Prototyping and Evaluation of an Open-Source Based Tailor-Made Turbidity Monitoring System for Deep-Sea Mining Application

The increasing effects of climate change and the resulting trends, such as the rise of green energy and e-mobility, are driving the demand for metals and rare earths. To meet this demand, deep-sea mining is likely to become necessary in the future. However, it is important to recognize that the extraction of these resources may have a significant impact on the environment. One critical issue is the generation of sediment plumes resulting from mining equipment. In this paper, the development and evaluation of a customized open-source based turbidity monitoring system designed to detect sediment plumes during a pilot test of seafloor massive sulphide mining is presented. The development process utilizes the open-source sensor prototyping platform OpenAquaSense to create a cost-efficient turbidity monitoring system with a broad adaptive measuring range. The sensors are calibrated and evaluated through pressure tank tests and sedimentation experiments. Ultimately, the developed system proves to be suitable for the intended application and serves as a basis for the development of a system for use in field experiments.