Render of a dark branching device standing on the seabed among pale reef structures

Blue Biont

Coral reef recovery system

Year: 2024
Place: Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Context: Group project, Innovation Design Engineering, Royal College of Art and Imperial College London
Role: Research, form development, simulation geometry, physical prototyping

Branching form: adds drag, so the minerals spread further
Alkalinity: raised by dissolving minerals upstream of the reef
Lizard Island: Great Barrier Reef, the target site

A care package for reefs in crisis: a mineral dispersal device shaped like the corals it is trying to save.

01Dying from the inside

Ocean acidification dissolves coral skeletons faster than they can grow, and a weakened reef is more vulnerable to bleaching.

Ocean alkalinity enhancement works like an antacid. Minerals added to the water raise its pH and make carbonate available for coral to build with.

Satellite view of Lizard Island and the reef around it — Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, the target site. Satellite image: Google.

02Shaped like coral

The device carries the minerals and sits on the seabed upstream of the reef, so the current does the spreading.

Its form comes from branching corals that grow in lower impact zones. The branches increase drag on the water. My part was the form: the geometry for the simulations and the physical prototypes.

Fourteen white branching forms on a black background — Form studies for particle dispersal.

Render of the device: a cluster of rounded branches on a single stem — The chosen form. Branches on a single stem.

03Does it reach

We tested the variations in simulation to find the form that disperses particles furthest. The wake leaves the device and spreads downstream. The simulations were produced with a PhD researcher at Imperial College London.

Seen from above. Colour shows turbulence in the wake.

Simulation from the side, with the plume trailing from the branches — The same flow from the side.

Three-dimensional simulation of the wake drawn as a block of blue cells — The wake as a volume.

04Made and shown

The form became 3D-printed prototypes and an exhibition model of the reef, with laboratory tests for pH and dissolution rate.

Pale branching prototype resting on sand next to a white model coral with orange patches — The 3D-printed prototype beside a model coral.

Exhibition table with the Blue Biont sign, a text panel, a layered model of the reef and the prototype — At the Royal College of Art exhibition, 2025.

Made: Device form, 3D-printed prototypes, exhibition model of the reef
Tested: Fluid dynamics simulation. Laboratory tests for pH and dissolution rate
Shown: Royal College of Art exhibition, 2025
Team: Group project. Simulations with a PhD researcher at Imperial College London
Tools: Rhino, 3D printing, fluid dynamics simulation