The DeMARC project aims to the design of an operational and reliable system for plastic waste collecting in rivers and waterways.
The global awareness on the environmental impact of plastics in the ocean, has increased substantially over the past years. Initial efforts to try to clean the oceans by removing plastics fragments from the upper layers of the water column have not proven to be successful nor efficient. Very recently consensus has raised on the fact that capturing plastics near the original location of release to the ocean is much more efficient, more specifically at river mouths, coastal communities and ports.
The consortium of 5 partners, each expert in their own domain, disposes of all expertise required to develop in a multidisciplinary approach an effective plastic waste collecting system of which the efficiency can be measured and proofed with undisputable data.
This system is called MArine River Cleaner (MARC) and is a plastic catcher with adaptive design allowing for optimisation for each location via digital twin simulations. It is based on a floating structure at a fixed position with air bubble barriers guiding the floating plastic waste to a mechanical removal and disposal system, operable 24/7 in tidal rivers and ports as well as in waterways with a fixed current flow. During operation, the system runs on renewable energy and the catching efficiency is monitored. This makes MARC the first sustainable plastics catcher with specified and proven efficiency.
Novel Technologies
- sustainable energy provision
- hydrodynamical modelling
- behaviour modelling of plastic in water
- inline monitoring
- low-flow tidal turbines
- 3D digital twin model
