Posted on December 22, 2020
A crane manufacturer has teamed up with a non profit ESG sector company dedicated to reduce marine plastic pollution.
The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, and Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes have partnered up to design, manufacture, and service The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor, a system that will be extracting plastic from rivers before entering the ocean.
This is said to be an important step as the non-profit organization prepares to tackle the world’s 1,000 most polluting rivers.
As explained, deploying Interceptors on a large scale is necessary to rapidly address the urgent problem of ocean plastic pollution. Laying the groundwork for global scaleup, Interceptors 005 and 006 are currently being manufactured simultaneously at Konecranes’ MHE-Demag facility in Klang, Malaysia and are expected to be completed in May 2021.
Moving forward, Konecranes will handle Interceptor manufacturing, installation, and maintenance; local partners will oversee operations, and The Ocean Cleanup will continue to act as the technology and best practices provider as well as lead business development for upcoming Interceptor projects.
The solution is planned to be 100% solar-powered, extracting plastic autonomously and capable of operating in the majority of the world’s most polluting rivers.
“At the end of a very challenging year, I am happy to see series production begin for the Interceptor. It is a necessary step for us to tackle the global flow of plastic pollution to our oceans at scale. I believe Konecranes is well-suited for the job and we look forward to seeing them build many more Interceptors in the coming years,” Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, commented.
“We’re proud to partner with The Ocean Cleanup and harness our global engineering, manufacturing and service capabilities to clean our world’s rivers and oceans,” Rob Smith, Konecranes President and CEO, said.
The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor was unveiled in late 2019 and there are currently three systems deployed — in Klang, Malaysia; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. A fourth Interceptor, in Vietnam, has been delayed for deployment and is expected to be launched early in 2021.
By Dag Pike
Source: maritimejournal
