Slurry pump
If the plastic debris is small enough, it can be mixed with
water and pumped from a buffer to a transport medium.
The pumps that are used for this are centrifugal pumps,
which use an impeller to provide the pressure to force the
slurry through the pipes. This method of transshipment
has been successfully applied to petroleum products in
the oil industry.
In the oil industry, large pumps are used to transport oil
and other petroleum products from one container into
another. These pumps employ centrifugal forces using
the same principles that could be applied for the plastic
parts here. These parts have to be shredded to below a
certain maximum size and mixed with water. This slurry
can then be pumped through a pipe to the transporting
vessel. On board the ship the water can then be removed
by one of the dewatering solutions presented earlier in
Chapter 4.2.
Advantages
• Since a retractable hose can be used to connect them,
the distance between the platform and the transport
medium is not limited by a solid structure.
• A slurry pump does not require high structures, since
pipes or hoses do not need to be lifted to a high point
above the transport vessel, but can be forced upwards
through the same hose or pipe.
Disad vantages
• This method pumps water with the plastic, which
results in higher energy consumption.