Economic Vessel for Solid-Waste Recovery in Waterways
Lebanese rivers, lakes, and protected coastal waters accumulate solid waste faster than municipal capacity can collect it, and imported industrial skimmers are out of reach for most authorities.
A small, low-cost vessel designed to collect solid waste — plastics, organic debris, urban runoff — from rivers, lakes, and protected coastal waters. The system uses a passive collection grille combined with a buoyant skiff that can be deployed by a single operator from any accessible bank or jetty.
Designed for Lebanese waterways where scale, budget, and accessibility constraints make industrial trash-skimmers impractical. Material specification favours locally-sourced marine-grade aluminium and HDPE. Co-inventor: Dr. Bassam Mahmoud.
The underlying engineering is documented in a peer-reviewed book chapter at Springer: Khatib & Mahmoud, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, Vol. 366 (2023), Springer Singapore. DOI 10.1007/978-981-99-3737-0_11.
- A floating collection vessel with a removable grille assembly that captures floating debris while permitting water passage.
- A modular grille designed for tool-free replacement, allowing rapid changeover during operation.
- Buoyancy and trim configured for single-operator deployment from a fixed shore point.
- Local-material specification compatible with Lebanese supply chains and small-municipality budgets.