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US 11,920,471 B2Granted
Methods for reducing sediment plume in deepsea nodule mining
AssigneeDeep Reach Technoloy, Inc.
InventorsJohn Halkyard, Michael Rai Anderson, James Wodehouse
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for generating a slurry from the surface of the subsea floor, separating that slurry into multiple slurries, and pumping the desired slurry to the surface.
Claims7
A method for mining the subsea floor comprising:
- generating a first slurry by removing a surface layer of the subsea floor and mixing it with water;
- flowing the first slurry into a separator;
- flowing the first slurry through an opening at or near the top of the separator to form a second slurry;
- and
- collecting particles from the first slurry, that do not pass through the opening, at the bottom of the separator and allowing them to enter a stream of water from the surrounding environment to create a third slurry that is passed to a subsea pipe for pumping to the surface;
- pumping the second slurry through an electrocoagulation device creating a fourth slurry to be discharged into the ocean proximate to the subsea floor.
3 more elements
A method for mining the subsea floor comprising:
- generating a first slurry by removing a surface layer of the subsea floor and mixing it with water;
- flowing the first slurry into a separator;
- flowing a portion of the first slurry through a fine particle screen to form a second slurry;
- flowing the second slurry to be discharged into the ocean proximate to the subsea floor;
- and
- collecting particles from the first slurry, that do not pass through the fine particle screen, at the bottom of the separator and allowing them to enter a stream of water from the surrounding environment to create a third slurry that is passed to a subsea pipe for pumping to the surface;
- electrocoagulating the second slurry and discharging of the electrocoagulated slurry to the surrounding environment.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.