“A French ocean adventurer and his team have designed a yacht which he says can scoop up plastic garbage to stop it blighting the world’s oceans, and converts the same waste into fuel to help power the boat.
Yvan Bourgnon has spent his career racing sailing vessels around the globe as a competitive yachtsmen. Over the years, he said, his encounters with floating carpets of trash became more and more frequent.
That inspired his new venture: the Manta, a 56-meter (183 foot) long catamaran propelled by a combination of high-tech sails and electric motors.
Right now, it exists only on the drawing board, but Bourgnon and his team hope to turn into a working prototype that can be launched in 2024.
As the boat moves through the water, conveyor belts will scoop up waste, sort it, then feed it into a burner. That will melt the plastic, producing gas which drives a turbine, and in turn generates electricity for the boat’s systems to use.
That electricity, along with solar cells and wind turbines on the boat’s deck, will make the boat 70% self-sufficient in energy, according to Bourgnon.”
View the whole story here: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/environment-pmn/french-team-designs-ocean-cleanup-yacht-that-feeds-on-plastic-trash