OCEAN MINING
New generation of ocean mining assets BIG-BJARKE INGELS GROUP HAS COLLABORATED WITH THE METALS COMPANY TO REMAKE CONVENTIONAL METAL PRODUCTION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY AS SOCIETY EMBARKS ON THE TRANSITION TO A NET-ZERO-CARBON FUTURE.
T
he Metals Company’s challenge with BIG was to bring innovative, whole-systems design to the industrial components needed to supply the world with critical battery metals from polymetallic nodules (fist-sized rocks containing battery-grade nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese), while reimagining the nexus of industry and community.
Minimise seafloor compaction
BIG delivered an integrated suite of assets that work together to lift nodules off the seafloor and up to a purpose-built production vessel, transfer them to a hydrodynamic shuttle carrier, and onward to a metallurgical plant designed to transform an urban port site into a battery materials innovation and community hub, set within a regenerative coastal landscape. “To collect the nodules, we have designed a lighttouch, robotic collector vehicle that aims a
jet of seawater across the tops of the rocks to gently pry them from the sediment. Part of our design for future collectors includes a buoyant, hydrodynamic shell with an extended lip to minimise seafloor compaction and reduce and redirect the dust plume kicked up during nodule collection”, says Daniel Sundlin, Partner at BIG and partner in charge of the collaboration with The Metals Company.
Compressed air bubbles
The Metals Company’s first-generation collector vehicle has been engineered and is currently being built by Allseas in the Netherlands to be deployed for testing early next year. While The Metals Company’s first production vessel is a deep-water drillship repurposed by Allseas to enable pilot nodule collection, BIG’s next generation vessel design is central to The Metals Company’s plans to scale to a fleet of ten
production vessels, enabling the provision of over 40t million of battery metals by 2050, enough to produce 280 million electric vehicles; a quarter of the global passenger car fleet. Nodules are transported through a flexible hose at the top of the collector vehicle to a rigid riser pipe where they are lifted on compressed air bubbles 4km up to the surface production vessel, a 216m-long ship that runs on carbon-neutral electrofuels, with a sunken deck that is covered with photovoltaic solar panels. The streamlined design of the production vessel is driven by functionality. Equipment for nodule collection is strategically packed in the hull to minimise the size of the vessel and maximise operational efficiency.
Lowering carbon foot print
At scale, each production vessel would operate multiple collectors with additional maintenance capacity provided by a support
BIG designed a robotic collector to minimise disturbance while gathering polymetallic nodules from the abyssal seafloor. Directing a jet of seawater across the tops of the nodules, the collector gently frees them from sediment and lifts them on compressed air bubbles to a production vessel at the surface.
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BIG designed the production vessel as a 216-meter ship that runs on carbon-neutral electrofuels. Its sunken deck will be covered with photovoltaic solar panels.
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09-09-2021 12:20
