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Deploying pollution barriers creates opportunities for tugs
Opportunities are arising for tugboats and workboats from the growing environmental protection sector as innovators seek to scale-up their technologies
Tugs and workboats will be required to manoeuvre equipment and structures being developed to protect maritime environments from waste and pollution. These vessels have the required power and deck equipment to handle barriers and booms to capture plastics and fluid pollutants in waterways, estuaries and other marine environments, and are already used to deploy booms to contain oil spills.
Innovation start-up Great Bubble Barrier has tested a manoeuvrable air-filled boom to capture plastic waste in rivers.
Great Bubble Barrier founder Anne Marieke Eveleens said the first trial was in collaboration with the Port of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, while others have been implemented in Portugal.
The next trial will be in the Regents Canal in north London, UK, while the company has also carried out a feasibility study in deploying barriers in Bangkok, Thailand.
"We are also looking at rivers in southeast Asia and installations in northern Europe," said Ms Eveleens. "We work with tugboats [and workboats] to deploy and place these barriers."
These can capture up to 80 kg of plastic waste per month in waterways between 20 m to 200 m wide, while the company is developing longer and higher-capacity barriers.
One of the world’s largest owners of ports, infrastructure and workboats, DP World, is helping to fund the start-up Great Bubble Barrier.
DP World vice president for sustainability in Europe, Nick Mazzei, said it works with these innovators, and several others, to clean-up and restore marine ecosystems.
"Sustainability is in our core and is integrated into the way we work," said Mr Mazzei during Maritime Innovation Week, hosted by the Port of Tyne and delivered by the 2050 Innovation Hub in London. "We need to leverage innovators as they can move fast and are not restricted by processes."
The trial of Great Bubble Barrier in Lancaster Basin of the Regents Canal, with DP World’s support, will help scale-up this technology for potential deployment in the Port of London and other ports.
"We are looking at other rivers around Europe and see applications for technology in ports, terminals and inland terminals," said Mr Mazzei. "We believe in these innovations to improve maritime areas."
DP World is also interested in investing in sea-grass growth projects, such as one being considered outside the port of Southampton, and others in the southern hemisphere, said Mr Mazzei.
Riviera’s TUGTECHNOLOGY ‘25 will be held in Antwerp, 22-23 May 2025. Click here for more information on this industry-leading event.
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