HarshLab1.0: one-year testing materials and components in the first offshore floating laboratory in Europe

摘要

Energy sector is nowadays facing a clear movement towards the sea. While some subsectors such as oil and gas started with this transformation some decades ago, operating in offshore conditions supposes an enormous challenge to novel renewable energies, such offshore and ocean energies. Corrosion and fouling are two of the main new obstacles in this race to the sea, while heavy mechanical forces accelerate the ageing of offshore infrastructures, the loss of properties, and finally the reduction of their life expectancy. A lack of offshore infrastructures devoted to test materials and components prior to their entry in the offshore market was detected, and back in 2016 a consortium of Basque companies and research centres decided to tackle this challenge by designing, constructing and installing a unique offshore floating laboratory in the Gulf of Biscay, naming it HarshLab. The first version of this infrastructure was finally commissioned during summer 2018 in one of the sites available at BiMEP experimental area (Biscay Marine Energy Platform), located 1.6 nautical miles away from the fishing village of Armintza (Basque Country, Spain). This open sea location ensures real offshore conditions, with maximum significant wave height above 10m and a depth of 65m, while allowing an easy access by boat and 24/7 surveillance. HarshLab can handle up to 765 standardized probes in three different exposition zones: atmospheric, splash and immersion. Environmental and oceanographic conditions are continuously monitored by the nearby meteorological station of Matxitxako and by BiMEPs own oceanographic buoy. During this first year out in the sea, corrosion and biofouling phenomena occurring in HarshLab 1.0 were characterized, while 10 industrial companies are running their ageing tests on more than 200 probes and components. In this paper, an overview of the main challenges faced during this first year, as well as main tests results and the corrosion rate for each exposition zones will be described. Additionally, plans related to the upgrade of current HarshLab1.0 to a bigger and more complex HarshLab2.0 will be detailed.