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Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

“Alternative Blue Advanced Technologies for Research On Seafloor Sulfides” : securing long term raw material supply to Europe by developing and testing deep-sea technolog

Objectives of the commitment

This project contributes to develop cost-effective technologies to evaluate Seafloor Massive Sulphides deposits (SMS), considered as “the most promising” by Blue Growth, and enables sustainable access to resources in EU States Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).
Wallis and Futuna EEZ potential was confirmed by large scale mapping in previous campaigns.
More biodiversity studies, monitoring, high resolution mapping and developments for seafloor geophysical and water column analysis are required to locate inactive areas.
Evaluation requires 3D geometallurgical models. As current drilling tools need long campaigns and do not fit for chaotic seafloor or dispersed ore, development is needed.
Sea cruises will give EU a chance to prove the potential of its EEZ and its ability to perform exploration through an integrated tool, perfectly fit for any SMS, based on collaboration.

Description of the activities

ALBATROSS activities will consist of 5 different phases: specifications, design, manufacturing, offshore campaigns and ore evaluation.
1/ Specification, phase 1, will consist in a review of 3 first campaigns results and the requirements for the whole exploration and evaluation method. A collaboration of all participants is needed for this task.
• Strategy of exploration and evaluation of deep sea seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) will be the first step and will be updated thanks to the technology proposal of each member.
• This phase will describe all data necessary to locate inactive deposits, to estimate the thickness of the ore body and to provide all information needed to characterize the deposit vertically.
• The geological setting (volcanic and tectonic), topography and specificity of the potential areas to be explored will be attentively studied.
• Objective in terms of quality and cost will be set at this level. A benchmark will be suitable.
• Particular attention will be paid on environmental requirement to ensure minimum impact during exploration.
2/ During the second phase, the partners will prepare the technical conceptions needed for the exploration and the evaluation of deposits :
• Water column data processing
• Development and integration of real-time exploration technique based on electrical plasma
• Drilling Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)
• Geophysics Acquisition Instrument, ROV or Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)
• Environmental Survey and monitoring Systems
3/ Construction of prototype will be carried out during phase 3 for the purpose of the offshore demonstration in Wallis and Futuna.

4/ Phase 4, consists of sea operations during four exploration campaigns in Wallis and Futuna. Campaigns are expected to last between one and one and a half month.
• Campaign A, will consist in a high resolution geological cartography of 10 prospective targets in non-active areas with AUV and manned submersibles for systematic sampling, to be analyzed at sea-surface. First tests of the Geophysics Acquisition Instrument could also take place. A preliminary environmental survey will be set up on the seafloor and the water column. Detailed mineralogical, chemical and geotechnical studies will be done on mineralized samples. Chemical studies will be done on hydrothermal fluids and water samples from the hydrothermal plume to quantify natural chemical input in the water column and prepare the impact studies.
• Campaign B: Near seafloor geophysics acquisition will be performed on around 6 different mineralized zones. Environmental Survey will be reinforced in the most prospective sites.
• Campaign C and D: drilling will be accomplished in the two to three most prospective deposits. Environmental survey will be reinforced if necessary in the drilled areas. Geophysics complementary acquisition could be necessary to have a good overlap with drillings.

5/ The last phase consists of finalizing geochemical and mineralogical analyses and to correlate drilling results with geophysics result.
A geological conceptual model and then a 3D numerical model will be built on one selected site. A technical and economical evaluation of the deposit will be performed.
Drilling samples will be used to accomplish preliminary beneficiation tests. These data will be used in the final evaluation of the deposit.
Data from the environment survey will be picked up and analyzed one year after the drilling campaigns.

Description of the expected impacts

At the end of the project, EU partners will be able to propose proven and cost-effective technologies and methodology to explore and evaluate SMS deposits. The services range from regional exploration – through an access to the 3D modeling with drilling & geophysics methods – and environmental survey to recovery, process development and ore deposit evaluation
This project intends to reduce the exploration and evaluation costs for deep-sea deposits and will push Europe to the forefront of technologies and related services in this domain.
Environmental survey and monitoring at an early stage will be a significant step to build a strong baseline necessary to develop an undersea mining operation with minimum impact on natural life. This aspect is integrated in the methodology to provide a comprehensive range of services in accordance with international standard (ie : ISA)
This project and the extraction project being submitted to the call for commitment called SeaFlores aim at demonstrating by a state of the art evaluation the undersea mining potential in a European EEZ. It represents a new step to access to new metal sources not discovered yet.
The technologies improved or developed in this project are essential for Europe to evaluate other deposits in the EEZ of its members but also in international waters. Newly developed methods could be used by authorities to improve Land Use Planning.
The success of such an innovative project relies on an effective and intimate coordination of European-wide industrials and academics skills and resources, along with a good coordination of each initiative. All improvements and collaborations proposed here are a first essential step to deep-sea mining development in Europe.

Coordinating organisation & role

Name of the coordinating organisation: ERAMET SACountry: FranceEntity profile: Private sector - large companyRole within the commitment:

ERAMET, leading entity, will perform the multidisciplinary interfaces management and coordination. After determination of the strategy and specifications, ERAMET will focus on data quality acquisition by fulfilling the best practice standards of ore deposit evaluation.
ERAMET, as for the 3 first campaigns, intends to participate financially to the scientific cruises and will achieve preliminary process studies, 3D mining models and evaluation.

Other partners

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.

Name of the organisation: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Fraunhofer will lead the CFRP and GFRP recycling research.
Fraunhofer will perform corrosion tests on the developed materials.
Fraunhofer will work with CIDAUT on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project. Fraunhofer is the Quality Manager of the Consortium and will oversee deliverables and general reporting are produced with the best possible quality following agreed review standards.

Fundacion Cidaut

Name of the organisation: Fundacion Cidaut Country: Spain Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: CIDAUT will lead the research activities on materials recycling and compounding, implementing lab scale demonstrators of each process at its premises and, later, supporting end-users upscale the processes.
CIDAUT will perform mechanical tests, microstructural analyses, injection moulding capability studies on the developed materails, and will work with Fraunhofer on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project.

RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV)

Name of the organisation: RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV) Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: RWTH will implement the novel 3D Generative Preforming process (3D Fibre Spraying) that enables to create high-value long fibre-reinforced 3D preforms for thermoplastic and thermoset composites at low process costs (different kinds of yarn as a raw material, low tooling costs due to low cavity pressures). This cost effective technology allows to align the sprayed fibres in order to produce high-performance, engineered anisotropic products.

Universita' di Cagliari

Name of the organisation: Universita' di Cagliari Country: Italy Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: University of Cagliari is one of the leading European organization in the resin design and coupling with thermoplastic and thermose materials. University of Cagliari will support in the definition of the composite materials, both from CFRP/GFRP, ABS and Rare Earth composite material.

Relight

Name of the organisation: Relight Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: RELIGHT will work with ITRB to provide the research partners with residues for the recycled ABS supply and the REE recovery processes, including their HydroWEEE process as part of the processes to be studied and analyzed.

Piaggio Aerospace

Name of the organisation: Piaggio Aerospace Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - large company
Role within the commitment: Piaggio Aerospace is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Piaggio will assist in the compounds selection, provide Fraunhofer with specific corrosion requirements on business jet size aircraft, and will assess that the developed materials performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

Blackshape Aircrafts

Name of the organisation: Blackshape Aircrafts Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: Blackshape Aircrafts is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Blackshape will support to fulfill the requirements of the aeronautics industry on ultra light jet, light jet and trainer for Syllabus, and will assess that the developed alloys performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

KU Leuven

Name of the organisation: KU Leuven Country: Belgium Entity profile: Academia
Role within the commitment: KUL will collaborate on the balance problem studies and will lead the rare earth recovery research with the solvometallurgical and ionometallurgical processes.
KUL will also contribute to the final compounding selection.
KUL is the Dissemination Manager of the project, promoting that all partners are active on the project Dissemination.

FIDAMC

Name of the organisation: FIDAMC Country: Spain Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: FIDAMC is going to lead the Work Package on Compression Moulding with CFRP-enhanced materials. As part of the AIRBUS Group, FIDAMC will also be able to provide the input material.
FIDAMC successfully developed a 3D Printer of own design to serve the Aerospace Industry and will be supporting Smart Lab 3D Industries in its 3D printer design.

COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER

Name of the organisation: COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER Country: Canada Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Composite Innovation Center is one of the world leading organization in the field of Composite materials, both from carbon fiber and vegetal-based fibers.
Composite Innovation center has successfully implemented, at lab-scale, recycling processes for CFRP and GFRP.

Existing EU Contribution: No

Period to implement the commitment: from 01-01-2015 to 31-12-2020