US 12,012,836 B2
Water bottom resource collecting system and collecting method
Tomohiro Morisawa, Tokyo (JP); Shinya Omori, Tokyo (JP); Ryutaro Murakami, Tokyo (JP); Hiroshi Iida, Tokyo (JP); Eigo Miyazaki, Yokosuka (JP); Keita Akiyama, Yokosuke (JP); Masanori Kyo, Yokosuka (JP); Ikuo Sawada, Yokosuka (JP); and Yoshihisa Kawamura, Yokosuka (JP)
Assigned to TOA Corporation, Tokyo (JP); and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kanagawa (JP)
Appl. No. 18/280,032
Filed by TOA CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP); and JAPAN AGENCY FOR MARINE-EARTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Yokosuka (JP)
PCT Filed Feb. 8, 2022, PCT No. PCT/JP2022/004959
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 1, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/185860, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 9, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 2021-034370 (JP), filed on Mar. 4, 2021; and application No. 2021-034371 (JP), filed on Mar. 4, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2024/0141769 A1, May 2, 2024
Int. Cl. E21B 17/01 (2006.01); E21B 21/00 (2006.01); E21B 43/28 (2006.01); E21C 50/00 (2006.01)
CPC E21B 43/28 (2013.01) [E21B 17/01 (2013.01); E21B 21/001 (2013.01); E21C 50/00 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A water bottom resource collecting system for drilling mud of a water bottom which contains water bottom resources and lifting the mud above water, the water bottom resource collecting system comprises:
a mining riser pipe that extends from above the water toward the water bottom;
an insertion pipe that is connected to a lower portion of the mining riser pipe;
a rotation shaft that extends inside the mining riser pipe and the insertion pipe in a pipe axial direction;
a stirring blade that is attached to a lower portion of the rotation shaft and disposed inside the insertion pipe; and
a liquid supply mechanism that supplies a liquid into the insertion pipe, wherein
in a state where at least a lower portion of the insertion pipe is inserted in the water bottom, the liquid is supplied into the insertion pipe by the liquid supply mechanism, the mud inside the insertion pipe is drilled and dissolved by the stirring blade which rotates together with rotation of the rotation shaft, the mud turned into a slurry form by the dissolving is raised to an upper portion of the insertion pipe by a stirring flow generated by the rotation of the stirring blade, and the raised mud in the slurry form is lifted above the water through the mining riser pipe by lifting means.