Approach

Industrial Viability The industrial viability of the polymetallic nodules ‘Value Chain’ will be determined within different business cases that will be defined by the types of metals extracted from the nodules. This means a viable business case domain will be investigated by evaluating various combinations of (viable) technonological, economic and environmental options.

Development Process

The development process will follow along the V-form of the cascade model for the development of complex systems, proceeding with the timeline. The overall system is step by step broken down to component level and tested as necessary. Thereafter components are integrated into sub-systems and finally to a whole system towards higher TRL status. At the end (top right), the whole system is developed within the requirements set at the beginning of the process (top left).