Project Details

• SkillsR&D projects
• Categories: Industria Navale

Project Description

The Eco Cleaning Boat (ECB) is a full electric motor boat designed to collect plastic as well as to absorb hydrocarbons from the sea surface during its motion.

ECB has a modular structure, composed by HDPE recyclable floating modules (cubo-dock) and an aluminium frame, with the collecting tank located in the central area of the boat. The electric outboard is powered by PV modules installed on the T-top.

Main features:
MODULAR = customizable dimensions, easy to ship, easy assembly and disassembly operations, easy to move and/or to store
MULTIPURPOSE = hydrocarbons and/or microplatics removal, water filtering, environmental monitoring
VERSATILE = adaptable to any specific need adding sensors and/or fittings and varying shape/dimension

ECB has been developed within the R&D funded project:
“BATTELLI INNOVATIVI PER LA RACCOLTA DI PLASTICA IN MARE” co-funded by Regione Calabria through the Public Call “POR CALABRIA FESR-FSE 2014-2020 – ASSE I – PROMOZIONE DELLA RICERCA E DELL’INNOVAZIONE – Obiettivo specifico 1.1 – Incremento dell’attività di innovazione delle imprese – Azione 1.1.5 – Sostegno all’avanzamento tecnologico delle imprese attraverso il finanziamento di linee pilota e azioni di validazione precoce di prodotti e di dimostrazione su larga scala – Ingegno”

Partners involved: Dragflow Sud srl (lead partner), University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria.
Project duration: January – December 2023.
Sectors: environmental protection, marine industry, port operations.

Project activities: design, test, development and validation of the numerical model and demonstration of the innovative plastic collecting boat. Experimental campaign carried out directly at sea at Natural Ocean Engineering Laboratory (NOEL) to test stability, navigability, manoeuvrability and plastic collection.

Main results: two different configurations designed and tested
ECB model 1 “small” (4m × 3m), designed for small ports and marinas;
ECB model 2 “big” (7m × 4,5m), designed for medium touristic and commercial ports, as well as short coastal routes under favorable weather conditions.

ECB is currently under further development within the R&D funded project:
“Environmental Monitoring Centre for Ports – EMC4Ports” co-funded by RAISE “Robotics and AI for Socio-economic Empowerment” Codice ECS00000035, finanziato nell’ambito del Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, Missione 4 Istruzione e ricerca – Componente 2 Dalla ricerca all’impresa – Investimento 1.5, finanziato dall’Unione europea – NextGenerationEU.

Partners involved: Gruppo SIGLA srl (lead partner), SITEM srl, PM_TEN srl, Dragflow Sud srl, Istituto Internazionale delle Comunicazioni

Project duration: March 2024 – August 2025.
Sector: Environmental conditions (water, air) monitoring in coastal areas close to port infrastructures.

Project summary: EMC4Ports main objective is to create a low environmental impact, high technology ecosystem for monitoring water and air in the water area in front of and inherent to port infrastructures. The goal is to detect critical situations, provide alerts and support in the management of emergency activities and mitigation of environmental damage in the short/medium term to improve the operational efficiency, safety and sustainability of ports.
During the project, the technological ecosystem developed on board the electric boat ECB that patrol the port areas, will transform the normal monitoring sensors into intelligent and interconnected ones, able to exchange and transmit data, in accordance with the IoT concept. This will allow the realisation of an ecosystem of advanced technologies by providing broad, distributed and pervasive access to information, also thanks to the use of predictive models and AI algorithms. The developed system will be demonstrated in Reggio Calabria and Genoa, within the port areas.

ECB model 1 “small” can be found at Ecomondo, Rimini, 5th -8th November 2024 (stand 008 – piscine EST).