Sector: Science, Technology and Innovation

Country location: Australia, Republic of Korea

Grantee: The University of Western Australia

Project description

Every year we produce 300 million tonnes of plastic, a portion of which enters and accumulates in the oceans. Due to this pollution, at least one million sea birds, and hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die each year. Marine species can also become entangled in large debris leading to injury and even death. Plastic debris cause $1.27 billion fishing and vessel damage annually in the Asia-Pacific region. The removal of plastic from coastlines costs $25,000 per tonne. Collaboratively with industry partners Foresys and KRISO, we will work on a novel concept, floating debris barrier (FDB), to capture the plastic, which can easily and quickly be extracted and reused. We will optimise the shapes of FDB and develop efficient mooring systems through numerical and physical modellings, bringing Australian (geotechnical) and Korean (hydrodynamics) complementary expertise and facilities together in a single platform.

Key dates

International Workshop, Perth Australia, 23 June 2020 to 29 June 2020

International Workshop, Seoul and Daejoen, 03 March 2020 to 17 March 2020

Social media: COFS/ OGS/UWA web news, Facebook, twitter, an article in The Conversation, and articles in newspapers

Australia-Korea Foundation grant offer: $25,000.00

Contact person

Mrs Christine Casey, Associate Director, Research Grants - The University of Western Australia

christine.casey@uwa.edu.au (08) 6488 1776