First self-powered plastic-eating ship on the horizon
THE world’s first boat powered by plastic it hoovers up has been unveiled.
The £40million Ocean Saviour will be able to scoop up five tonnes of debris a day and convert it to fuel onboard.
The 230ft vessel’s booms on either side will funnel floating pollution into it.
The plastic is then chopped finely, milled and heated to super-high temperatures to produce a low-polluting gas to drive the ship.
The design was unveiled days after the launch of the Ocean Cleanup, a 2,000ft floating barrier towed from San Francisco to tackle the entire Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an 80,000 tonne slick of marine debris between Hawaii and California. Richard Roberts, the Saviour project co-founder, said: “There is over five trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean which is having a huge detrimental impact on our ecosystem and ocean biodiversity.”
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