A Swiss army knife boat to remove oil and bilge water, the port's solution to combat pollution

Tom Leonardon, Géraldine Lamy and the two operators of CNS Cleaner. FREE NOON – Kelman Marti

Since March 11, the Éfinor Waste Cleaner 66 has been patrolling the canals to remove solid and liquid pollutants.

"Having this depollution system is a big step forward from an ecological point of view for Port Sud de France", rejoices Géraldine Lamy, environmental manager of the EPR.

This system is the launching, on March 11, of the Éfinor Waste Cleaner 66, an electric boat made with 70 ;% of recycled aluminum, now in charge of depolluting the city's water bodies, particularly canals.

After several months of trials with three different companies, CNS Cleaner finally won the port tender.

Waste, gray and black water, hydrocarbons… the list of tasks to complete

The Sète company created in 2023 has two operators to fulfill these missions. "We must recover the macro and micro waste found in the water. To do this, a sort of door opens at the front of the boat. The rotation of the propeller at the rear creates a flow which sucks up plastic bottles, cigarette butts, pieces of wood… Then, under the boat three more or less wide grids retain all the waste and let the water pass through. Operators can also remove them by hand", schematizes Tom Leonardon, co-manager of the company which only employs people from Sète and its surroundings.

On the other hand, CNS Cleaner takes care of removing surface oil. "The boat has dual-flow technology which allows water to be separated from diesel, gasoline, oils… using the difference in weight between these materials. Thus, 100% of the water that comes out of this system is clean. The hydrocarbons are stored in a tank on board, specifies the young 23-year-old entrepreneur.

The WC66E must also recover bilge water, gray and black water from boats in marinas and fishing ports.* &quot ;We must continue to raise awareness among port users, so that they call CNS Cleaner to remove their polluted water. Because there are always some who throw them out to sea, reports Géraldine Lamy.

A daily job

Once the waste has been collected, it is sorted in a small sorting center, then entrusted to Nicollin, who then recycles it. As for the gray and black bilge water, it is transferred to the bunkering area where it is filtered.

Currently in the low season, the operators patrol three days a week (excluding Stopover in Sète), and provide, like every day of the year, a 24-hour on-call service ;hours out of 24 in the event of significant pollution.

Reinforced presence during Stopover in Sète

During the maritime traditions festival, the CNS Cleaner teams work every day. In addition to patrolling and keeping the water bodies clean, they also take care of pumping bilge water from certain sailboats. This was particularly the case this Thursday with those of Galeón. "We're going to have to make two trips back and forth to pump everything out, despite the fact that our 1,000 liters of liquid waste tanks ", details one of the two operators of the pollution control boat .

 "One of the advantages is that they are up and running in less than an hour all the time’ quot;, welcomes Géraldine Lamy. "We are starting to know the body of water well, to be most effective, we still need to locate certain points where waste accumulates", recognizes Tom Leonardon. "With CNS Cleaner, we hope to have as little waste as possible. We cannot achieve zero waste, because there is always more coming. But we can get closer", concludes Géraldine Lamy, ambitiously.

* In both cases the gray and black water pumping service is free on Wednesday and Saturday. As for the treatment of bilge water, it is 120 euros excluding tax/m3.

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