DESCRIPTION

The present patent relates to devices for cleaning rivers and in particular concerns a new system for cleaning rivers and watercourses in general.

The problem related to plastic pollution, particularly of the seas, is well known and particularly relevant.

In fact, plastic is a long-lasting synthetic product that degrades completely only after hundreds of years and, as a result, huge amounts of plastic are accumulating in the seas, where it is disseminated by wind or urban dumps and above all by watercourses that flow into the sea. Part of the plastic is also released directly into the seas by the boats that sail them.

Nonetheless, tests carried out on watercourses that flow into the sea have shown that they are the main conveyors of plastic materials into the sea. In fact, it has been determined that about 80% of the plastic that ends up in the sea comes from watercourses.

Initially plastic waste is in the form of bottles, caps, detergent bottles, food packaging and packaging in general. When it enters the sea, plastic waste is dispersed and becomes virtually impossible to collect and recover. Furthermore, in sea water, plastic degrades and plastic waste breaks up into ever smaller fragments which end up being ingested by marine fauna, often causing poisoning or even suffocation, and thus entering our food chain.

It is therefore increasingly necessary to clean the rivers and watercourses that flow into the sea, to reduce the environmental impact of plastic materials and derivatives.

The solutions currently applied to address these problems involve the use of personnel who, with the use of boats and nets, manually collect such waste with the consequent costs.

Another solution currently adopted involves performing cleaning operations after blocking the circulation of boats, thereby causing obvious inconveniences for the latter.

One drawback of this type of intervention is that it disturbs the ecosystem and in particular fish and marine fauna, birds, as well as the flora, since cleaning the river may also damage the seabed and coasts, while uprooting or damaging aquatic plants. Systems for cleaning rivers and watercourses in general based on fixed small draft nets are already known in the prior art. These nets have their ends anchored to both banks of the river or stream and are designed to keep their position even for long periods of time and during the rainy season. However, when installed, those nets prevent the regular circulation of boats.

The prior art also includes the use of floating dams consisting of floating structures suited to collect the waste carried by the currents and floating on the surface. This system also prevents the free circulation of boats and even collects organic materials such as reeds and small trunks, which become mixed with the plastic.

Document CN 107476269 A concerns a device to capture and remove floating waste from the anchor cables of vessels. The device is constrained to the boat by means of a rigid arm and comprises a floating element which is free to rotate due to the water flow and a motor with sensors which, in the event the floating element gets stuck, forces its rotation.

The device is designed so as to stay close to the anchor cable, that is, it is not free to move laterally, for example due to the thrust of a floating body having a greater mass than normal waste, such as a trunk or another vessel. Therefore, in the case of a collision with an object of the aforementioned type, the device thus designed, is likely to break.

Document JP H108437 A concerns a system for the collection of debris from a watercourse where the floating devices used to divert the water flow are constrained to a rigid structure like a dam across the watercourse. This system is not suitable for collecting waste with masses larger than normal floating waste and is also not designed to move in order to enable a boat to pass, for example. In fact, this system is not designed to be installed in navigable waters. To overcome all the aforementioned drawbacks a new system for cleaning rivers and watercourses in general was developed and constructed.

The main object of the present invention is to collect floating waste and convey it to a collection area.

An important object of the present invention is to simplify the system so as to reduce not only construction and installation costs, but also maintenance costs. In some embodiments, the system may in fact not be, according to the same inventive concept, equipped with electrical devices or mechanical moving parts.

Another object of the present invention is not to interrupt the flow of the watercourse or prevent the normal navigation of vessels always enabling them to circulate, since the floating modules comprising the system in question move as a consequence of the thrust of the vessels themselves, with no need to equip the modules with motors or drive them with external equipment.

A further object of the present invention is to avoid creating any disturbance to the ecosystem.

One advantage of the present invention is that it is modular and therefore adaptable to the dimensions of the watercourse to be treated.

Another advantage of the present invention is that such modules can be produced in series, with a significant reduction of molding costs.

These and other direct and complementary objects are achieved by the new system for cleaning rivers and watercourses in general, consisting in its main parts of a plurality of floating modules, suited to float on the water, and anchoring means, to anchor each of said floating modules to a fixed point so that said floating modules are arranged along a line that crosses the watercourse transversely, and where each of said floating modules has an external shape comprising at least one sliding surface so that, when said floating modules are aligned along said line, said sliding lines substantially form a sliding path that crosses the watercourse transversely, along which the material floating on the water flows towards a collection area.

The system also provides for a collection area for said floating material, said collection area being located for example on a bank of the watercourse.

Said floating modules are anchored in such a way as to prevent their rotation, that is, in such a way that said sliding surface, when not subjected to external forces other than the normal thrust generated by the natural motion of the water, always remains substantially oriented parallel to said alignment line.

Said floating modules are thus arranged close to each other, in line along said alignment line, so that the floating debris, pushed by the current and captured by any of the modules is conveyed along said sliding surface towards the neighboring module and, finally, towards said collection area, where a debris collection device can be suitably located.

Said floating modules are placed in such a number and configuration that they are substantially distributed along the entire width of the watercourse.

Said anchoring means are preferably flexible and comprise for example at least one flexible cable joined to said floating module and to a weight or in any case secured to a fixed point, for example on the bottom of the watercourse, so that the floating module remains free to move on the surface of the water within a certain area or range, as a result of the various thrusts and variations in the level of the surface of the water.

In this way, said floating modules only capture and move light floating debris, while the module is moved, for example, in the case in which they intercept trunks or branches or boats of any type.

Thus the system does not interfere in any way with the circulation of boats.

The characteristics of the present invention will be better clarified by the following description with reference to the drawings, attached by way of a non-limiting example.

Figure 1 shows a three-dimensional view of a possible arrangement of a plurality of floating modules (10) making up the system (1) for cleaning rivers and watercourses (F) in general. Figure 2 shows the arrangement of Figure 1 from above.

Figure 3 shows a three-dimensional view of a module (10) in a preferred embodiment.

Figure 4 shows how each floating module (10) is for example anchored to the bottom of the watercourse by means of a flexible cable (32) so that it can move when a boat (N) passes between several modules side by side, without thereby hindering the circulation of vessels and without needing any motorization or any external intervention.

The new system (1) for cleaning rivers and watercourses (F) in general is particularly and effectively usable in running watercourses.

The new system (1) includes a plurality of modules (10) suited to float on the water, such that one of its surfaces, hereinafter called the sliding surface (11), partially emerges from the surface of the water, as will be described and claimed below.

Each of said floating modules is constrained with anchoring means (30) such that, in resting conditions, that is, in the absence of external stresses, said floating modules

(10) are substantially aligned along a line (X) transversal to the direction (W) of the flow of the watercourse (F). For example, said line (X) is not orthogonal to said direction (W) of the water flow.

Each floating module (10) can have any shape, for example substantially prismatic with a triangular base, but in any case equipped with said at least one sliding surface

(11), that is, a surface configured so as to form, together with the other floating modules (10), a sliding path (12) that crosses the watercourse transversely, along which the material floating along the watercourse, flows towards a collection area (20), for example on a bank of the watercourse.

For example, said sliding surface (11) is flat, curved or straight, but in any case suited not to hinder the sliding of the debris and to guide it toward said collection area (20).

For example, in Figure 3 said sliding surface (11) is one of the flat faces (13) which constitute the side wall of the prism, but it could have any shape at all.

Said anchoring means (30) are configured so as to counteract the rotation of said floating modules (10), that is, so that said sliding surface (11) remains oriented parallel to said sliding path (12), which in turn, may for example be parallel to said alignment line (X).

As a result of the thrust of the water current, any floating debris intercepted by said floating bodies (10) slides along said sliding surfaces (11) towards said collection area (20).

Said collection area (20) for example comprises at least one device or container (21) for collecting the debris.

As noted, each of said floating modules (10) further comprises anchoring means (30) to a fixed point, said anchoring means (30) comprising for example at least one flexible cable (32) secured to said floating module (10) and, through a weight (31) or hooks, to the bottom of the watercourse or to another fixed point near or in the watercourse.

In one possible embodiment, said anchoring means (30) comprise a rigid frame which is in turn ballasted or in any case constrained to a fixed point, such as the bottom of the watercourse (F), and where said floating modules (10) are all constrained by means of said flexible cables (32) to said rigid frame.

In the preferred embodiment, said rigid frame comprises a main linear bar, intended to be placed in a transverse direction with respect to the direction (W) of the watercourse, for example parallel to said alignment line (X), and wherein said flexible cables (32) are directly or indirectly constrained to said bar so as to be able to slide with respect to it, so that said floating modules (10) can also slide with respect to the bar, thereby allowing the passage of larger vessels.

For example, each module (10) may be constrained to a transverse bar (332) of said frame (33) by means of a pair of said flexible cables (32), which therefore limit the movement of the modules (10) in water in a transverse direction with respect to the main linear bar (331), while they allow wider movements in a direction parallel to said main linear bar (331).

Therefore, with reference to the preceding description and the attached drawings the following claims are made.