Subsea Industries’ investment in R&D has resulted in a coating that reduces fuel consumption by 40% and keeps seas completely clean (photo: Subsea Industries)
Subsea Industries has solved the cardinal problems companies are faced with when trying to square optimum hull performance with effective, environmentally-safe ship hull protection.
This is a major breakthrough in the competitive coatings market. The Antwerp-based pioneer in non-toxic, environmentally sustainable coatings, has optimised its ‘Ecospeed’ range of hard coat marine coatings to reduce hull friction by up to 40%, resulting in a comparable percentage saving in fuel consumption.
The company’s substantial investment in R&D has resulted in a coating that reduces fuel consumption by 40% and keeps seas completely clean. Currently, the company has more than 500 ship references for its marine hard coating technology.
Manuel Hof, Production Executive and NACE Coatings Inspector at Subsea Industries, said that they have cracked a number of really important problems with one simple, highly cost-effective approach to hull antifouling. They have optimised hull surface roughness, thus drag, resulting in fuel savings in the 20-40% range. They have also solved the corrosion and cavitation erosion problems that often beset other marine coating systems. They have completely halted the ship-to-sea emissions of volatile organic compounds and other harmful toxins common in conventional hull coatings, such as copper and dibutyltin dilaurate.
With the optimisation of surface roughness to its absolutely attainable optimum limits without future deterioration or degradation, Subsea Industries has achieved success in the solution of age-old problem of hull surface friction solved. This is something that even silicon-based systems cannot fully achieve.
Hof said that the Ecospeed range of coatings has a dimpled effect on an application which is scientifically proven to improve hydrodynamic efficiency. While other coating systems degrade over time, resulting in increased fouling, regular hull cleaning improves the coating’s performance, creating a smoother finish, resulting in significant continuous improvements to operational performance. As compared with the traditional antifouling compounds that rapidly degrade in time, our coatings last, hence the performance of the ship does not degrade either.
While Ecospeed hulls need to be cleaned regularly, the cost of in-situ underwater cleaning dwarfs the high expenditure incurred with regular dry-dockings and recoats and this can be recouped from the fuel savings gained.
Stringent tests were carried out earlier to provide scientific data and to authenticate the non-toxicity of the Ecospeed hull performance technology.
This research established that the coating is 100% free of toxic substances and that there is no negative effect on the water quality or the marine environment at any point of its application or use. Moreover, the massive amounts of VOC and zinc anode emission associated with conventional hull coating systems are reduced to almost zero.
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Source: Subsea Industries
