Aquatic biomass containment barrier and method of assembling same

Claim 2

A floating containment barrier grid structure for containment of floating aquatic plants in a body of water, comprising: a plurality of interconnected floating barrier sections, each barrier section having four sides arranged in a square configuration and enclosing the same amount of water surface area, the sides of said barrier sections having a top edge and a bottom edge, the sides lying in a vertical plane, said barrier sections having a specific gravity less than water, the top edge of said barrier sections extending above the surface of the water and the bottom edge of said barrier sections being off the bottom of the body of water, said barrier grid structure having sufficient elasticity to enable a portion of said barrier grid structure to be submerged below the surface of the water, the barrier grid structure being suitably anchored to prevent substantial lateral movement of said barrier sections across the surface of the water.

Claim 3

A structure in accordance with claim 1, wherein said barrier sections are formed by a plurality of sheets of material interconnected at evenly spaced intervals along their longitudinal extent.

Claim 4

A structure in accordance with claim 1, wherein said barrier sections have a specific gravity between 0.07 and 0.95.

Claim 5

A structure in accordance with claim 1, wherein the top edge of said barrier sections extends above the surface of the water by an amount which exceeds the maximum achievable wave height, defined as 0.105 times the square root of the maximum linear measure of space across one of the barrier sections.

Claim 6

A floating containment barrier grid structure for containment of floating aquatic plants in a body of water, comprising: (a) enlongated flexible sheets of material having a top edge and a bottom edge and having a predetermined thickness and width, the thickness of said sheets being substantially less than the width of said sheets, and sheets having two sides and defining a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis, said sheets having a specific gravity between 0.7 and 0.95; (b) interconnecting means for interconnecting the sides of said sheets at spaced intervals along the longitudinal axis to form a plurality of barrier sections in a web-like arrangement, each of said barrier sections enclosing substantially the same amount of water surface area; and (c) means for anchoring said interconnected sheets in a tension state while floating in the body of water, the transverse axis of said sheets lying in a vertical plane, the top edge of said sheets being above the surface of the water, the bottom edge of said sheets being mostly off the bottom of the water, a majority of the surface area of the sheets being below the surface of the water, the top edge of said sheets extending above the surface of the water by an amount which exceeds the maximum achievable wave height, defined as 0.105 times the square root of the maximum linear measure of space across one of the barrier sections, said barrier grid structure being necessarily tensioned to enable portions of said barrier grid structure to be submerged beneath the surface of the water during harvesting of the floating aquatic plants by a harvesting device.

Claim 7

A floating containment barrier grid structure for containment of floating aquatic plants in a body of water, comprising: (a) enlongated flexible sheets of material having a top edge and a bottom edge and having a predetermined thickness and width, the thickness of said sheets being substantially less than the width of said sheets, and sheets having two sides and defining a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis, said sheets having a specific gravity between 0.7 and 0.95; (b) interconnecting means for interconnecting the sides of said sheets at spaced intervals along the longitudinal axis to form a plurality of barrier sections in a web-like arrangement, each of said barrier sections enclosing substantially the same amount of water surface area; and (c) means for anchoring said interconnected sheets in a tension state while floating in the body of water, the transverse axis of said sheets lying in a vertical plane, the top edge of said sheets being above the surface of the water, the bottom edge of said sheets being mostly off the bottom of the water, a majority of the surface area of the sheets being below the surface of the water, the top edge of said sheets extending above the surface of the water by an amount which exceeds the maximum achievable wave height, defined as 0.105 times the square root of the maximum linear measure of space across one of the barrier sections, said barrier grid structure being necessarily tensioned to enable portions of said barrier grid structure to be submerged beneath the surface of the water during harvesting of the floating aquatic plants by a harvesting device.

Claim 8

A structure in accordance with claim 5, wherein said sheets of material are made from a polyethylene material.

Claim 9

A structure in accordance with claim 5, wherein said interconnecting means includes a clip securing adjacent V-folds in the sheets.

Claim 12

A method in accordance with claim 8, wherein said interconnecting step includes forming V-folds in said sheets of material and fastening adjacent ones of said V-folds by use of a clip apparatus.

Claim 13

A method in accordance with claim 9, wherein said interconnecting step includes using a barbed clip appartus.

Claim 14

A method in accordance with claim 8, wherein said securing step includes necessarily securing said barrier segments such that a portion of said barrier grid structure can be submerged by a floating harvesting device.