An idea birthed during one man’s daily commute from Tehachapi to his job at Edwards Air Force Base may lead to a new approach for removing plastic trash from the world’s oceans.
Former aerospace program manager Pat Marshall said it was during those hourlong drives that he first envisioned a way to power a seagoing filtration system using only fuel derived from the plastics it collects. Byproduct ash could be used in manufacturing.
Late last year, the organization Marshall founded, Our Cleaner Planet, completed testing on a small prototype whose results have raised hopes that a larger-scale model will attract the sizable investment that would be necessary to build and operate a vessel that may be capable of removing plastic from 250 acres of ocean per hour.
OCP’s success may depend not just on technological breakthroughs but also on efforts to fund pollution remediation through new tax credits or a market mechanism similar to California’s cap-and-trade system.
Plastic pollution in the ocean has become a growing international environmental issue since images have proliferated of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
A study published in January 2020 suggested marine microplastics, in particular, affect the photosynthesis and growth of phytoplankton, harm zooplankton and affect how much carbon the ocean can store.
Other technologies have been proposed for ridding the world of large, small and particulate plastics that researchers say presents climate and other risks to the environment. What’s different about OCP’s proprietary technology, Marshall says, is that it converts plastic to clean fuel “on site and we continue running.”
Two of OCP’s board members expressed hope Thursday that donors and investors will help finance development of a full-scale ship that will generate public- and private-sector revenue for reducing pollution. They also voiced support for the idea of selling ash for production of things like graphene, briquettes and carbon that can be permanently sequestered in concrete.
Aerospace engineer Dave Laughlin said November’s test results point to great promise for an organization with a nonprofit, educational arm and a for-profit arm that would market the ash.
“We’re moving past the embryonic stage to something that’s looking very doable,” Laughlin said, adding his expectation is that OCP will be able to raise the $120 million it needs to begin full-scale plastics removal within four to five years.
Another board member, David Britt, who has a background in oil and aerospace, said he sees some revenue coming from governments and producers of plastic, because “they’re the ones that are making the product that’s making the mess.”
Marshall, who still lives in Tehachapi but devotes his time now to the filtration project, said during a presentation Thursday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Bakersfield that the collection ship would be propelled by a difference in water levels created by the waste-fueled filtration pump.
The movement is relatively slow: A video of the 1:164-scale model in action had to be displayed in time-lapse mode to show it moving across a test pool. “The system worked as expected,” he said.
At full scale, the ship would move at about 3 knots, or 3.5 mph, processing 18,000 gallons of water per hour using a filtration array a quarter mile across.
Large pieces of plastic would be gathered at the back of the ship and sorted in part by human hands as it is brought by conveyor belt to the generator that runs the filter. Small and tiny pieces of plastic would come in on a separate conveyor to be processed before becoming fuel. Marshall himself designed the microfilters that would be used.
Marshall noted different parts of the ocean present different densities of plastic fuel and that the ship would sail out with its filtration array collapsed, then unfold at the destination.
He said the company is looking at the density of different plastics and what will be necessary for fuel content, he said, as well as how efficiently it can be filtered.
Ninety percent of the plastic material would become fuel, Marshall explained, the rest ash. The ship would have a crew of about 40 and operate a total of 11 months out of the year, he said, adding that the idea is to get a ship in the ocean by 2025.
The company applied for a patient in September and may file for others. Marshall declined to speak technically about the filtration and incineration systems other than to say they combine new innovation with existing technologies. More than one subcontractor would be involved, he said.
Marshall worked at Lockheed Martin for 16 years and for other aerospace manufacturers including Mitsubishi. He said the $120 million or so the company needs to realize his vision might come from a combination of governments, corporations and individuals. He noted he has invested his children’s inheritance in the company and that OCP’s nonprofit arm is accepting donations now.
After his presentation Thursday, Marshall offered a simple analogy of what the ship would do.
“It’s a self-licking ice cream cone,” he said.
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