The system proved beyond a doubt that the concept works, and our daily checks revealed micro and macro plastic, cigarette buts, bottle tops and food wrappers. Whilst we have not been able to measure the contents of the soaker, we have observed considerable discolouration caused by the absorption of marine pollutants. Finding rubbish was not expected, however, it has now resulted in shifting our collection focus to include these elements.
Whilst the system worked it was not without its flaws. We now propose to rectify these flaws to create a more efficient system.
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Phase TWO
Our phase 2 model proposes to.
- Increase the size of the mouths of the unit to take on more surface water.
- Increase the size of the pump and filtration system, allowing it to draw in more surface water.
- Introduce a filter bucket to improve waste removal efficiency.
- Investigate the opportunity for clean off-grid powering of the system.
The development and testing of the new system will begin to identify some final changes required to allow us to install the system throughout a broader geographical region.