What we have done and where we are headed?

It is an amazing opportunity to spend a year brainstorming, discussing and debating climate solution designs with a team of 5 other passionate young kiwis. We started this year with Finn Ross (Honors Marine Biology), Jack Paulin (Mechanical engineering Honors), Arun Raju (Mechanical engineering Honors), Keeshent Thevanarayanan (Mechanical engineering Honors) and Dominique Poff (Mechanical engineering Honors). Initially we were looking at large seaweed platforms at over 1000m depth. The platform was to grow seaweed where it would then be cut to sink to the deep ocean below the 1000m threshold required to be a long term carbon store. We then looked at a grid floating on the surface with hanging pyramids to grow seaweed rather than one big growing platform below the surface. The next iteration of the idea was to have the pyramids made from bamboo and biodegradable rope and sink the pyramids once the seaweed has grown using concepts from Geoffrey Peels ‘South Pacific Marine Park’. However the engineering required would be extraordinary requiring a massive anchor of up to 5km long and would be ‘fighting nature” extensively. Then we decided to scrap the structure all together and have free floating pyramids held afloat with a biodegradable bladder. We then developed the idea of these free floating bamboo rafts and handed it over to Gemma Burnside (Final year product design student) who came on board in July. After deploying our first prototype in Akaroa we are now looking at version 2 with Gemma alongside some other designs. However our structural research did not go to waste as the engineering team is now applying what they learnt to the exciting new opportunity that is integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA). Our vision is for IMTA future farming systems to proliferate and with them the positive externalities they produce alongside offshore seaweed rafts sequestering large abouts of carbon to be sold as carbon credits. At the end of the year we will have completed initial concepts for both design’s and in partnership with other companies in the blue economy look to further test and refine each of our concepts into a viable business. More detailed posts on each of our two designs to come!

-Finn Ross