Technical feasibility of "Eco-Platform" - technology integration for the 21st century

A concept of "Eco-Platform" is proposed for solving environmental problems that people are facing now and will face in and around the coastal area, setting their sight on the contribution from the viewpoint of the sea. The Eco-Platform is a complex on a floating platform and has functions for solving social and environmental problems. The functions installed are generation of heat/electric energy by incinerating combustible waste without introduction of fossil energy, cascade use of heat energy, application of marine biotechnology for processing the sewage and purifying eutrophic seawater, reproduction of material and energy resources from man-made waste and sewage. All the functions installed are integrated systematically and efficiently. To ensure the realization of the concept, it is necessary to study/investigate the feasibility of systematic combination of functions and facilities installed on the Eco-Platform. The authors have been studying the required function and size of each facility, probable waste/sewage/energy/resource input and output relations. After the studies on the desirable combination and arrangement of installed facilities, they also studied the energy and material balance of the total system from the technical standpoints to implement the Eco-Platform system. The results of the study shows that the Eco-Platform is technically feasible applying technologies mainly developed in the latter half of the 20th century.