The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) announced the start of its project to develop and pilot-test a 2,500-ton class marine waste collection and disposal ship, equipped with marine waste freeze-crushing and thermal plasma pyrolysis technologies, for the one-stop offshore processing of marine waste.

 The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and local governments annually collect a total of 120,000 tons of marine waste by gathering up coastal waste, operating port-cleaning ships, and by recovering sedimentary waste in the coastal waters. However, the highly polluted marine waste, which also contains moisture and salt, is difficult to recycle as it requires much time and money for disposal. Moreover, the risks of generating pollutants in the incineration process poses challenges in terms of coming up with plans for efficient treatment.

 Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy and local governments, will be investing a total of KRW 45 billion to develop a marine waste collection and disposal vessel that is eco-friendly and minimizes energy loss in the process of fuel combustion and to pilot operate the vessel at sea. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will cover KRW 10.9 billion of the required investment to oversee the development of the core modules for the offshore treatment of marine waste.

 While marine waste is collected from the sea and transported to land for disposal at landfills or via incineration, the ship developed by this project will be able to collect and dispose of the waste recovered from the sea through a single process. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries expects this project will not only reduce the time and cost required when compared to the existing marine waste collection and treatment approach but also contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions by minimizing vessel movements.

The project will involve building an eco-friendly hybrid vessel based on LNG-hydrogen fuel, and the waste cooling heat generated from the use of LNG fuel will be used to freeze and crush the marine waste collected offshore. The pulverized powder will be used as the raw material to produce synthetic gas using plasma technology, and the hydrogen derived from the syngas will be redirected to the hydrogen fuel cells installed within the ship to function as a source of electric power and as auxiliary power for propulsion.

 This process is an innovative technology that replaces the emission gas-generating waste treatment process with a hydrogen production process, which supplies the vessel with low-cost and eco-friendly energy. At the same time, this will drastically improve the efficiency of the existing waste collection and disposal process, which requires frequent returns to port for unloading of the collected waste due to the ship’s loading capacity.

 For reference, this project is a joint multi-ministerial project selected by the 11th Special Committee on Multi-ministerial Cooperation last year, which involved 2 years of preparations including pre-planning. The Hydrogen Ship Technology Center of Pusan University, the lead research and development institution, will be commencing full-fledged R&D with 17 research institutes, including Samsung Heavy Industries.

 Director Shin Jae-young, the Head of the Marine Conservation Division at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, commented that “this project will help us deliver an eco-friendly solution to the issues of marine waste and help us secure the core technology in de-carbonization by converting marine waste into resources” and added that (the Ministry) “will continue to develop new technologies that help to effectively reduce marine waste and marine plastic pollution.”