Scour Prevention Systems, Ltd has been granted a full US patent for its Scour Prevention Mattresses (SPM) which protects offshore structures, cables, and pipelines from scouring.
It is a significant milestone for Lowestoft, a UK-based company because US patent approvals are difficult to achieve.
The product had previously been patented in the UK, Japan, and China.
Seabed erosion and scour around marine structures have been highlighted as being among the biggest challenges facing the development of major offshore projects in shallow waters.
Scour is caused by water turbulence and is often as a direct result of a man-made structure interrupting current flow. Scour prevention measures are regularly deployed when wind turbines are installed in order to address this serious risk.
The SPM is constructed from a matrix of end-of-life vehicle tyres which traps sediment to form a stable protective layer on the seabed or over cables and pipelines. SPM’s have already been used to prevent scour and associated damage at subsea cable and foundation structures in the North Sea and are being considered for new projects offshore Africa and South East Asia.
Sarah Niddrie-Webb, of Scour Prevention Systems, said, “We are delighted with the award of this patent for the US and now free to openly work with key industry partners, industry bodies, agents, and distributors, as well as directly to the end users. Our run of successes in getting a string of international patents awarded for the SPM over the past 12 months has given us a great platform to expand our offer internationally.
“We will be starting with the US Offshore Wind sector which is predicting rapid growth with more than 8GW of installed capacity by 2030. This will take hundreds of new larger capacity turbines and thousands of kilometers of cabling, all of which needs protection.”