Production Support and Storage Vessel

Abstract

A production support and storage vessel is provided, as well as a method of processing material, such as ore, gathered from the seafloor using such a vessel. The production support and storage vessel has facilities to receive ore from the seafloor, process it, and store the ore in bulk storage silos. Additionally, the production support and storage vessel has a ballast capability and system to ballast the vessel down to a full operational draft. When needed, typically approximately weekly, a transport vessel is moored to the production support and storage vessel and the production support and storage vessel offloads the stored ore using a conveyor system.

1 . A production support vessel for use on a body of water, the production support vessel comprising:
 a seafloor material receiver that receives seafloor material from below the surface of the body of water;   a seafloor material processor that processes seafloor material from the seafloor material receiver;   one or more bulk storage silos that store processed seafloor material from the seafloor material processor;   a loading system configured to distribute processed seafloor material to the bulk storage silos; and   an unloading system configured to offload processed seafloor material from the bulk storage silos to a transport vessel moored alongside the production support vessel.   
     
     
         2 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the bulk storage silos occupy a majority portion of an internal space defined by a hull of the production support vessel. 
     
     
         3 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the seafloor material is ore and the one or more bulk storage silos have a combined capacity of more than one week's worth of production. 
     
     
         4 . The production support vessel of  claim 3 , wherein the combined capacity of the bulk storage silos is more than 20,000 t of ore. 
     
     
         5 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more bulk storage silos consist of four bulk storage silos. 
     
     
         6 . The production support vessel of  claim 5 , wherein the four bulk storage silos have a combined capacity of between 40,000 t and 50,000 t of ore. 
     
     
         7 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the bulk storage silos are aligned along a longitudinal axis of the vessel. 
     
     
         8 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein a single loading system is provided to distribute the ore to any of a plurality of bulk storage silos. 
     
     
         9 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the loading system includes longitudinal and transverse conveyors to distribute the ore to the bulk storage silos. 
     
     
         10 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the unloading system includes at least one unloading conveyor system that retrieves stored seafloor material from the one or more bulk storage silos and unloads it to the transport vessel. 
     
     
         11 . The production support vessel of  claim 10 , wherein the unloading conveyor system includes at least one scooper. 
     
     
         12 . The production support vessel of  claim 10 , wherein the unloading system includes a vertical lifter. 
     
     
         13 . The production support vessel of  claim 12 , wherein the vertical lifter is a bucket elevator. 
     
     
         14 . The production support vessel of  claim 12 , wherein the vertical lifter is a C-conveyor. 
     
     
         15 . The production support vessel of  claim 10 , wherein the unloading system includes a boom conveyor configured to offload the material to the transport vessel. 
     
     
         16 . The production support vessel of  claim 10 , wherein two unloading conveyor systems are provided, a first unloading conveyor system that retrieves ore from a first pair of adjacent bulk storage silos and a second unloading conveyor system that retrieves ore from a second pair of adjacent bulk storage silos. 
     
     
         17 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the seafloor material receiver includes at least a portion of a riser. 
     
     
         18 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the seafloor material processor includes a dewatering plant. 
     
     
         19 . The production support vessel of  claim 18  wherein conveyors distribute processed ore from the dewatering plant to the bulk storage silos. 
     
     
         20 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the seafloor material processor includes a lime storage and dosing system. 
     
     
         21 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , further comprising one or more vehicle bays configured to store seafloor vehicles. 
     
     
         22 . The production support vessel of  claim 21 , wherein the seafloor vehicles are seafloor mining vehicles that are unloaded and loaded from the vessel via the vehicle bays. 
     
     
         23 . The production support vessel of  claim 22 , wherein a lift winch and hydraulic power unit (HPU) are provided for unloading and loading each seafloor mining vehicle. 
     
     
         24 . The production support vessel of  claim 1 , further comprising a moon pool that extends vertically through at least a portion of the vessel. 
     
     
         25 . The production support vessel of  claim 24 , further comprising a derrick located adjacent the moon pool. 
     
     
         26 . The production support vessel of  claim 1  further comprising a ballast system with sufficient capacity to ballast the vessel to a fully laden position. 
     
     
         27 . The production support vessel of  claim 1  further comprising a ballast system that is continuously adjustable to enable a substantially constant freeboard. 
     
     
         28 . The production support vessel of  claim 27 , wherein the ballast system is continuously adjustable to enable a substantially constant draft and freeboard during any loading and unloading operations or any launch and recovery operations. 
     
     
         29 . The production support vessel of  claim 1  wherein the vessel has a length between perpendiculars (BP) of between 150 and 250 m, and a breadth of between 20 and 60 m. 
     
     
         30 . A method of processing material gathered from the seafloor, the method comprising the steps of:
 gathering seafloor material using one or more seafloor mining vehicles operating under a body of water;   transferring gathered seafloor material to a surface vessel;   processing the gathered seafloor material on the surface vessel;   distributing processed seafloor material to one or more bulk storage silos on the surface vessel;   storing the processed seafloor material on the surface vessel in the one or more bulk storage silos; and   conveying processed seafloor material from the one or more bulk storage silos to a transport vessel.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30  further comprising the step of adjusting a ballast to enable a substantially constant freeboard. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31  further comprising the step of adjusting the ballast to enable a substantially constant draft and freeboard during any loading and unloading operations or any launch and recovery operations. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the step of transferring the gathered seafloor material to the vessel includes conveying the gathered seafloor material to the vessel using a riser. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the step of processing the gathered seafloor material on the vessel includes dewatering the gathered seafloor material. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the dewatered gathered seafood material is transferred from a dewatering plant to the one or more bulk storage silos on the surface vessel via a conveyor. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the step of processing the gathered seafloor material on the vessel includes using a lime storage and dosing plant on the surface vessel to reduce oxidation of the seafloor material. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 30 , further comprising the step of transporting the seafloor mining vehicles on the surface vessel, and lowering the seafloor mining vehicles from the vessel to the seafloor. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 37 , further comprising the step of retrieving one or more seafloor mining vehicles from the seafloor and placing them on the vessel. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the seafloor is greater than 500 m below sea level. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the step of conveying stored seafloor material from the one or more bulk storage silos to a transport vessel includes conveying the stored seafloor material to the transport vessel whilst at sea. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the step of conveying stored seafloor material comprises retrieving the stored seafloor material from the one or more bulk storage silos using a scooper and placing it in a bucket elevator which transfers the seafloor material to a boom conveyor which offloads the material to the transport vessel. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the surface vessel is the production support vessel of  claim 1 .