Status and Prospects of the Development of Deep-Sea Polymetallic Nodule-Collecting Technology

Yangrui Cheng, Yu Dai (), Yanyang Zhang, Caihua Yang and Chenglong Liu
Additional contact information
Yangrui Cheng: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Yu Dai: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Yanyang Zhang: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Caihua Yang: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Chenglong Liu: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: The deep-sea is rich in mineral resources, and deep-sea polymetallic nodules are considered to be the most likely resource for commercial exploitation. Since the discovery of polymetallic nodules by mankind, researchers around the world have made long and arduous explorations in the exploitation of deep-sea polymetallic nodules and have proposed various mining methods, such as the dragging bucket type, the continuous bucket rope type, the automatic shuttle boat type, and the pipeline -lifting type, and have carried out technical verification accordingly. In the collection of seabed polymetallic nodules, the development and testing of towed type, spiral-driven type, crawler self-propelled type, and suspended type technologies have been carried out, basically realizing the mining technology verification of seabed polymetallic nodules and providing technical support for commercial development. However, according to the demand for commercial development, there are still many technical difficulties in polymetallic nodule-collecting technology, and more focus needs to be placed on the efficiency, environmental protection, intelligence, safety, and reliability of the collecting system in the future. This paper compares the existing progress in collection technology and equipment, and provides ideas and references for the research and development of deep-sea polymetallic nodule-mining technology and equipment.

Keywords: deep-sea mining; polymetallic nodules; collecting technology; commercial development; new energy minerals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/5/4572/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/5/4572/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:5:p:4572-:d:1087262

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().