FIELAX and the Alfred Wegener Institute work together in the joint project “SeaFeather 10k” funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (FKZ 03SX480C). The goal is to develop a new, innovative deep-sea pumping system up to water depths of 10000m. The new system should enable various control options via measured values of additional sensors (e.g. pressure, conductivity, temperature), have modern battery technology and be intuitive to operate.

After test runs in a pressure tank and in the North Sea, the system was used for the first time under real conditions during the cruise SO289 of research vessel ‚FS Sonne‘. In the Kermadec Trench, approx. 500 liters could be successfully pumped through at almost 6000m within 1 hour. Pumping performance, filter pattern, battery performance, manageability and operation of the system as well as the data sets obtained met all set requirements. In the remaining term of the project, work is to be done on the development towards a prototype.