R&D plastic: Floating flexible container for the maritime transport of large volumes of water
The commercial version of waterbags developed within the European project REFRESH XXL are already a reality after being successfully tested in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea in Tarragona, with a payload of 2 000 cubic metres (2 million of litres) of fresh water. The 60-metres-long device is scalable until reach a payload of 5 000 cubic metres (5 million of litres), thanks to its modularity and it has already raised the interest of water supply managers of Chile and Middle-East countries as an alternative to projects based on submarine pipes.
The experiences with waterbags previous to REFRESH had failed mainly because of the lack of resistance of the fabric and the fact that they are manufactured in a single piece that made difficult the deploying, handling, hygienisation and transportation. The modularity of conception is the key to the success of the device developed in REFRESH XXL, thus allowing to assemble different modules thanks to a number of zips to adapt the maximum load to the needs of the transport.
The role of AIMPLAS in the project has consisted mainly in carrying out the validation essays to test the mechanical resistance properties of the materials subject to so demanding service conditions. Furthermore, it has also carried out the compatibility tests for water transportation, according to the European regulation.
The device developed in REFRESH XXL has a precedent in the previous project REFRESH, selected by the Research Executive Agency as one of their successful cases during 2012. In this case, the development was tested in 2012 in Greece, with a prototype at medium scale that was able to transport 200 cubic metres of water. The commercial scale demonstrator developed in this project has kept the modularity concept thanks to the same zip system, but it has improved the fabrics architecture with which the floating flexible container is manufactured.
Like in its pilot version, these innovative waterbags can be transported by a conventional tug and they suppose an important combustible and emissions saving compared with other water transporting methods, such as tankers or other supplying alternatives, such as desalination plants.
The project REFRESH XXL has been coordinated by Industrial Sedó (Catalonia). Together with AIMPLAS they have participated Tecnodimension (Catalonia), D’Apollonia and Ziplast (Italy), Turgutreis (Turkey) and Safibra (Czech Republic).
