Making access to the ocean affordable through our SeaSprings mooring solution

Project Information

TfI SeaSprings

Grant agreement ID: 190107195

DOI

10.3030/190107195

EC signature date 14 July 2023

Start date 1 December 2023

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

€ 3 465 620,50

EU contribution

€ 2 425 934,35

Coordinated by

TFI MARINE LIMITED
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TfI SeaSprings (Making access to the ocean affordable through our SeaSprings mooring solution)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2024-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

TFI Marine’s SeaSpring (image1) is a mooring component which, when inserted into the mooring line of floating platform, changes the behaviour of that mooring line in a desired manner to deliver significant cost and environmental benefits to the overall project. It allows the compliance of the mooring line to be tailored to the needs of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT), which can half the loads in the mooring line and reduce fatigue damage by 80%. This halves the required material in the mooring line, shrinking all components from the anchor to platform. The outcome is reduced component costs, installation costs, and operational costs, while allowing more environmentally friendly decisions to be adopted, reducing footprints to support co-use of the environment, eliminating seabed damage and using the licensed area more efficiently.
Project 190107195 (“TfI SeaSprings”) was awarded by the EUROPEAN INNOVATION COUNCIL AND SMES EXECUTIVE AGENCY (EISMEA) to TFI Marine in 2023 to bring their SeaSpring products to the FOWT market. It consists of 3 high level objectives:
- Extend FOWT demonstration to integrate sensors into a prototype commercial FOWT SeaSpring, completing all certification tasks
- Complete the manufacturing process development activities and the commissioning of the commercial scale factory
- Complete the commercial scale SeaSpring development and become ready for market

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first reporting period (2024) all three objectives were worked upon and 8 of the 14 overall project technical objectives were achieved (see image 2). The rest will be achieved in the second reporting period.
Key end customers were brought as partners into the project including a group of 5 FOWT developers (RWE, Shell, EnBW, OceanWinds, Scottish Renewable Power) through a Carbon Trust Floating Wind Joint Industry Project award. Their experience and insights were brought into the project and the demonstration plans modified and extended to include additional data requests and validation activities which they desired. We also formed a consortium with Unitech and Sustainable Energy, who are responsible for the FOWT platform and the demonstration site. This allowed for closer cooperation and reduction of risks.
Significant effort was spent on the mooring system design and modelling (image3), allowing us to determine the optimum mooring configuration using SeaSprings and the expected performance benefits. This was then used by the engineering team to design the actual SeaSpring components, integrating the self-powered load monitoring and communication system into the metalwork of the SeaSpring.
Collaborating with our moulding and welding supply chain partners we completed weeks of manufacturing trials to refine the manufacturing processes for full size FOWT components. This work locked down the required equipment specs for the factory, with the first factory designs and the layout completed.
Design of the full-scale components were completed for the market entry, with multiple RFQ’s from developers received and answered. Detailed supply chain costing and evaluations were undertaken to give confidence in the final costs.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

A key technical objective was to strengthen and continue to protect the IP. During this first phase of the project we drafted or filed 3 new patents, covering the moulding of the polymer, the welding of the polymer and the use of the component during tensioning of the mooring line. We have also refined our IP around the metal / polymer interface design and may move to file that in 2025.
In 2024 we also have 2 key patents granted protecting the response curve of our FOWT components and how we achieve that, and the physical shape of the polymer component.
We have now successfully demonstrated the ability to manufacture the largest injection moulded polymer components in the world, pushing the boundaries of moulding and welding manufacture knowhow. Our individual full-scale SeaSpring FOWT components will weigh up to 17 tonnes, be ~2m in diameter and 8m long.

Image 1: A Seaspring Mooring Component

Image 2: Project Technical Objectives

Image 3: SeaSpring Mooring System Modelling and Analysis