Scientists Aims to Recycle Marine Life Growing on Oil Rigs

Marine growth on the recycling rigs. Scientists want to demonstrate how marine vegetation on dormant oil and gas rigs in the North Sea may be used as fish and animal feed.

For Practical Use

Scientists want to demonstrate how marine vegetation on dormant oil and gas rigs in the North Sea may be used as fish and animal feed.

To support Scotland's lucrative salmon and shellfish farming industries, it is anticipated that seaweed and algae carried to shore during decommissioning may be repurposed.

Researchers will examine ways to utilize the material, including seaweed, mussels, and corals, in what is being hailed as a world first.

Partnering Up

For the initiative, academics from Abertay University have partnered up with the Scottish decommissioning business CessCon Decom.

According to them, the partnership may result in various novel goods and materials that may ultimately aid Scotland in achieving its net-zero goals.

Over the next ten years, it is anticipated that the feasibility study, also financed by the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), will lead to recycling up to 40,000 tonnes of marine growth on oil and gas platform jackets.

The amount is based on estimates of 10% marine garbage per decommissioned station based on weight and a study from the energy sector that mentions a decommissioning pipeline of 400,000 tons.

According to European laws, operators must restore sites to a clean seabed; therefore, energy corporations cannot leave any portion of a decommissioned platform behind.

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Marine Ecology

Several marine creatures may be seen on the underwater jacket of a platform near the end of its lifespan. Depending on the environmental factors in the water, different depths are home to different types of algae, seaweed, mussels, anemones, and hard and soft coral.

"As the North Sea oil and gas sector matures, the decommissioning sector has a critical role to play in ensuring that the parts of those installations which are no longer in use and are required to be brought to shore are disposed of safely and responsibly" said Karen Seath, director of CessCon's environmental and regulatory affairs.

We have an ambitious goal to achieve a point when all decommissioned items brought onshore are repurposed, reconditioned, renovated, or recycled. Our approach is based on the principles of the circular economy.

Marine growth is usually disposed of in landfills or burned, but we recognize the chance to do more and use this waste to assist other industries' supply chains.

"There is also continuous discussion over whether the clean seabed policy is the most advantageous course of action, both financially and environmentally," she continued.

For instance, in other international marketplaces, decommissioned infrastructure has been turned into artificial reefs and left in the water, preserving the undersea ecology developed for the platform's existence.

"At this time, however, infrastructure in European seas that has reached the end of its useful life must be removed unless an exception is granted. We want to reuse and recycle the material as sustainably as possible.

Critical Study

"This study is about understanding the nutritional composition of the marine growth retrieved from decommissioned rigs, whether onshore or offshore and the viability of recovering proteins and fatty acids from the waste materials," said Boon-Seang Chu, a lecturer in food science at Abertay University.

The findings of this effort will assist and guide the project's subsequent phases.