Season 2022 Biofouling Campaign Preparations
After last year's successful test campaign, the De-Risk project is looking ahead to the summer of 2022 for a second season of biofouling testing. The testing that took place in 2021 showed interesting results regarding near-shore biofouling. However, there is a need to test in an offshore environment to better understand the differences in biofouling in a more representative WEC setting. For that reason, the 2022 testing will take place not only on the west coast of Sweden at Kristineberg Center for Marine Research and Innovation, but also at PLOCAN, Canary Islands.
The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) rests on the seabed at 30 meters depth. The platform is located about 1.5 km off the coast in the NE of the island of Gran Canaria. It offers an offshore test site with great capacity for this type of demanding test protocol with its frequent assessment and scraping of samples.
In preparation for the upcoming test season a number of upgrades have been made to the scraping test rigs
Scraper base plate has been adjusted to offer an easier and more reproducible alignment of the samples.
Cantilever length has been reduced to increase the torque and reduce vibrations when pulling samples.
Alignment of the test rig components to minimise unnecessary friction.
Reinforcement of the test rig aluminium frame to avoid misalignment over time.
In addition, all of the ocean rod samples and scraping systems have been thoroughly inspected and catalogued at the RISE lab in Borås prior to re-deployment.
