Norwegian company with key role in environmental project
Aalesund company Mørenot AS is engaged in what they call “one of the most pressing environmental problems of our age”, and is now developing a 2.5-km-long ocean cleanup system.
This will be done in cooperation with the Dutch non-profit organization The Ocean Cleanup. Together they have developed a prototype in 2021 that they claim to be a huge success and has already collected large amounts of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. A new, improved version is now under development and Mørenot was again the chosen supplier for this project, which has been given the name ‘System 03’.
- It’s great that we can now use our technology and know-how to help with the new system, which is three times as big as the previous system. We’re really enthusiastic about the project and are proud to be a part of it,’ says CEO of the Mørenot group Arne Birkeland.
Precise, gentle and efficient
The cleanup system has been specially designed and tailored for this purpose. It is four meters deep and designed as a funnel with an opening at the bottom to ensure that fish and other marine life are not trapped when trawling for marine plastic. Two offshore vessels pull the net between them at a speed of 1.5 knots. The 2.5-km-long net will clean up an area the size of a football field every 15 seconds. Potentially, this means almost 6,000 football fields a day.
- Around 1-2 million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year, posing an immense threat to all marine life. As part of an industry that depends on the ocean, this project is extremely important to us, and we will always continue to challenge ourselves to do even more to protect the oceans as an important food source for future generations, says Birkeland.
At the starting line
Mørenot is in the process of developing System 03, and is aimed to be put in operation in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch towards the end of summer 2022.
