PLOCAN expands its portfolio of services by installing 0.5 to research and study of materials on marine environment, which was designed and manufactures under the European project FLOTANT which aims to develop an innovative and low-cost floating offshore wind technology, optimised for deep water (100m-600m) and to sustain a 10+MW wind turbine generator.
With Harshlab 0.5 PLOCAN, who coordinates the FLOTANT project, has an unique specialise infrastructure in Canaries to research and study of materials in marine environment thanks to the close cooperation with Corrosion Engineering Team of Tecnalia, who has collaborated with PLOCAN in adapting the design of Harshlab 1.0 installed on a buoy to a fixed infrastructure on the sea wall of the Port of Taliarte.
The respect for the marine environment is a priority when new energy resources are being explored, thus FLOTANT proposes antifouling and anti-bite additives integrated in plastic materials which will be used in power and mooring cables and floaters.
The Harshlab 0.5 consists of two panels capable of housing 140, 185×295 mm standardized probes, may be multiplied threefold thanks to adaptors for smallest probes. Each panel has three different parts: immersed, intertidal and splash zone. Thanks to the cutting edge designed developed jointly by Tecnalia and PLOCAN, all the probes can be easily extracted from the dock, without the need of auxiliary resources and in any type of weather conditions, which aims an exhaustive monitoring of the experiments.
The FLOTANT project is studying the capacity of new plastic materials and additives with zero or very low environmental impact, to withstand or avoid the growth of microorganism on its surface (antifouling), as well as to avoid the aquatic animals bites (anti-bite), but this is a multipurpose infrastructure where corrosion effects in different materials or coatings used on the offshore sector can be performed. In addition, together with the Harshlab 1.0 deployed in the Cantabrian Sea waters, and thanks to the cooperation with Tecnalia, we will have the opportunity to understand the behaviour of different materials in different climatic zones.
FLOTANT has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 815289
