Norwegian oil and gas company Petroleum Geo-Services is seeking funding to develop its new concept for efficient, large scale collection of plastic in the oceans.
The company’s plastic collection concept consists of a seismic vessel and a support vessel towing booms in a fan formation which are connected to a processing unit at the end of the spread.
PGS president Jon Erik Reinhardsen said: “We have developed an active large scale concept for plastic collection at sea. There are well-known garbage geysers in different oceans of the world and our plastic collection concept is intended to take advantage of the currents in these systems and collect plastic before it eventually sinks to the seabed.”
Once collected, the processing unit separates organic materials from plastic.
The plastic is then compressed and packaged into super strong synthetic skins, which are collected and towed to a processing facility for recycling.
PGS has four seismic vessels which can be used for plastic collection.
The Ramform vessels which are used are capable of towing large spreads, and have compressors which can generate enough air to lift submerged plastic to the surface.