Towing an iceberg to the Canary Islands?

Towing a large tabular iceberg from Greenland to the Canary Islands to provide fresh water: an incredible project suggested 40 years ago by Georges Mougin & now  modelized in 3D by Dassault Systèmes…

“… Potable water is a rare resource in many countries. In the 21st century, nearly a billion people in the world still do not have access to clean water, while more than 2.5 billion have no water treatment system. In light of these facts, researchers right across world are searching for solutions to produce potable water. However, there are gigantic reservoirs of fresh water that have not been exploited: icebergs.

Unlike floe ice, which consists of frozen sea-water and is populated by wild animals, icebergs are drifting mountains of fresh water. Calved from polar glaciers and continental icecaps, icebergs drift naturally in the ocean until they melt. Each year, tens of thousands of icebergs are produced this way from glaciers, all destined to melt and be lost in the oceans’ salt waters. And each year, the equivalent of a year’s consumption of potable water melts and disappears!

The idea of exploiting icebergs to produce fresh water is not new, and goes back to the 1950s with research projects by the US Army. It gained momentum in the 1970s, notably under the influence of the famous French polar explorer Paul-Emile Victor, his friend and Arts et Métiers Engineer, Georges Mougin, and their meeting with the Saudi prince, Mohamed al-Faisal. The first international convention on the use of icebergs was organized in Iowa in 1977, attended by 200 renowned participants, including engineers, scientists, military personnel, officials and journalists.

But the technical obstacles are complex; experimentation required astronomical budgets and the technology did not yet exist. In the following years, the excitement died down and the scientists turned towards other, more realistic, less controversial and less costly projects.

At the time, the idea of towing an iceberg seemed unrealistic. But in the last 40 years, there has been considerable technical progress and our knowledge of icebergs has greatly improved. Could Georges Mougin’s project be reborn?

His whole life, Georges Mougin has honed his theory of towing icebergs and has thought about capturing a tabular iceberg. He then studied the best way to slow its melting and he imagined an unheard-of invention, a skirt made from non-woven geotextile strips. Finally, he had to come up with the best solution for towing the iceberg with a single, high-powered tugboat, while using as little energy as possible: using following currents.

In 2009, he decided to knock at the door of Dassault Systèmes. Indeed, he had just watched a showing of the 3D interactive documentary “Khufu Revealed” at the Geode. Then, Georges Mougin thought of all this technology for his project: virtual worlds and 3D simulations would allow his various theories on iceberg-towing to be tested virtually to see whether his idea would be feasible.

Georges Mougin and his team chose the Canary Islands as their destination. This region suffers shortages of water and already uses desalination, so it is a suitable place to test the “iceberg” alternative.

The island of Newfoundland stands out as a departure point because of the ocean currents that favor towing an iceberg at the least cost. Moreover, Newfoundland area already has an environment and the infrastructure required for such a project: icebergs, certainly, but also an iceberg surveillance system and expert knowledge of their natural drift, thanks to the Ice Patrol, and there are tugboats available.

So, the fundamentals of the pilot project are as follows: a tabular iceberg of approximately 7 million tons, a tugboat with a tractive force of 130 tons, and a fixed route between Newfoundland and the Canary Islands.
Tens of simulations later, the team considers the results:

– With a standard tug, we now know how to tow an iceberg of several million tons several thousand kilometers. In the example of the Canary Islands, the voyage can be made in 141 days.

– Also, with an effective system of protection against melting, we know how to limit the melting of the iceberg. In the Canary Island example, the iceberg lost on average 38% of its mass.

– We also know that using several tugs over the whole voyage does not reduce the travel time. It only increases the consumption of fuel oil.

– Finally, it is useless to try and struggle against the forces of nature when they are too powerful. This also only increases fuel consumption, so that in the end, the convoy is carried along anyway. This reasoning is perfectly consistent with the logic of assisted drift, which has the objective of adapting itself to the conditions of the convoy’s “natural drift.”… read more >> “