Japanese Mitsui O.S.K Lines announced the installation of a centrifugal type microplastic filtration system on MOL-operated car carrier EMERALD ACE as a demonstration test. The device can continuously collect microplastics from the ocean while the vessel is sailing. It was developed under a joint effort by MOL and Miura, a company that manufactures and maintains industrial boilers.
The current device tested is an improvement of a previous version unveiled last year and was installed on five vessels, three bulk carriers, and two wood chip carriers. The earlier version of the system was only operational when the vessels were unloading at the port, and in doing so, were able to treat 16,000 m3 of water. The new system is designed to remain operational throughout the journey.
The new system uses a centrifuge to separate the denser debris from the seawater, which can be utilized without closed plumbing, as the engineers have explained. It can filter the total amount of discharge water after passing through the fine filter with the backwashing function of the ballast water treatment system. For this reason, the system is directly connected to the cooling seawater line, which always takes in water. Hence the new system has a 70 times greater water treatment capacity than its previous generation.
The companies have stated that since car carriers traverse worldwide, they can contribute a great deal to restoring and preserving the marine ecosystem by removing microplastics around the globe. They have also stated that out of the debris collected, they keep track of the amount, the places, and the components of the debris as such data is increasingly in demand for marine research.
The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of News2Sea.