Quarterly Journal of

Vol. 1, Issue 1

PERFORMANCE

SHIP HULL

January, 2011

A New Quarterly Journal from Hydrex Ship Hull Performance in the Post-TBT Era

How to save money while improving hull performance and dramatically reducing environmental impact Shipowners/operators can gain enormous savings through advanced underwater hull maintenance technology

The Slime Factor

Interview with Boud Van Rompay

Practical aspects of hull performance monitoring and maintenance

1

Quarterly Journal of SHIP HULL PERFORMANCE

Published by the Hydrex Group. Hydrex and Ecospeed are registered trademarks owned by Hydrex Group. All the material in this journal is copyrighted 2011 by Hydrex Group and may not be reproduced without prior written permission.

elcome to the first edition of the brand new quarterly Journal of Ship Hull Performance from Hydrex.

This is a free journal. It will be available in electronic, downloadable form

and as a printed magazine which will be mailed to all subscribers.. This journal is published for shipowners, operators, charterers, executives and managers of shipping companies, cruise lines, navies and anyone else who is in charge of vessels or fleets, responsible for operating costs and budgets, and interested in keeping ships, especially the underwater part of ships, at optimum performance. There is a wealth of technology and information available on the subject of protecting, monitoring, maintaining and repairing underwater ship hulls. Over a period of over 35 years, Hydrex has developed a great deal of expertise on these subjects. Much of this is not well known by the decision makers who most need it. Every quarter we intend to publish a new edition of the journal packed with accurate and useful information. We intend to bring you material from a variety of recognized experts in the field. The purpose of disseminating this information is to help reduce fuel consumption and reduce the adverse impact of shipping on the environment. We would appreciate any feedback, comments, suggestions, questions, letters and contributions. We will consider publishing questions with our answers, letters and articles and any other contributions from our readers. We sincerely hope that you will find this journal useful and valuable. Please share it with your friends and associates who are welcome to subscribe themselves. The Editors Journal of Ship Hull Performance

In this issue...
Page 5 Welcome to the first edition Page 7 Message from Boud Van Rompay, Founder & CEO of Hydrex Page 9 White Paper No. 1: Ship Hull Performance in the Post-TBT Era How to save money while improving hull performance and dramatically reducing environmental impact Page 22 White Paper No. 2: The Slime Factor Shipowners/operators can gain enormous savings through advanced underwater hull maintenance technology Page 34 An Interview with Boud Van Rompay, Founder and CEO of Hydrex, on the practical aspects of hull performance monitoring and maintenance Page 42 Upcoming conferences and seminars Page 44 Hydrex
6

Message from Boud Van Rompay, Founder and CEO of the Hydrex Group

his is the first edition of the new quarterly Journal of Ship Hull Performance. The purpose

of the new journal is to provide accurate, useful information to shipowners and operators, maritime institutions, governments and all those interested in all of the economic and environmental aspects of protecting and maintaining the hulls of vessels of all types. I have personally been researching and working on this broad subject for 40 years so it is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the launch of this new journal. In this issue you will find the first two of a new series of White Papers we have planned and have begun publishing, designed to gather up the best available technology and practices on ship hull performance and present them to the executives, managers, officers, government officials, port authorities and others who are concerned with extending the useful life of vessels or fleets while reducing fuel consumption and at the same time ensuring that their ships have minimal adverse impact on the environment. The first of these White Papers, Ship Hull Performance in the Post-TBT Era How to save money while improving hull performance and dramatically reducing environmental impact, is an overview of the current state of the science and art of ship hull protection and maintenance. It states in fairly broad terms todays problems and challenges in relation to ship hull coating, corrosion protection, antifouling, hull cleaning and maintenance, and suggests a viable alternative approach which, if adopted, opens the door to enormous savings in fuel and other substantial benefits. The second White Paper, The Slime Factor Shipowners/operators can gain enormous savings through advanced underwater hull maintenance technology, tackles the specific problem of the biofilm or slime layer that builds up on any hull, whether carrying an antifoul paint, a foul-release coating or anything else. Unlike the more advanced forms of fouling such as weed and barnacles, this slime layer is less visible and all too often little or no attention is paid to it. Yet it can carry

with it a fuel penalty of between about 8% and 20% which, at todays fuel prices and if spread across a fleet, can add up to very considerable waste of money. This White Paper discusses the
7

issue and the approaches which a shipowner or operator can take to reduce the fuel penalty, save money and at the same time cut down on greenhouse gas emissions significantly. This is valuable information which will help those responsible to develop a successful approach to handling this problem routinely. The White Paper discusses a new technology, Surface Treated Composites (STC), as a non-toxic alternative to traditional antifoulants, which lasts the lifetime of the vessel. It also explains that underwater hull cleaning, all too often regarded as a nuisance, is a fast, simple, efficient and economical way to greatly reduce the fuel penalty and cut costs and emissions of any vessel or fleet. This edition of the quarterly journal also includes a lengthy and detailed interview on the practical aspects of underwater hull protection and maintenance. The interview describes in some detail the process of monitoring a ship hull for fouling, how to decide when to take action and what action to take. It will answer many questions about how to deal with the early stages of fouling and the benefits to be derived therefrom. We would like to make the new quarterly journal a place for useful dialog. We want to hear from you, and welcome your comments, suggestions, questions you would like answered, letters and other contributions. We will do our best to help, and will consider your letters and submissions for publication in a future edition of the journal. It is my sincere wish that the Journal of Ship Hull Performance will be of value to you and help you realize substantial savings in fuel costs.

Boud Van Rompay

HYDREX WHITE PAPER No. 1

Ship Hull Performance in the Post-TBT Era How to save money while improving hull performance and dramatically reducing environmental impact

depending, if one assumes an efficient hull design and construction, on hull smoothness and the degree of marine fouling accumulated on the hull. Keeping a ships hull clean of even a small degree of The marine fouling problem accumulated fouling (slime) and ensuring the coating Some facts and figures will help put into perspective is in good condition and smooth can save about the substance of this paper on marine fouling and the 20% of fuel consumption. Thus if the entire world potential economic and environmental benefits which fleet were kept clean of slime (assuming well-coated, can be achieved from a correct address to the problem. smooth hulls), the savings in fuel in a year would be 66 million tonnes based on the IMO figures given h Lloyds RegisterFairplay put the world fleet at above. This adds up to a savings of $31.2 billion per 100,243 vessels in 2007. year. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be proportional. And that is just with slime. A heavily h World fleet fuel consumption (excluding fouled hull can require as much as 80% more power to military) estimated at 333 million tonnes. propel the vessel at the same speed .2 h Taking the price of bunker fuel at $470 per These figures are estimates, but they give an idea tonne (at time of writing) shows a total of the orders of magnitude involved. Marine fouling expenditure of $156.51 billion per year on is a major issue for ships. It has a serious impact on bunker fuel for the non-military world fleet. the economics of shipping, and its handling can have major effects on the environment. h CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions estimated at Marine fouling has always been a liability for any 1,050 million tonnes per year. ship owner or operator since man first took to the sea h NOx (nitrous oxides) emissions estimated at 25 in ships. The build-up of microorganisms, beginning with light slime and continuing all the way through million tonnes per year. to heavy barnacles and other hard fouling, adds drag h SOx (sulfur oxides) emissions estimated at 15 and weight to the hull which then results in increases million tonnes per year. in fuel consumption which can be as much as 40% according to the US Navy.3 Especially with todays rising fuel prices, this can mean a major increase in the (CO2, NOx, SOx are among the key greenhouse gases which international organizations are working hard to cost of running a ship or a fleet. reduce.) 1 Over the centuries there have been a number of solutions to this problem The same IMO report has the following ...increases in of fouling, most of which have simply explanation of the use of the energy fuel consumption become new problems. For a while, in generated by the fuel provided to the ships engines, taking a well-maintained which can be as the latter part of the 20th century, the marine industry thought the problem cargo ship as an example: much as 40%.... was solved with an antifouling paint In this case, 43% of the fuel which contained tin compounds such energy is converted into shaft power while as tributyl-tin (TBT). While this was effective in the remaining energy is lost in the exhaust preventing fouling, it was found to be extremely toxic or as heat losses. Due to further losses in and harmful to the marine environment, and tin was the propeller and transmission, only 28% banned, and finally ceased to be used in antifouling of the energy from the fuel that is fed to the paints in 2008. In general, the worst solutions main engine generates propulsion thrust attempted have been those which apparently provided in this example. The rest of the energy ends the benefits of keeping a ship hull free of fouling but up as heat, as exhaust, and as transmission did so at the expense of pollution and poisoning of the and propeller losses. The majority of these inland waters, ports, oceans and the food chain. remaining 28% are spent overcoming hull The post-TBT era is a somewhat confusing friction.... one. The most common replacement for the TBTbased antifoulants has been antifouling paint which You can see from this example that overcoming hull friction takes up a very high percentage of the energy 2 Michael P. Schultz, Effects of coating roughness and biofouling on ship resistance and powering, Biofouling, 23-5, 331-341,(2007), DOI: generated by the ships engines. 10.1080/08927010701461974. Hull friction is a highly variable figure, 3 Daniel Kane, Hull and Propeller Performance Monitoring: Fuel Conver-

Part I. Introduction

1 Second IMO GHG Study 2009.

sion and Emissions Reduction, in Climate Change and Ships: Increasing Energy Efficiency, Proceedings, SNAME, February 16-17, 2010.

10

leaches copper and other biocides into the water to h Not harm the marine environment in any kill the marine life which fouls the hull. This solution way. This includes not leaching any biocides has proved to be less effective than the TBT-based or harmful substances, and also acting to predecessor while still continuing the pollution of the prevent the spread of non-indigenous species. oceans and waterways with a combination of poisons, The solution must be non-toxic, contain no perhaps less harmful than TBT but toxic nonetheless. biocides, not harm the marine environment or These antifoulants (AF), also known as Self-Polishing the food chain. Copolymers (SPC) do not last long, requiring frequent h Result in improved performance, thus replacement in drydock, and cannot be cleaned in increasing hull efficiency and significantly the water without causing even heavier pollution and reducing fuel consumption over time. reducing the life of the paint on the hull. Estimates place the amount of copper leached into h Allowing fast, easy, preventative in-water ship the oceans and waterways by ships using copper-based hull cleaning in a environmentally safe way. antifouling paint at over 1 million tonnes annually.4 h Be easy to apply and to maintain. Other solutions in the post-TBT era include foulrelease silicone hull coatings but these have proved to h Reduce time in drydock and frequency of be easily damaged, not very lasting and not suitable drydocking. for regular in-water hull cleaning. They also pose an The real solution rules out paints which have a environmental hazard of their own.5 leaching function of any kind into the water; we have Recently the problem has been compounded by already seen what happened with TBT. research into the transfer of invasive, non-indigenous (alien) marine The real solution rules Copper oxides and various herbicides are all pollutants. species which may attach themselves out paints which have It also precludes coatings which to the ship hull and be displaced in a leaching function of need frequent replacement or which foreign ports and waters, posing a any kind.... cannot stand up to routine in-water potential hazard to the local marine cleaning. Frequent drydock cleaning environment thus invaded. Research has proved to be economically unviable, whereas has shown that existing heavy metal based antifoulings have the potential of worsening rather than preventing regular inspections and preventative in-water cleaning based on monitoring result in great financial savings the problem of invasive, non-indigenous aquatic 6 and become a completely viable approach if performed species. efficiently and well. Paints which have an active ingredient, by The real solution their very nature, are unsuitable for the purpose of Common sense dictates that a solution to the problem protecting a ship hull. By contrast, a hard coating of marine fouling would meet the following criteria: which contains no active ingredients but is as inert and long lasting as possible, provides excellent hull h Provide maximum protection against corrosion protection and is easy to keep clean of fouling. The and cavitation for the lifetime of the vessel ideal coating would actually improve in smoothness without the need of repainting. and performance over time. Solving this problem may seem daunting. h Be cost efficient, not only in terms of being However, there is a solution which combines a hard, economical to apply and maintain, but also durable non-toxic hull coating, with advanced in-water in terms of saving fuel costs, reducing outhull cleaning technology. This solution, known as of-operation or off-hire time for the vessel, Surface Treated Composite (STC), answers all aspects requiring minimal drydocking time and not of the problem when fully implemented, is entirely needing to be replaced during the lifetime of environmentally safe, and can save ship owners and the ship. operators millions of dollars annually in operational costs.7 4 JunLian Wang et. al., A survey analysis of heavy metals bio-accumulation in internal organs of sea shell animals affected by the sustainable pollution of antifouling paints used for ships anchored at some domestic maritime spaces, Chinese Science Bulletin (2008). 5 Monika Nendza, Hazard assessment of silicone oils (polydimethylsiloxanes, PDMS) used in antifouling-/foul-release-products in the marine environment, Marine Pollution Bulletin 54, no. 8 (August 2007): 1190-1196. 6 Richard F. Piola, Katherine A. Dafforn, and Emma L. Johnston, The influence of antifouling practices on marine invasions, Biofouling, 25, no. 7, (2009): 633 - 644.

7 ECOTEC-STC: Evaluation of a biocide-free hull protection and antifouling system with environmental and economical benefits, EU LIFE Project ECOTEC-STC LIFE06 ENV/B/000362 (2006).

11

Part II. Trends in antifouling

Antifouling solutions are tending more and more to move away from harmful, biocide-leaching antifouling paints towards the use of new-technology solutions which do not harm the marine environment and food chain. Forward-thinking ship owners and operators are recognizing the sense in refusing to pour poisons into the oceans in the name of antifouling and at the same time are saving very large sums of money by using permanent hard coatings and regular in-water cleaning which keeps ship hull performance at optimum without risking the spread of invasive non-indigenous aquatic species. This trend has been clear since as early as the beginning of the 21st century.

(Fig. 1) This chart compares the estimated economical impact (in million ) over 25 years for a 1000-TEU container vessel using three different underwater hull coatings. In the chart, STC (Surface Treated Composite) refers to a combination of a hard coating with regular underwater cleaning. Foul Release is a current generation silicone foul release coating. SPC (selfpolishing copolymer) is a typical copper-oxide and booster biocide leaching hull paint of the type in common use. The chart shows the savings possible for a single vessel. Other costs such as off-hire time have not been considered in this chart, but these add considerably to the overall picture when the frequent drydockings needed to replace the Foul Release and SPC are borne in mind, since the STC in this case lasts the lifetime of the ship and needs no replacing. (ibid)

Environmental concerns

In October 2001, the IMO International Conference on the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems for Ships, in Agenda item 8, included the following points: RECOGNIZING the importance of protecting the marine environment and human health from adverse effects of antifouling systems, RECOGNIZING ALSO that the use of anti-fouling systems to prevent the buildup of organisms on the surface of ships is of critical importance to efficient commerce, shipping and impeding the spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens, RECOGNIZING FURTHER the need to continue to develop anti-fouling systems which are effective and environmentally safe and to promote the substitution of harmful systems by less harmful systems or preferably harmless systems, and agreed to the following: ... The Parties undertake to encourage the continued development of antifouling systems that are effective and environmentally safe.8 It was well known at the time of that conference that
8 IMO, International Conference on the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems for Ships, Agenda item 8 AFS/CONF/26 (18 October 2001): 1-3.

Use of such a hard coating with advanced in-water hull cleaning technology results in zero emission of toxic substances into the water, yields substantial savings on fuel consumption thus reducing CO2 emissions, has been proven to be extremely corrosion and cavitation resistant, lasts the lifetime of the ship, and eliminates the need for drydocking solely due to deterioration of hull coating. If the cleaning is carried out regularly before fouling is allowed to build up beyond the light stage, it also helps curtail the spread of invasive, nonindigenous species. This approach (STC) to antifouling has been in use for nearly a decade and has passed every test. It is no longer experimental.

Goal of this paper

The purpose of this white paper is to discuss the economic and environmental aspects of this advanced underwater hull protection (STC) and maintenance technology and present the facts so that ship owners, operators and all those interested in effectively addressing the marine fouling issue can see that there is a solution which is cost-effective, which will result in huge savings compared to the technology and approaches currently in widespread use, and which is entirely non-toxic and safe for the environment.

12

tributyl-tin (TBT) biocide-leaching antifoulants were extremely harmful to the environment. However, it wasnt until seven years later that the use of TBT as an antifoulant was completely ended.

A less potent biocide leaching type of paint became the main replacement for TBT-bearing antifoulants (AF), using the key active ingredient of copper oxide but also leaching booster biocides. This paint has a relatively short lifespan which means frequent drydocking so that the hull can be repainted since the active ingredient, leached continually into the water in ports, waterways and the oceans, must by its nature wear out. While they do not contain TBT, the fact remains that these copper-based antifouling paints leach poisonous substances into the oceans and can hardly be termed environmentally safe. They perhaps meet the IMOs hopes for a less harmful system than TBT but certainly not that of a harmless system. Hulls painted with copper-based antifouling paint cannot be cleaned in the water without causing a sudden, heavy discharge of copper and other biocides. Mark Ingle of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) reported to attendants at the National Paint & Coatings Association International Marine & Offshore Coatings Expo in June 2007 that a single hull cleaning can remove 30 - 51% of one entire coat of antifouling paint.9 This has contributed to a number of ports and regions banning in-water hull cleaning completely for fear of pollution. Other port authorities who have conducted extensive tests, permit in-water cleaning of non-toxic coatings while forbidding in-water cleaning on hulls coated with copper- and other biocide-based paints.10 This type of coating also deteriorates with each cleaning, increasing skin drag and defeating the purpose of having a smooth hull. Partial repainting of the hull without entirely removing the previous coat results in roughness and impaired hydrodynamics. An article entitled Challenges for the Development of New Non-Toxic Antifouling Solutions appeared in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences in October 2009 outlining the dangers of Post TBT AF paints. An excerpt follows: During the 60s the chemical industry developed efficient AF paints using organotin compounds: tributyltin (TBT) and triphenyltin (TPT). These chemicals
9 Mark Ingle, Presentation to National Paint & Coatings Association International Marine & Offshore Coatings Expo (June 2007): 35. 10 Ordinance of 15 February 2010 from the State Secretary of Transport and Water Management of the Netherlands: Ordinance of underwater polishing and cleaning of ships which are provided with the Ecospeed type coating.

Copper oxide and other biocides

were highly toxic for many aquatic organisms and have been proven to contaminate the food chain and to be persistent in the environment. Since the ban of TBT-based paints (September 2008, AFS Treaty [2]), new formulation[s] have been developed containing high levels of copper and herbicides such as Irgarol 1051, diuron, chlorothalonil, dichlorofuanid and zineb. However, even if these paints claimed to be environmentally friendly when first put on the market, there are now evidences of a wide spread of these compounds in many countries (Europe, North America and Japan) with significant concentrations in marinas and harbours [8]. In addition, it has been stated that bacteria which are in contact with AF paints can develop rapidly resistance to biocides, especially in estuaries [9,10], where most of the boats and aquaculture structures are moored. An important factor contributing to resistance is the shift of resistant bacteria to new areas due to their presence as fouling organisms in ballast waters or on ships hulls.11 At the June 2002 National Paint and Coatings Association meeting, Senior Engineer, Coatings, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Mr. Mark Ingle, discussed in detail the US Navys stance on antifoulants.12 This presentation included the facts that emissions from antifouling coatings are an identified discharge under the Uniform National Discharge Standards (UNDS) program, that Canada had placed limits on copper emissions from antifouling paints, that the Netherlands had forbidden in-water cleaning of ships with copper-leaching coatings and other indicators that copper-based antifoulants were on the way out, following in the footsteps of their TBTleaching predecessors. As early as September 2000, a brief article in the US Navy magazine All Hands stated the Navys position on ocean pollution with regard to biocides in antifoulants. The Naval Sea Systems Command Materials Engineering Directorate (NAVSEA 05M) is developing new underwater-hull coatings to improve the coastal marine environment by reducing or eliminating the amount of copper released from the anti-fouling paint on U.S. Navy ships.
11 Jean-Phillipe Marchal, Claire Hellio, Challenges for the Development of New Non-Toxic Antifouling Solutions, International Journal of Molecular Science 10 (2009): 4623-4637; doi:10.3390/ijms10114623. 12 Mark Ingle, Naval Sea Systems Command Antifouling Program (presentation at National Paints & Coatings Association meeting June 2002.

13

Today, the Navy and many commercial ship owners use specialized, copper-oxide-bearing paints on underwater portions of a ships hull to prevent the growth of marine organisms such as barnacles, tubeworms and sea grasses. A fouled hull can reduce a ships speed by 5 percent and increase fuel consumption by 40 percent. The downside is that copper is a biocide that can kill marine life even after the metal is deposited in sediments. To prevent pollution, NAVSEA initiated a program this year to develop new underwater-hull coating technologies that prevent fouling without releasing copper or other pollutants into the water. ... Copper-free, anti-fouling coatings are the right answer for everyone, said Ingle. Im proud that the Navy is leading the way.13 Unfortunately, ten years later, the US Navy is still using heavy copper and biocide laden paints on the majority of its ships and combining this with underwater cleaning which causes heavy discharges of the pollutants. And the Navy is not alone in this practice. Close to 100% of the vessels afloat today are using antiquated, environmentally-unfriendly antifouling paints which pour tons of copper and other biocides into the oceans every year, with apparent disregard for the consequences to the marine environment. This is all the harder to understand since the dangers are known and alternative technology exists which has been proven safe to the environment and which, if implemented correctly, is extremely costeffective and can save shipowners and operators very significant amounts of money.

contain unbound silicone oils (1-10%). If these oils leach out, they can have impacts on marine environments: PDMS [polydimethylsiloxanes] are persistent, adsorb to suspended particulate matter and may settle into sediment. If oil films build up on sediments, infiltration may inhibit pore water exchange. ... At higher exposures, undissolved silicone oil films or droplets can cause physicalmechanic effects with trapping and suffocation of organisms. ... PDMS make the case that very low water solubility and bioavailability do not necessarily preclude damage to marine environments.14 For both these reasons, their fragility and the fact that they are not environmentally friendly, silicone coatings have not proved to be a satisfactory long-term solution for underwater hull protection and antifouling.

Hull performance and fuel savings

Studies have shown that biofouling begins within hours of a vessel being launched after cleaning or repainting of the hull, whether or not the heavy metal based antifouling paint or a foul-release coating is used. A light build-up of slime is enough to significantly increase fuel consumption within a relatively short time of cleaning or painting. Figures vary but the following is a quote from one such study. An effective coating is critical to the seagoing performance of ships, as inadequate coatings can result in increased drag, leading to either increased propulsive power to maintain a given speed or to reduced speed at a given input power compared with a hydraulic smooth and unfouled hull. The skin friction on some ship hull types can account for as much as 90 per cent of the total drag even when the hull is free of fouling (Schultz 2007). For mid-sized merchant and naval vessels, such as frigates and destroyers that are typically 150 m in length, at cruising speed (7.7 m s1 or 15knots) or near maximum (15.4 m s1 or 30knots), an 818% penalty in propulsive power has been attributed to a mature slime (bacteria and diatom film) and up to 80
14 Monika Nendza, Hazard assessment of silicone oils (polydimethylsiloxanes, PDMS) used in antifouling-/foul-release-products in the marine environment, Marine Pollution Bulletin 54, no. 8 (August 2007): 1190-1196.

Silicone-based foul-release coatings

Another approach to fouling which has been developed is based on silicone coatings for ships. Unfortunately these foul-release or non-stick coatings are not very robust, tend to damage easily, are not suitable for needed routine cleaning (as the surface is easily damaged) and can also pose an environmental hazard of their own: Non-eroding silicone-based coatings can effectively reduce fouling of ship hulls and are an alternative to biocidal and heavy metal-based antifoulings. The products, whose formulations and make up are closely guarded proprietary knowledge, consist of a silicone resin matrix and may
13 INNOVATORS - improved hull coatings from NAVSEA - Brief Article, All Hands, Official magazine of the US Navy, (September 2000).

14

per cent for heavy calcareous deposits. This is in good agreement with a recent paper on full-scale ship resistance and powering predictions, based on laboratory drag measurements and boundary layer similarity law analysis (Schultz 2007).15 A video produced by the Office of Naval Research states: High-performance U.S. Naval warships and submarines rely on critical design factors such as top speed, acceleration and hydroacoustic stealth to achieve their mission. The build-up of marine crustaceans, namely barnacles on ships hulls, adds weight and increases drag, reducing a vessels fuel efficiency, especially for Navy ships as they move throughout the worlds oceans. In fact, colonized barnacles and biofilms settled on the hull of a Navy ship translates into roughly $1 billion annually in extra fuel costs and maintenance efforts.16 Fuel prices are rising. And changes in IMO regulation for sulfur content promise to cause even higher increases in fuel costs over the coming years. At the same time, the global economy has been declining for several years and ship owners and operators, cruise lines, merchant shipping, navies and others are running on tighter budgets and margins. The cost of hull protection and maintenance must be carefully balanced against savings in fuel consumption. The numbers tell the story quite clearly. Keeping hulls clean of fouling, even light slime, through regular inwater cleaning can result in massive savings, dwarfing the cost of paint application and in-water hull maintenance. The current trend is to avoid frequent drydocking and extend drydocking intervals as much as possible. Classification requirements have pegged the drydocking interval at 2 or 5 years for most vessels and in some exceptional cases up to 7 years. Docking is expensive, difficult to schedule and disrupts the vessels operations for a protracted period of time. Currently, frequent drydocking occurs primarily due to the lack of effectiveness of the antifouling paints to keep the hull free from fouling and the loss of corrosion protection as a result of damage to the coating system. It suits any shipowner or operator not to have to drydock the vessel
15 Maria Salta et al., Designing biomimetic antifouling surfaces, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (October 28, 2010) 368: 4729-4754. 16 Office of Naval Research Hull Bug video transcript, accessed November 2010, http://www.onr.navy.mil/Media-Center/Video-Gallery/Transcripts/MarineBiofouling-Hull-BUG-2009.aspx.

any more than is absolutely required to keep it in class. The following excerpt from the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee 59th Session Agenda item 4 (MEPC 59/WP.8 16 July 2009), gives an idea of where the industry is headed as far as hull coating, protection and maintenance. Hull maintenance 4.21 Docking intervals should be integrated with ship operators ongoing assessment of ship performance. Hull resistance can be optimized by new-technology coating systems, possibly in combination with cleaning intervals. Regular in-water inspection of the condition of the hull is recommended. 4.22 Propeller cleaning and polishing or even appropriate coating may significantly increase fuel efficiency. The need for ships to maintain efficiency through in-water hull cleaning should be recognized and facilitated by port States. 4.23 Consideration may be given to the possibility of timely full removal and replacement of underwater paint systems to avoid the increased hull roughness caused by repeated spot blasting and repairs over multiple dockings. 4.24 Generally, the smoother the hull, the better the fuel efficiency.17 Note the reference to new-technology coating systems. It should also be noted with regard to point 4.23 that the Surface Treated Composite (STC) hull protection system only requires that the hull be coated once for the lifetime of the vessel. It then improves in smoothness with in-water cleaning and at the most would require minor touch-ups when the ship is in drydock as a result of class requirements. This avoids the issue mentioned in 4.23 completely. It also fulfills the 4.24 condition. The following table illustrates the problem on a grand scale, applying to all ships afloat. But what applies on a global level, is equally relevant to a single fleet or a single ship.

17 IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee 59th Session Agenda item 4 (MEPC 59/WP.8 16 July 2009).

15

(Fig. 2) Estimated effect of effective fouling control on annual fuel consumption and CO2 emissions [for all shipping]. All figures are projected to 2020 and are compared to a fouling free hull. (The increased shaft power as a function of the fouling degree is obtained from Schultz (2007) and is based on his calculations for an Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate sailing at 15 knots.)18

Summary

The marine industry is looking for hull (and propeller and other underwater equipment) solutions which, with proper in-water cleaning and no or minimal drydocking, will reduce fuel consumption, while not polluting the oceans or harming the environment. Fortunately such a solution exists and it is highly costeffective.

Part III. Examining the problems of hull protection and performance

1. A rough or fouled hull can drastically impair ship performance

Any vessel submerged in water for even a relatively short time is subject to the effects of corrosion and erosion. Water is a powerful corrosive agent. Thus ship hulls need to be protected. The smoothness of the hull has a great deal to do with friction in the water. A rough hull creates greater skin friction and increases the propulsive power needed to move the vessel through the water at a given speed, all other factors being equal. This directly affects the amount of fuel needed to propel a vessel of the same displacement and hull form at a given speed. The smoothness of the hull, and therefore the minimization
18 The environmental importance of using effective antifouling coatings in relation to GHG emissions, IPPIC report (April 2009).

of skin friction or drag, depends on the surface itself, the coating used, and on the presence or absence of biofouling. Biofouling affects the hull of any ship within a very short time of its being submerged and builds up over time. The rate of this build-up depends on a number of factors including where the vessel is operating, whether or not it is moving at speed or is stationary and the effectiveness of the coating system applied to the hull. Partial replacement of hull coatings can result in a very rough surface and therefore increased skin drag regardless of the presence or absence of biofouling. These problems with hull protection and skin drag, if not properly addressed, can add up to enormous expense in the simple operation of a ship and make the running of a vessel far more expensive than needed. Failure to address the problem could lead to fuel consumption penalties as high as 80% or beyond. With the high and rising cost of fuel, this can be a make-break point for a commercial shipping activity. There are also performance issues for non-commercial vessels such as navy or government ships if these problems are not addressed, seriously reducing their speed and hindering them in the execution of their duties. Not using the best hull coating, and neglecting routine underwater hull cleaning in an effort to cut costs is false economy on a grand scale and results in huge increases in operating costs. Unfortunately, many of the attempted solutions for the hull performance problems which have been developed over time have themselves turned out to be destructive or ineffective. This includes the use of metallic and other biocides in the paint used to coat the hulls. These biocide or active ingredient paints, such as those containing tributyl-tin (TBT) or copper oxide and/or a variety of pesticides and herbicides, have been found to contaminate the marine environment and the food chain, including the human food chain, which clearly makes them an unacceptable solution. These biocide-based antifoulants (AF) were an attempt to bypass the need to clean ship hulls by releasing poisons to kill the marine life which otherwise attaches to the vessels. However, it is obvious that poisons which kill marine life are going to be dangerous to the aquatic environment and the food chain and should not be tolerated. Killing off marine life and contaminating the food chain in the name of trade, commerce, defense and so on, is clearly wrongheaded. If one wants a smooth, clean ship hull (and one does, for very good hydrodynamic and economic reasons) then one must be prepared to clean the hull. If you want a clean car, then you must clean the car. This is not accomplished by spraying it with a paint

16

that oozes some dirt dissolving magic potion. You place at the wrong time and undergo the expense simply make sure your car is painted with a hard, of drydocking so that painting (and other needed shiny, long-lasting paint that will maintenance) can be carried out. not be damaged with regular, Not having to paint, in combination normal, cleaning and then you clean If cleaning is done routinely with the available underwater when needed on the right the dirt off the car when it starts to technologies for maintenance type of coating, ... this is not get dirty. An almost unimaginable and repair, may well extend the a difficult or costly activity ideal would be a car whose surface drydocking interval and thus save improves with every cleaning, and is one which pays for a great deal of expense and loss of making it look shinier than when it itself many times over through business/off-hire for the ship owner first rolled off the factory floor, and increased fuel performance .... or operator.19 There is also the expense of lowering fuel consumption. Yet this frequent repainting. In some cases is a fair comparison with STCs on five coats of paint are required. Replacing paint on the ship hulls. hull is not a cheap affair and can interfere with the In the case of ship hulls, the need to clean the mechanical work which needs to be done when the underwater hull has been evident since ships were ship is in drydock. invented. If cleaning is done routinely when needed on the right type of coating, while the vessel is still in the water and often without interrupting normal ship 3. Invasive non-indigenous aquatic activities, this is not a difficult or costly activity and is one which pays for itself many times over through species increased fuel performance of ships so cleaned. There is another problem related to ship hulls and Some coatings, such as those based on biocides biofouling which has come to the fore in recent years or silicone, cannot be cleaned without damaging the as research has shown that there may be a danger surface over time. Since it is economically inefficient of transporting potentially invasive aquatic species to allow a build-up of biofouling, these coatings have from one marine environment to another where they limited usefulness as solutions for hull performance do not occur naturally, known as non-indigenous problems. species (NIS) or alien species. The danger is that if biofouling is allowed to build up beyond the slime, weed or light algae stage to the more advanced stages 2. Frequent drydockinga of barnacles, tube worms and other heavier hard shipowners bane fouling, then these invasive species can be displaced Any shipowner or operator knows that short drydock- in distant ports where they threaten to upset the ing intervals raise costs, since drydocking is expensive natural marine environment. It should be noted that and causes loss of revenues through non-operation/ this problem ceases to exist, at least as far as ship hulls off-hire of ships. This is just as serious a consideration are concerned, if the hull is kept clean on a regular for commercial vessels not able to earn their keep while basis and not allowed to foul beyond the stage of they are out of action as it is for naval or government slime, weed and light algae. These forms of fouling are or other non-commercial ships which are out of service universal and do not pose the invasion threat.20 Research has shown that traditional heavy metal for weeks or months and thus not available for duty. AF paints such as copper oxide based antifouling can Apart from classification requirements or absolute increase the threat of environmentally harmful transfer disasters, the most usual reason for a ship having to go to drydock can be summed up in the single phrase: of invasive species via ship hull fouling, as explained in the following article abstract. underwater hull coating. The current crop of copperbased AFs in widespread use have a limited lifespan Vessel hull-fouling is increasingly recognised (between 2 and 3 years) before they wear out and as one of the major vectors for the transfer need to be replaced. In order to remain in class, most of marine non-indigenous species. For vessels must now be drydocked at least once every 2 hundreds of years, copper (Cu) has been or 5 years (7 years test cases ongoing). The need used as a primary biocide to prevent the establishment of fouling assemblages on to paint due to the short lifespan of AF paints often results in more frequent drydockings than is needed 19 Doing without drydocks, BIMCO Sea_View, accessed November to meet class or flag state requirements. Repainting 2010, https://www.bimco.org/en/Corporate/Education/Seascapes/Sea_ and surface preparation requirements are nowadays View/Doing_without_drydocks.aspx. 20 Marc Geens, Ecotec-STC: Ecospeed: Risk evaluation for the spread a determining factor in deciding where to drydock, of alien species in surface water when using hard coatings on ship hulls. which can cause a vessel to have to be in the wrong Project - 0058713, December 2008. 17

ships hulls. Some non-indigenous fouling taxa continue to be transferred via hullfouling despite the presence of Cu antifouling biocides. In addition, several of these species appear to enjoy a competitive advantage over similar native taxa within metal-polluted environments. This metal tolerance may further assist their establishment and spread in new habitats. This review synthesises existing research on the links between Cu and the invasion of fouling species, and shows that, with respect to the vector of hull-fouling, tolerance to Cu has the potential to play a role in the transfer of non-indigenous fouling organisms. Also highlighted are the future directions for research into this important nexus between industry, ecology and environmental management.21

the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), several UNEP [United Nations Environmental Programme] Regional Seas Conventions (e.g., Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), and the Secretariat of the Pacific Region Environmental Program (SPREP).

1.4 All ships have some degree of biofouling, even those which may have been recently cleaned or had a new application of an anti-fouling coating system. Studies have shown that the biofouling process begins within the first few hours of a ships immersion in water. ... 1.5 Implementing practices to control and manage biofouling can greatly assist in reducing the risk of the transfer of invasive aquatic species. Such management practices can also improve a ships hydrodynamic performance and can be effective tools in enhancing energy efficiency and reducing air emissions from ships. This concept has been identified by the IMO in the Guidance for the development of a ship energy efficiency management plan (SEEMP) MEPC C.1/ Circ.683.22 Since keeping a hull clean is an economically sound practice anyway, the NIS problem is best solved through a hard coating and regular cleaning, not allowing fouling to develop to any serious degree. This makes sense economically and environmentally.

(Fig. 3) Diagram depicting the four stages involved in the invasion process and the influence that Cu may play in facilitating a successful species transfer via the common marine transport vector of hull-fouling. (ibid.)

The IMO and a number of other organizations have recognized the problem of invasive aquatic species and their transfer via biofouling, and are taking steps to address it. Following is an excerpt from SUBCOMMITTEE ON BULK LIQUIDS AND GASES 15th session Agenda item 9 LG 15/9/#12 November 2010: DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL MEASURES FOR MINIMIZING THE TRANSFER OF INVASIVE AQUATIC SPECIES THROUGH BIOFOULING OF SHIPS 1.3 The potential for invasive aquatic species transferred through biofouling to cause harm has been recognized by the IMO,
21 Richard F. Piola, Katherine A. Dafforn, and Emma L. Johnston, The influence of antifouling practices on marine invasions, Biofouling, 25, no. 7, (2009): 633 - 644.

4. Rising cost of fuel

This is a problem which is increasing as legislation tightens up on CO2 emissions around the world.23 How to compensate for higher fuel prices (with the potential of additional levies on bunker fuel) squeezing margins? It is a problem every shipowner or operator has to consider. And part of the answer definitely lies in improving ship hull performance and efficiency. If regular hull cleaning can reduce the fuel consumption penalty of fouling by 40%, then advanced mathematics is not required in order to see that there is a way to save a great deal of expense
22 IMO, SUB-COMMITTEE ON BULK LIQUIDS AND GASES 15th session Agenda item 9 LG 15/9/#12 November 2010. 23 Mark F. Lewis, Bunker Fuels Is The End in Sight For Oils SulfurSink? Middle East Economic Survey, 58, no. 25 (20 June 2005).

18

in the fuel department. In-water hull cleaning is proportionately far cheaper than spending the extra money on fuel trying to overcome the additional hull friction caused by the build-up of slime and other fouling.

in between drydockings in an environmentally safe way h comes as a technology which can be implemented worldwide without adversely interrupting normal ship operations h is cost-effective in relation to money saved by improved performance h can, in combination with simple monitoring, prevent a build-up of even light slime, thus resulting in enormous savings in fuel consumption and improved hull performance so that the cost of underwater cleanings is dwarfed by the savings in fuel. That approach does exist. The coating (Surface Treated CompositeSTC) is a paint containing relatively large glass platelets (not micronized), which is applied once in two coats to the hull (for extremely harsh conditions, a stronger version with larger glass platelets and more than two coats can be applied). After the vessel is launched, the coating is conditioned by divers using underwater mechanical brush equipment, and is, as needed, cleaned in the water without adversely affecting the marine environment. Service life is equal to that of the ship hull, and the coating improves with repeated underwater hull cleaning, i.e. after say 20 years the coating is in better condition than it was when it was first applied. It becomes smoother and consequently provides even less friction and is less prone to biofouling. This approach has many benefits: h It is applied once and lasts for the lifetime of the hull, offering full protection against corrosion, erosion and cavitation in the harshest of conditions, requiring only minor touch-ups (typically less than 1% of the underwater surface per drydocking). h Initial cost of coating is comparable to other coatings and actually less than convenational AF coatings when all factors are taken into consideration (only two coats required, twohour drying time, 95% solid, and other factors). h It includes keeping the underwater hull free from slime through monitoring in combination with preventative underwater hull cleaning. This results in great cost benefits as well as the environmental benefit of significantly reduced CO2 emissions. h The smooth, hard coating resists fouling. But if fouled, even the toughest and hardest 19

Part IV. The solution to ship hull performance in the post-TBT era
The theoretical ideal solution would perhaps be a substance which could be applied to the hull of a ship which protected the hull completely against corrosion, erosion and cavitation, which lasted the life of the ship without replacement or repair, which resulted in a perfectly smooth hull, and to which no marine life could ever adhere, not even the thinnest of slime layers, which therefore never required any cleaning, and which was completely friendly to the environment. Unfortunately, no one has come up with such a substance. It has remained a dream for centuries and not all the powers of modern science have brought it into being. Even when the marine industry imagined that such a solution had been found (TBT), it turned out to be severely destructive to the marine environment, causing mutation amongst oysters, contaminating the food chain and generally wreaking havoc under watera psychotic solution. The best approach/best available technology, therefore, would be the closest one could come to that, without the destructive side effectsa coating which : h has a high mechanical strength which provides a durable protection to the underwater vessel h protects the hull against corrosion, erosion and cavitation, even in extremely harsh conditions h lasts the lifetime of the hull without replacement, requiring only minor touch-ups h is completely non-toxic and has no ill-effects of any kind on the marine environment h is cost-effective h is easy to apply h is easy to clean h improves over time when in service h allows preventative underwater maintenance

calcareous fouling will not damage the paint and it can easily be cleaned back to better than its original post-drydock conditioned, pristine surface. h The combination of a hard coating and routine in-water cleaning keeps the hull at optimum performance, greatly reducing fuel consumption. The hull performance improves with each cleaning so that the hull will perform even better after 20 years of routine maintenance than when the coating is first applied. h Repainting is not required, thus drydocking intervals for hull maintenance can be the maximum permitted by other class and flag state requirements (currently 2 or 5 years). After the initial coating, the ship will not need to go through any repainting of the underwater hull. Underwater hull painting will therefore not be a reason to drydock the ship. The (resale) value of the vessel is improved by long term protection of the hull. h The solution is entirely environmentally safe. It results in no pollution of the marine environment or the air, either when the coating is applied or when it is in use for the lifetime of the ship. By improving hull performance it also greatly reduces the carbon footprint of the vessel in direct proportion to the fuel savings achieved. h Hard coating combined with routine in-water cleaning substantially reduces the risk of spreading non-indigenous aquatic species via biofouling. The only possible perceived drawback is the need for routine in-water hull cleaning. However, this turns out not to be a drawback at all. Routine cleaning is a fact of life. If one wants a clean hull, then one has to be prepared to clean it. Naturally the easier the surface is to clean and the more it improves with cleaning, the better.

1. Does the paint have an active antifouling biocide or other ingredient which will spread pollution (such as copper oxide, herbicides or silicone oils) and therefore preclude eligibility for a Green Ship certification by class? Or is it a hard, inert coating which will not harm the marine environment? 2. Does the coating provide full protection of the hull against corrosion, erosion and cavitation for the lifetime of the ship without needing to be replaced? Is it guaranteed for at least ten years? 3. Does the coating contain relatively large glass platelets in a resin base so that it will provide full protection and improve with routine in-water cleaning, becoming smoother and performing better over time? 4. Is the paint able to withstand the heaviest fouling and yet still easily be cleaned in the water to its original or an improved condition without any damage? 5. Can the paint be cleaned regularly with the ship in the water without suffering any deterioration in performance (wearing away, scratching, chipping, etc.) but in fact improving in performance with such cleaning? 6. Does the paint supplier provide monitoring tools and underwater maintenance programs to back the product up? 7. Do the paint suppliers have experience with underwater cleanings and do they take responsibility for the underwater cleanings performed on their paint? 8. Any non-toxic paint will require underwater cleaning in between drydockings: does the paint supplier provide a solution for this?

Part V. A Model STC: Ecospeed from Hydrex

Ecospeed is a patented system of underwater hull protection which combines a glass platelet, vinyl ester resin based coating and regular in-water cleaning to keep any ship hull operating at maximum performance. Ecospeed coating classifies as a Surface Treated Composite (STC) and is available from Hydrex, an international company specializing in underwater ship protection and maintenance and repair. The coating is applied once, either on a new-build or in drydock when a ships hull needs repainting, and lasts the lifetime of the vessel with only minor touchups (typically less than 1% of the whole surface per drydocking). It is guaranteed for 10 years. Initial application is comparable in cost to any 20

Eight key points to look for in an underwater hull coating

When considering the best solution for underwater hull coating on a ship or a fleet, whether it be a cruise line, navy or government vessels, an offshore platform, semisubmersible or other vessel, an ice breaker, a tanker or VLCC, ro-ro, container ship, cargo vessel, or any other type of ship, some points to look for and questions to ask would include:

other underwater hull paint but it is easier than others to apply in that it requires only two coats on bare metal with a two hour drying time in between coats and extended maximum overspray time. It is initially conditioned by underwater brushing, resulting in a smooth, fouling resistant surface. Through regular inspection of the ship hull and in-water cleaning of slime build-up, the ship is kept at optimum performance. In fact the coating improves with regular cleaning, skin friction reducing with each cleaning. Cleaning of the largest vessels can be accomplished in 6 - 12 hours and can usually be carried out without adversely interrupting the ships normal operations. Ecospeed has been tested by European authorities and certified completely non-toxic and not harmful to the environment in any way.24 25

Ships that use Ecospeed on their hulls sail with the security of knowing that they are not spreading any pollution through their hull coating. And because they are easily maintained at optimum performance, they save very significant fuel costs, while reducing CO2 emissions. After decades of research beginning in the 1970s, Ecospeed was developed by Hydrex as the best specific approach to underwater hull protection, an approach that does not harm the environment and yet comes as close as possible to the ideal solution in terms of ship hull performance and fuel efficiency. It combines care for the environment with greatly reduced operating costs and a significant reduction in total ownership cost for ship and fleet owners and operators.

24 A. Wijga et al., Biocide free antifouling for ships. Emissions from the underwater coating Ecospeed, EU Life Project, Accessed November 2010, http://www.hydrex.be/sources/pdf/Laboratory_report_Ecospeed. pdf 25 ECOTEC-STC - Demonstration of a 100% non-toxic hull protection and anti-fouling system contribution to zero emissions to the aquatic environment and saving 3-8 % heavy fuels, accessed November 2010, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index. cfm?fuseaction=search.dspPage&n_proj_id=3087

21

HYDREX WHITE PAPER No. 2

Shipowners/operators can gain enormous savings through advanced underwater hull maintenance technology

The Slime Factor

22

Part I. Introduction
The overlooked slime factor
It has been well known for millennia that a fouled hull reduces a ships speed considerably. Nowadays this equates to increased fuel consumption and cost of operation. Shipowners and operators, officers and managers are well aware of this and take steps to reduce fouling as much as possible. However, fouling is all too often erroneously seen as beginning with the weed or grass stage and increasing in severity through barnacles, clams, sponges, all the way to kelp and larger aquatic plants and animals. What is all too often missed or disregarded is the effect of the very early stages of biofouling: microscopic fouling or biofilm, commonly referred to in the shipping industry as SLIME. Within hours of a clean hull being submerged in the sea, bacteria begin to accumulate on that hull, whether or not is it coated with biocidal antifoulants (AF) or silicone or other foul-release coatings (FRC) or anything else. In its early stages, this slime is hardly visible. Yet even a light slime has been shown to increase fuel consumption by 8% or more and a heavy slime can result in fuel consumption increases of 18% or more.1 That may not appear to be that much. But at todays fuel prices it adds up. And the additional fuel consumption also increases greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions proportionately. The increase in power required to maintain a cruising speed can cause excessive wear to engines. Modern ship propulsion plants are not typically designed with the large power margins that earlier propulsion plants had. Lets take an example of a cargo ship that requires 100 tons of fuel per day to maintain a cruising speed of 20 knots with a completely smooth and unfouled hull, the way it was at its first speed trials. If that ship were to build up a thin layer of slime in a month and a thick layer of slime in two months, by the end of those two months of sailing, it would be requiring 110 tons of fuel per day to maintain the same cruising speed. Taking fuel at $450 per ton, the slime build-up would cause a fuel penalty of an additional $4,500 per day just to keep operating at the same service speed. Even if the fouling remained at that level, in a month it would have used $135,000 more fuel than it would have if the hull were clean. In a year, at that same rate, it would have cost $1.62 million more than if the hull had been maintained clean.
1 Daniel Kane, Hull and Propeller Performance Monitoring, presentation SNAME Climate Change and Ships, Feb. 2010. These figures reported by the US Navy for a frigate in 1991.

Now lets assume that that cargo ship is one of a fleet of 100 similar vessels. If no attention were paid to the slime factor in between drydocking, you can assume that that fleet would waste $162 million per year in fuel alone, just to overcome the negative effects of slime on the hulls. Of course, every vessel and every fleet would have its own individual figures depending on many variables, and this is a broad estimate; but it is a fair one. In fact, these figures are conservative. Increased fuel costs of this magnitude cannot be ignored if the ships are to be kept running economically. There is an additional factor to take into consideration: there is evidence that slime layers make it easier for other fouling such as weed, barnacles and other organisms to adhere to the hull, causing even greater fuel penalties.2 This can also lead to damaging the hull coating itself and eventually, adversely affecting the steel under the paint.3 These are the kind of numbers that are being ignored when an owner or operator repaints a ship with traditional antifouling paint or a foul-release coating, after launching or relaunching then pays no further attention to the underwater hull until its time to drydock again in 2 years. The information presented here about slime is not new. In 1952, in the book Marine Fouling and its Prevention prepared for the Bureau of Ships, Navy Department, by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the following passage appears in the first chapter, The Effects of Fouling: As a result of experience over a number of years, the British Admiralty makes an allowance for design purposes for an increase of frictional resistance of per cent per day out of dock in temperate waters and of per cent per day in tropical waters. The result of this assumed rate on speed and fuel consumption at the end of six months for various types of ships in temperate waters is given in Table 1. In tropical waters such results would be expected at the end of three months (20). In the United States Navy the Rules for Engineering Competition in effect prior to the war allowed for 3 per cent increase in fuel consumption per month (3).4

2 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Fouling and Its Prevention, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, 1952: 44. 3 Ibid. 14-19. 4 Ibid. 3.

23

Ignoring slime is a costly mistake for any shipowner or operator. It is not something that can be left up to engineers to deal with or not. It is a matter of concern to those responsible for budgets, costs, Type of Standard Loss of 10 20 profit and loss, long term investment value and total Ship Displacement Maximum Knots Knots ownership cost as well environmental impact of ships Tons Speed (Knots) and fleets, large or small, military, merchant, offshore, government, sea- or river-going, in cold or warm Battleship 35,000 1 45 40 waters in other words, any vessel or fleet. It is also of Aircraft 23,000 1 45 40 concern to port authorities and to government officials carrier responsible for the environment. Cruiser 10,000 1 50 45 This paper will go into detail on slime and its effect on hull performance and therefore fuel consumption Destroyer 1,850 2 50 35 and CO2 and other GHG emissions. It will discuss Table 1. Effect of Fouling after Six Months out of Dock in various hull coatings in relation to slime. And, because Temperate Waters (Frictional resistance assumed to increase per cent per the prevention of slime is not possible with current technology, this paper will also cover the various day.) *These figures are based on the fuel consumption for methods of detection and removal of slime available propulsion only, i.e. auxiliaries are not included. to shipowners and operators and those responsible for operational costs. In an excellent article published Along with its references, the recently (November 2010) in paper is designed to provide decision ...even a light slime Biofouling, entitled Economic makers with sufficient information has been shown impact of biofouling on a naval to devise strategies for maintaining surface ship, the authors state that, to increase fuel the underwater hulls of ships and even though antifouling technology fleets at an optimum performance consumption by 8% has moved on since 1952, Schultz level, thus saving enormous amounts or more and a heavy predicted in 2004 a frictional drag of money while at the same time penalty similar to that predicted by slime can result in fuel ensuring that their ships are the Royal Navy allowance mentioned consumption increases good citizens when it comes to above, for modern copper-based greenhouse gas emissions and other of 18% or more. antifouling (AF) paints exposed in environmental concerns. the static condition. This prediction was based on towing tank tests.5 These facts and figures need to be faced if significant fuel savings are to be obtained, and with them major reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing the economic impact of slime is only the first step. Once shipowners, operators, managers and ships officers are fully aware of the steep penalties to be paid for a fouled hull, even one fouled only with What is slime? slime, there is the question of what to do about it. Biofouling of ship hulls and propellers builds up at How do the ships officers and management varying rates, depending on a number of factors such determine if there is a build-up of slime and what as the degree to which the vessel is stationary or under effect this is having on the ships performance? This is way, cruising speed, the waters in which the vessel opsimpler than it may seem and will be discussed later on erates, the condition of the hull and the coating used in this paper. on the ship bottom. Once it is clearly determined that there is a sufficient slime build-up to warrant attention, how can it be dealt with effectively and economically? This is not always so simple, as will be explained. But there is a workable approach.
Percentage Increase in Fuel Consumption* to Maintain a Speed of

Part II. Slime (biofilm) what it is and what it does

5 Schultz, M. P. , Bendick, J. A. , Holm, E. R. and Hertel, W. M.(2011) Economic impact of biofouling on a naval surface ship, Biofouling, 27. First published on: 14 December 2010 (iFirst): 88.

24

The authors also describe this build-up in terms of its effects on frictional resistance: The Effects of Slime Film on Frictional Resistance A number of observations indicate that the frictional resistance of a submerged surface may increase with time of immersion in the absence of macroscopic fouling. This effect is attributed to the slime film, formed by bacteria and diatoms, which rapidly develops on surfaces exposed in the sea. For example, in discussing the paper of McEntee Sir Archibald Denny stated that vessels lying in brackish water of the fitting out basin on the river Leven increased their friction nearly per cent per day for several months even when there was no apparent fouling.7 This slime layer or microscopic fouling can build up to thicknesses of as much as 2mm,8 but the heavier, more visible stages of macroscopic fouling begin when weed or grass starts to grow on the hull, and barnacles and other larger plants and animals attach themselves to the underwater parts of the ship creating even greater frictional resistance. In his article, Effects of coating roughness and biofouling on ship resistance and powering, Research Engineer at the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at the US Naval Academy Michael P. Schultz explains that there are degrees of slime: Some distinction should also be drawn between light and heavy slime layers. Heavy slime would be a condition where the underlying paint colour is difficult or impossible to determine. In the light slime condition, the underlying paint colour is visible.9 Biofilm is as prevalent in freshwater as it is in the sea and in fact forms an even thicker layer in freshwater than saltwater,10 so river barges and other freshwater vessels are far from immune. This build-up can be seen on the glass of an aquarium or the sides of a swimming pool if these are not kept clean. All too often slime is ignored and the hull is not considered fouled until seaweed or barnacles can be seen to have attached themselves to the hull. In terms of economy, this is much too late. If fouling has developed to the weed or grass or barnacle stages, the damage has already been done and hundreds of
7 Ibid. 29-30. 8 S. Drr, J. C. Thomason, Biofouling, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010: 218. 9 Michael P. Schultz, (2007) Effects of coating roughness and biofouling on ship resistance and powering, Biofouling, 23:5, 331 - 341 10 S. Drr, J. C. Thomason, Biofouling, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010: 138.

Figure 1. Build-up of marine biofouling (source: Davis and Williamson, 1995)

Regardless of the hull condition and coating used, when a vessel with a clean hull, such as one just out of drydock (or the shipyard if a newbuild), is immersed in water, it begins almost immediately to accumulate the first traces of fouling. This is microscopic fouling. The process is well described in Marine Fouling and its Prevention, Chapter 4: On a newly exposed surface the fouling process usually begins with the formation of a slime film which is produced by bacteria and diatoms [microscopic plants, one of the first organisms in the food chain, a common component of plankton, which can attach themselves to submerged surfaces]. The bacteria attach and grow rapidly; their numbers on each square centimeter of surface may reach one hundred in a few minutes, several thousand in the first day, and several million in the first forty-eight hours. Algae [seaweed] and diatoms are uncommon during the first two or three days, but then may develop rapidly so that several thousand per square centimeter may be present within a week. Protozoa [single cell animals of the simplest kind] follow. They are generally uncommon during the first week and reach their maximum growth by the end of the second or third week.6
6 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Fouling and Its Prevention, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, 1952: 42.

25

thousands or millions of dollars have already been wasted in fuel burned as a penalty to overcome the added hull and propeller friction caused by the slime.

is stimulated on copper and organo-tin AF paints (Loeb et al., 1984).15 It appears that metal-based biocidal antifoulants can actually speed slime growth. Hard coatings also develop slime. No hull is immune. This slime buildup occurs on any hull, no matter what it is made of or coated with. It is a fact of marine life. It is not the case that slime accumulates equally on all surfaces under all conditions. But whatever the surface, whatever the coating, toxic or non-toxic, foul-releasing or not, slime accumulates and increases drag and therefore fuel consumption.

No matter what the substrata or the coatings used, slime inevitably develops on any surface when it is immersed in water. This includes all antifouling systems currently in use. A detailed study of slime by Sergey Dobretsov in Chapter 9 Marine Biofilms of the authoritative book Biofouling edited by Simone Drr and Jeremy C. Thomason and published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2010,11 includes the observations that, Most microorganisms attach more strongly to hydrophobic What does slime do? [water repelling] materials such as Teflon, than to Many tests have been conducted to determine the efhydrophilic [water attracting] materials such as glass. fects of slime on the hull and propeller performance of This is interesting to note since silicone-based foulvessels. The results vary somewhat, but they are unanirelease coatings are known to be hydrophobic. This mous in confirming that even a thin layer of slime has is confirmed by Antonio Terlizzi and Marco Faimali a significant effect on underwater hull performance, in Chapter 12, Fouling on Artificial Substrata in fuel consumption and consequently CO2 and other the same book.12 One can therefore assume that GHG emissions. A thick layer of slime these foul-release coatings would lend has proportionately more serious effects. No matter what the themselves to a more rapid build-up of Following are some facts and figures substrata or the slime than would a concentrated glass that will make these effects clearer. coatings used, slime hard coating for example. In a presentation given by Michael P. inevitably develops on Schultz, J. A. Bendick, E.R. Holm and The same chapter contains the any surface when it is W. M. Hertel at the 15th International statement, Control and eradication of biofilms are difficult since their resistance immersed in water. Congress on Marine Corrosion and towards most antibiotics and biocides Fouling in Newcastle in July 2010 and is substantially increased compared to subsequently in an article published in planktonic species (see Chapter 11).13 From this Biofouling in November of the same year entitled, one may conclude that traditional antifouling is not Economic impact of biofouling on a naval surface effective against slime. This is borne out by the results ship, these experts from the US Naval Academy and of experiments described in the book Marine Fouling the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) detail and its Prevention Chapter 2, page 30 which show that the findings of their economic study regarding hull various plates, including those coated with biocidal fouling, which used for its analysis a mid-sized naval antifoulants, developed slime layers, even if there was a surface ship. Their abstract from the article is quoted different growth rate of a few days between some of the here in full as it describes their overall findings after coatings.14 a very detailed analysis, very germane to the subject In the introduction to their article The Effect of matter of this paper. Biofilms on Turbulent Boundary Layers, M. P. Schultz In the present study, the overall economic and G. W. Swain state: impact of hull fouling on a mid-sized naval While modern antifouling (AF) systems are surface ship (Arleigh Burke-class destroyer effective in controlling most macrofouling DDG-51) has been analyzed. A range (e.g. barnacles, tubeworms, macroalgae, of costs associated with hull fouling was etc.), they do become colonized by examined, including expenditures for fuel, microfouling organisms that produce a slime hull coatings, hull coating application and film. In some cases, the growth of this film removal, and hull cleaning. The results indicate that the primary cost associated with 11 Ibid. 127. fouling is due to increased fuel consumption
12 Ibid. 170. 13 Ibid. 124. 14 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Fouling and Its Prevention, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, 1952: 2930. 15 M. P. Schultz and G. W Swain, The Effect of Biofilms on Turbulent Boundary Layers, Journal of Fluids Engineering, Vol. 121 / 51, (March, 1999).

No hull or coating immune

26

attributable to increased frictional drag. The costs related to hull cleaning and painting are much lower than the fuel costs. The overall cost associated with hull fouling for the Navys present coating, cleaning, and fouling level is estimated to be $56M per year for the entire DDG-51 class or $1B over 15 years. The results of this study provide guidance as to the amount of money that can be reasonably spent for research, development, acquisition, and implementation of new technologies or management strategies to combat hull fouling.16

The DDG-51 class was chosen since it represented 30% in terms of number of hulls and 22% of the wetted hull area of the US Navy fleet, and the ships were widely distributed and therefore subjected to different conditions. The authors of the article predicted average increases in hull resistance and required shaft power for a DDG-51 destroyer traveling at a speed of 15 knots to be 9% for light slime and 18% for heavy slime. At this time there are a few approaches available and in From this and many other factors they calculated use for dealing with slime. that the cumulative additional operational costs due to heavy slime fouling was about $1.2 million per Approach No. 1: Ignore it year per ship, the largest part of which consisted of The first and all-too-common approach is to ignore increased fuel consumption due to hull fouling (an slime. This approach can be adopted through ignoincrease of 10.3% compared to a smooth hull). rance of the economic effects or from a sort of apathy Naval vessels may be considered a special case due to their pattern of operation which often requires long bred by the problems inherent in trying to control slime on traditional AF coated hulls or the newer foulperiods moored or at anchor, combined with periods release coatings used. of high speed steaming. Nevertheless, these figures are Many shipowners and operators coat their vessels useful to any ship or fleet, from cruise line to VLCCs, with traditional copper-based and other biocideoffshore oil exploration vessels, RO/ROs and ferries, leaching antifouling paints and then pay no further even if they vary slightly from case to case. attention to the vessels underwater hull for 2 or Earlier work by Michael P. Schultz reported 3 years, at which point she returns to drydock and is in the October 2007 edition of Biofouling in an cleaned and the AF coating partially article entitled, Effects of coating ...the cumulative additional or wholly renewed. In the meantime roughness and biofouling on ship 17 resistance and powering, provided operational costs due to heavy the vessel suffers a steady, gradual loss in performance and a significant slime fouling was about $1.2 useful conclusions about increased increase in fuel consumption as the shaft power and fuel consumption million per year per ship, slime builds up; and, as the biocides required to overcome the effects the largest part of which was in the coating are depleted, other of various levels of fouling on an increased fuel consumption fouling accumulates. The cost can Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate due to hull fouling... be counted in millions of dollars (FFG-7). At 15 knots, light slime per ship which could have been was predicted to cause an increase saved with a more active approach to underwater hull in resistance of 11% while heavy slime weighed in protection and maintenance. at 20%. At 30 knots the resistance caused by light The fact that the performance of the hull is slime was slightly lower (10%) and heavy slime 16%. reported by the engineering department to be within 16 M. P. Schultz et al., (2011) Economic impact of biofouling on a the speed limits specified in a charter or within naval surface ship, Biofouling, 27: 1, 87 98, First published on: 14 guidelines established by a shipowner or operator, does December 2010 (iFirst) 17 Schultz, Michael P. (2007) Effects of coating roughness and biofouling not mean that the slime is not there or that it is not

Various other experiments are cited in this article and all are in general agreement about the effects of light and heavy slime on hull resistance: they are significant. In recent technical discussions with officers of a passenger ship who regularly monitor hull condition, and brush slime off the hull before it builds up, it became clear that a reduction in speed of 1.5 - 2 knots for a light to medium slime build-up had been observed consistently. The vessel picked back up from 18 or 18.5 to 20 knots at normal cruising RPM when the slime was fully cleaned off the hull by underwater brushing. The slime factor has been quantified and the results of tests, experiments and predictions are clear: slime has a considerable effect on ship hull performance.

Part III. Dealing with slime

on ship resistance and powering, Biofouling, 23:5, 331 - 341

27

costing enormous amounts of money to operate under way with this fouling present. The approach of simply ignoring slime does not provide a positive result and, if practiced, is economic self-destruction on the part of the shipowners, operators, charterers, officers and all those interested in running a vessel or fleet at optimum performance or on a commercially sound basis.

Approach No. 2: Frequent drydocking

The second theoretical approach is to drydock the vessel every few months so as to pressure wash the hull and remove the accumulated slime. This is very effective in terms of keeping the hull clean. However, it is generally not viable or feasible and is therefore not practiced. It is simply too disruptive to a ships schedule and too expensive and therefore not worth considering as a possibility at present.

Routine, full underwater hull cleaning in between drydockings is the best and in fact only viable approach currently available to handling the slime factor and maintaining the underwater hull at optimum performance. As will be discussed, the cost and inconvenience of routine monitoring of hull performance followed by underwater cleaning when needed are minor and insignificant when compared to the potential savings in fuel costs and the reduction in GHG emissions thus made possible. However, this approach has a number of problems inherent in it, stemming mainly from the characteristics of the underwater hull coatings in general use. There is also currently a considerable variance in the quality of in-water hull cleaning and also a broad spectrum of pricing for the work.

Approach No. 3: In-water cleaning

The third approach is to try to clean the slime off the Traditional toxic antifouling coatings are designed to hull by underwater brushing carried out by divers or work by gradually releasing or leaching poisonous subautomated or remotely controlled devices. This apstances (biocides) into the water adjacent to the ship proach is not uncommon. The US Navys Naval Ships hull with the intention of killing the organisms that Technical Manual (2006) provides a full description of would otherwise become hull fouling. Various ways in how to monitor ship hulls, when and how to clean; it which this leaching takes place have been experimentgives detailed instructions covering the US Navys ver- ed with, in an attempt to extend the useful life of the sion of this approach. coatings, but the effect is roughly the The approach of simply While various robotic devices same. Over time the active ingrediignoring slime does not and other methods of underwater ents in the antifouling paint wear out provide a positive result and, and the coating has to be replaced. cleaning have been tried and are if practiced, is economic being investigated, what it comes Typically this is a 2 -3 year period down to in practical terms is sending self-destruction on the part with the paint gradually becoming of the shipowners, operators, less effective over that period. Some divers down armed with hydraulic charterers, officers and all machines with rotating brushes manufacturers claim longer life for those interested in running which use hydraulic forces to keep their products and heavier applicathem firmly pressed against the side a vessel or fleet at optimum tions would last longer, at least in or bottom of the ship while the performance. theory. But in general these times are rotating brushes do their work. They accepted within the maritime world are powered by power packs on workboats or on trucks by the majority of users of these coatings. on the quayside. A variety of brushes can be used for The problems of cleaning AF paints are discussed different levels of fouling and different coatings. The in some detail by John A. Lewis and Ashley D. M. brushing units are fairly large with several rotating Coutts in Chapter 24 Biofouling Invasions of the brushes and can rapidly cover large areas of the hull book Biofouling.18 when placed in trained and experienced hands. Smaller Scrubbing antifouling paints prematurely hydraulic brushes or hand brushing are used to clean depletes the antifouling coating and sea chests and other areas which cant be reached by the creates a pulse of biocide that can harm larger machines. the local environment and may impact on Propeller polishing is very much part of the remedy future applications by the port authority of biofouling but will be taken up as a separate subject for the disposal of dredge spoil. Depleted in a future white paper as it is a complex subject all of antifouling coatings on hulls will also rapidly its own. In the real world there is a close connection re-foul, reducing efficiency and increasing between hull and propeller monitoring, inspection and cleaning. 18 S. Drr, J. C. Thomason, Biofouling, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010: 357. 28

Problems with cleaning antifouling (AF) coated hulls

Silicone-based and other foul-release coatings have been proven to be effective in reducing drag when they are clean, and to make it harder for macrofoulBrushing such a surface in order to clean it results ing (not microfouling or slime) to attach and easier for in a heavy discharge of the toxic biocides. What this macrofouling (again, not slime) to be released when does is speed up the demise of the coating. The more the ship is under way, especially at speed. However, frequently a hull with an AF coating is brushed or they are also notorious for their mechanical fragility cleaned in the water, the more rapidly it and the ease with which the coating can be wears out. This then opens the door to damaged. This damage extends to clean...hull cleaning can more serious fouling or requires more ing. Even with a soft brush, the mechaniremove 30-51% of frequent replacement which means pulling cal effects of underwater cleaning on this one entire coat of the vessel out of the water more often type of coating is to damage the coating by antifouling paint. with all the associated costs of drydocking, scratching and chipping the rather delicate surface preparation, repainting and the surface.21 Once the surface has been damoff-hire costs for the vessel. The adverse environmental aged, it loses its effectiveness dramatically. effects of the increased copper and other biocide The cracks or scratches in any hull surface make it discharges into the marine environment are beyond the easier for fouling to attach. Shipowners and operators scope of this paper but will be examined in detail in a are understandably reluctant to use in-water cleaning subsequent paper in this series. on foul-release coatings for these reasons. Therefore In a presentation to the National Paint & Coatings slime is allowed to build up with all the consequent Association International Marine & Offshore Coatings speed loss and fuel consumption increases already Expo in June 2007, Mark Ingle, in charge of materials discussed. at the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) reported as a key point that hull cleaning can remove Ports forbidding in-water cleaning 30-51% of one entire coat of antifouling paint.19 Because of the excessive pollution caused when AF There are two sides to this equation, both of them coatings are cleaned while the ship is in the water, and negative. One side is the accelerated depletion of the active biocides contained in the AF coatings when they due to concern about the threat of invasive species spreading when heavily-fouled hulls are cleaned in the are cleaned. This creates a short term improvement water, some port authorities forbid in-water cleaning of in hull performance but a medium to long term ships in their port. In some cases this restriction applies degradation of the coatings performance. The other only to AF-coated or heavily-fouled hulls. In others, it side is that this massive and sudden discharge of is indiscriminate (though misguided). biocides caused by cleaning can be acutely harmful The IMO has stressed the importance of port to the marine environment where the cleaning is States recognizing and facilitating in-water hull conducted. This is not theoretical. One need only talk to divers who perform underwater cleaning on copper- cleaning (2009): based AFs to have confirmation of the clouds of toxic 4.22 Propeller cleaning and polishing or red paint that come off the hull under cleaning and the even appropriate coating may significantly fact that ocean bed and quayside walls are covered with increase fuel efficiency. The need for ships the toxic paint brushed off in the process of trying to to maintain efficiency through in-water hull remove the slime or other fouling properly. They report cleaning should be recognized and facilitated that two or three cleanings can leave a mere 5% of the by port States.22 AF coating on the hull.20 Underwater cleaning of AF paints is possible and it is done, but it has considerable drawbacks as discussed In-water cleaning in general here. We will publish a detailed study of in-water cleaning in a future paper in this series as there is more to this subject that can be covered in a few paragraphs, and a full description of the pros, cons and issues will make
19 Mark Ingle, Presentation to National Paint & Coatings Association International Marine & Offshore Coatings Expo (June 2007): 35. 20 Technical discussions with lead diver Willem Hopmans, (2010). 21 Ibid. 22 IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee 59th Session Agenda item 4 (MEPC 59/WP.8 16 July 2009).

marine pest translocation risks. The cleaning process can also increase the pest incursion risk through the release and dispersal of viable plant and animal fragments, or through stimulation of spawning events.

Problems with cleaning silicone foul-release coatings

29

it easier for shipowners, operators and management to two and the vessel requires tons and tons more fuel to formulate a viable, routine underwater hull cleaning complete its usual runs. Spread this penalty over several and propeller polishing program for their vessels or vessels, a fleet, an entire cruise line or a navy and the fleets. costs add up to millions or billions of dollars every year It is important to know that all hull cleaning is not that could have been saved. Spread it across the whole equal. A thorough, complete, professional cleaning of international active fleet and the added unnecessary a large ship hull might cost $30,000, depending on GHG emissions amount to hundreds of thousands of location. One might find a company locally that will tons per year that need never have been emitted. offer to clean the same hull for $15,000. Even though Extrapolated in this way, the slime factor can be both suppliers promise the same results, the inexpert, seen to be very consequential. To ignore it is to lose. under-equipped company charging the $15,000 may produce a 30% result with damage to the hull coating The real problem with slime due to poor equipment and inexperienced or inept One major obstacle that must be overcome for this operators; whereas the professional, experienced hull system to become the normal routine is the fact that cleaning company will guarantee a rapid, timely, the hull coatings in current widespread use simply do 95% or better cleaning for the higher price. Not not lend themselves to routine in-water cleaning. The removing the slime completely means that within a answer to this is also discussed later in this paper. The couple of weeks the officers on the bridge will notice real problem, the spanner in the works that gets in the the speedlog dropping a knot or two again and the $15,000 apparently saved turns into a considerable loss way of effectively dealing with slime, is the very nature of most of the hull coatings in current use. over the period of a few months due to the increased This problem is well-described and analyzed by fuel penalty. Dan Rittschof in Chapter 27, Research on Practical In-water hull cleaning tends to be treated as an unimportant activity where the lowest bid gets the job Environmentally Benign Antifouling Coatings, of the book Biofouling already cited in this paper: regardless of the results. This can also give in-water hull cleaning a bad name because, trite though it may Antifouling is just one of several very be, one tends to get what one pays for. In-water hull important functions of hull coatings. Hull cleaning needs to be elevated in status to become a key coatings are complex multicomponent factor in reducing operating costs via fuel savings and systems which include anticorrosive and ship hull performance, and a major player in reducing antifouling components [31] (see Chapter pollution of the oceans and the air on a global basis, 13). Coatings have important physical rather than an irritating afterthought or necessary evil. and anticorrosive properties that include Such a change in attitude towards hull cleaning will maintaining coating integrity and that have contribute to the creation of a satisfactory worldwide physical properties which maximise hull infrastructure of what could be termed industrial performance. underwater hull cleaning, and In-water hull cleaning needs to the overcoming of the current Existing commercial solutions be elevated in status to become problems associated with it. to fouling are an uncomfortable a key factor in fuel savings and Underwater hull cleaning and increasingly unacceptable ship hull performance, a major on a properly coated hull (to compromise between fouling player in reducing pollution of be discussed later in this paper) management, corrosion and the oceans and the air on a global environmental degradation. should be as routine as bunkering. basis, rather than an irritating In fact, a properly equipped, Oxidation control measures cause afterthought or necessary evil. well-trained diver team can carry corrosion and have unacceptable out the underwater cleaning of environmental impacts. Similarly, the largest vessels in a matter of hours while the ship broad-spectrum biocides that must be is bunkering, thus saving off-hire time. This is not a released and diffuse into organisms to kill dream. The shipping industry can begin to think along them have extensive impact on non-target these lines. Increased demand will result in a better species and ecosystems.23 quantity and quality of supply. In his incisive and competent analysis, Mr. Rittschof If a ship is coated with traditional AF paint or a goes on to put his finger firmly on the problem: modern foul-release silicone, fluoropolymer or hybrid coating, the tendency is to avoid cleaning for the reasons outlined above. The slime layer builds up. The ships speed at a given shaft power drops by a knot or 23 S. Drr, J. C. Thomason, Biofouling, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010: 399. 30

27.6 Practical solutions

The ideal antifouling solutions would be ones that fit within existing business models and polymer systems that managed fouling on hull with minimal impact on other organisms or the environment [4,6,9,45]. Such a solution is possible but would require major changes in research, business and government regulations. This solution requires infrastructure and expertise lacking in industry, government and academia One of the worlds most prestigious cruise lines has and would require an approach which been willing to step off the downward spiral created recognises the needs of business and the by the AF systems in widespread use, to discover environment [6,7]. At present, there is and adopt advanced technology available for hull no appropriate infrastructure protection and maintenance. That cruise line anywhere in the world that would Such a solution has realized significant gains economically facilitate generations of ideal is possible but with a product and system that has been antifouling technology. Research would require tested by European governments and teams would be composed of major changes found to be entirely non-toxic. Proof of businessmen, chemists, biologists in research, their success is the fact that in ordering and government officials business and two brand-new ships to add to their fleet, with the charge of ensuring to be built by one of the most renowned government products minimally impacted and forward-looking shipbuilders in the regulations. environments.24 world, they specified the same treatment for the underwater hulls. This cruise line is far from In the same chapter he states: the only shipowner willing to take a risk and break with conventional thought. The solution has been A ship that is a good citizen would implemented successfully by major shipping lines, minimally impact the environment that it icebreakers, RO/ROs, ferries, several navies and a visits. It should be no surprise that existing variety of other fleets and vessels. technologies were developed to maximise What does this approach consist of? efficiency and result in short-term economic gain and to meet the letter rather than the spirit of government regulations.25 1. The coating

majorly reduce the impact of shipping on the oceans and the air: very worthwhile targets and with no real sacrifice.

Part IV. Effective address to the slime factor

This paper and its proposals could be considered in part an answer to the challenge implicit in the above paragraphs. If there were not an alternative, it would almost be cruel to bring up and point out the problems which currently exist and which appear to have no solution. Fortunately for all concerned, there is an alternative approach which has been tested, is mature, has been shown to work in many real-world applications, and which can be considered the best available technology at present. Widespread implementation of this solution will require a change of thinking in the industry and in government, no-nonsense legislation on the subject of biocides and pollution, and investment by the marine industry in building the necessary infrastructure to enable a change of gears. This is not a particularly costly proposition and will save shipowners, operators and the taxpayer enormous amounts of money and
24 Ibid. 401. 25 Ibid.

A hard coating consisting of relatively large glass platelets in a vinyl ester resin base has been tested for the better part of a decade on a wide variety of hulls and has proved to have extraordinary anticorrosive and anti-cavitation properties and the potential to last the lifetime of the hull with excellent mechanical and abrasive resistance. It classifies as a Surface Treated Composite (STC). The coating requires a grit-blasted surface. It is usually applied in only two coats amounting to a total dry film thickness of 1000 microns with a minimum overspray time of only a few hours and an extendable maximum overspray time which facilitates a flexible painting schedule. It is most cost-effective to apply it at the new-build stage but it is still highly economical in terms of total ownership cost of the vessel to apply it on a hull previously coated with traditional AF or FR coating systems. The coating is applied to the vessel only once. It is guaranteed to last ten years but the evidence indicates

31

that it will last the lifetime of the hull. The coating is conditioned after application. This makes it smoother, hydrodynamically more efficient, harder for fouling to attach to and easier to clean if it does. This coating has been shown to improve with each underwater hull cleaning. It becomes smoother as a very tiny amount of the resin base containing aligned glass platelets is polished leaving a very smooth hull.

2. Routine hull and propeller inspection

covered in a future paper in this series. The cleaning is carried out with minimal adverse effect on the ships scheduled operations. It need only take 6 - 12 hours to do a full and complete cleaning of the hull of any vessel. The propeller can also be polished if indicated. With this glass-platelet, hard STC the surface improves with each cleaning over its initial conditioned state. Over time one can observe improved performance and increased resistance to adhesion of slime and other biofouling.

4. Repainting Once the coating has been applied and conditioned The most that will be required in drydock will be (the conditioning is done by divers in the water using minor touch-ups. In all cases inspected to date this has equipment similar to that used for underwater cleanamounted to less than one percent of the entire wetted ing) the ship will go into active service. hull surface which required any new paint. This makes Because the coating is chemically inert it should the drydocking much easier and quicker for the ship. also accumulate slime less readily than AFs which Painting with conventional paint is known to interfere contain copper and other biocides favored by certain with other drydock activities and can add a great deal bacteria and diatoms which make up the slime layer. of time to the drydock experience. As covered exhaustively in this paper, slime will build up on the surface in varying degree, depending on the water temperature and other factors such as General comments on this approach whether the vessel is stationary or under way. The elements of this approach all exist in fully develTools to monitor the ship hull performance are oped and tested form at time of writing. Many shipavailable indicators on the bridge in combination owners and operators have seen the benefits and have with regular hull inspections will enable the operators adopted the hard coating and routine in-water cleaning of the ship to act in a timely fashion to remedy a hull approach to underwater hull performance and mainfouled with slime. (Inspection and detection of the tenance. They are reaping the economic benefits and need for cleaning will be covered in more detail in yet competitive advantage while at the same time being another paper in this series.) good citizens as far as pollution and The slime layers can often be GHG are concerned. They have noted Every day the slime is left seen by visual inspection of the hull no liabilities or sacrifices. unattended to, once it has at the waterline. When indicators This technology is available now built up to a point that it are noted, a trained hull-monitoring for use by any shipowner, operator, impacts significantly on diver (one who is knowledgeable in any navy, any fleet. However, for this fuel consumption, is a day degrees of fouling and competent to to be rapidly implemented on an when thousands of dollars conduct inspections) should be sent industry-wide basis for all ships and down to conduct a survey of the state have been wasted. fleets, the obstacles enumerated by of the underwater hull and propeller Dan Rittschof as outlined above need condition. Routine underwater maintenance schedules to be exposed and overcome. are key to monitoring the condition of your ship hull. 1. Shipowners and operators need to subscribe to the Slime will inevitably accumulate and will have an cost saving and environmentally beneficial proceeffect on fuel consumption. This must be detected, dures outlined in this paper. confirmed and dealt with rapidly. Every day the slime 2. Port States need to realize that there is no is left unattended to, once it has built up to a point risk involved with in-water cleaning if certain that it impacts significantly on fuel consumption, is a standards are adhered to: day when thousands of dollars have been wasted. a. That the hull being cleaned is protected by 3. In-water hull and propeller cleaning
a hard, inert coating that does not contain any toxic substances and will not pollute the port. b. That a hull cleaned frequently, preferably in the case of a badly fouled hull before sailing (i.e. before moving from one environmental zone to another), is the best

If the vessel is not close to a drydocking scheduled for other maintenance reasons, then competent, professional in-water cleaning of the hull must be scheduled and carried out. This is a big subject and will be 32

means of avoiding the spread of invasive species. This is the responsibility of the shipowner/operator but port States can cooperate. c. That the cleaning be performed professionally, completely and to a high standard. 3. Shipowners/operators must take the plunge and invest the time and money needed to grit-blast their ships wetted hull area and re-coat them with advanced technology glass/resin coatings. The initial investment will be repaid rapidly, and in terms of total ownership cost this approach is an excellent investment in almost all cases (the exception being perhaps vessels that are almost at the end of their useful service). 4. Governments and international organizations should take steps to introduce legislation which bans the use of harmful metallic biocides, as well as harmful herbicides and fungicides as means of preventing fouling. These antifoulants are not effective against slime, and hulls should not be allowed to foul beyond a light slime at most. The biocides are poisonous and have many harmful effects, some lethal, on marine life, fish, the food chain and human beings. As there is a more costeffective and economical way to deal with fouling effectively, there is no excuse to go on spreading pollution and poison. The coating applied to any vessels hull should be inert and not leach or dispel any sort of toxic substances into the water. There should be no compromise on this. The apparent commercial interests of shipowners are no excuse to continue poisoning the oceans, since the nontoxic approach is more economical than the toxic one. 5. The marine industry in general and governments must invest in this advanced technology, particularly on the infrastructure needed to make it possible to deliver in-water cleaning easily and competently on an industrial/commercial level around the globe so that schedules are interrupted less by cleaning than they are by bunkering.

Part V. The Ecospeed/ Hydrex approach

This paper is not intended to encompass a survey of available hard coatings. There have been several epoxybased coatings over the years and the glass-platelet technology was used in the earlier formulations of certain specialized icebreaking/icegoing hull paint. There is considerable research under way on the subject of non-toxic hull coatings. Suffice it to say here that there is a glass-platelet, vinyl ester resin based coating which meets all of the specifications already listed: Ecospeed. It is available now for commercial application and has been for the last eight years.

The Hydrex Group

The Hydrex Group, an international underwater hull performance, protection, maintenance and repair organization, is one of several suppliers capable of delivering high quality in-water ship hull cleaning on a global basis. Not only has Hydrex developed Ecospeed as the ideal underwater hull coating, but has also invented and engineered a full line of advanced hydraulic underwater hull cleaning equipment designed specially to condition and clean Ecospeed-coated hulls but which is also usable on any other hull coating.

Worldwide underwater hull cleaning services

Governments and international organizations should take steps to introduce legislation which bans the use of harmful metallic biocides, as well as herbicides and fungicides as means of preventing fouling.

Hydrex has also recruited and trained a team of underwater hull cleaning and repair experts to deliver standard cleaning and repair of a very high quality. In addition to setting up satellite offices in strategic locations, the company has built up a network of local suppliers of underwater hull inspection, cleaning and repair as well as propeller polishing and related underwater hull services. In this way Hydrex guarantees its underwater hull maintenance and repair services around the world. Ecospeed itself is guaranteed to last intact on the hull for a full 10 years and that is a conservative guarantee which the company is currently considering extending. Hydrex has been developing its own underwater hull protection and maintenance system for several decades, based on an equal concern for the avoidance of pollution of the oceans and air and for the economic benefits to be derived from keeping ship hulls free of fouling, thus reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Both these factors have been taken into account and the best possible approach to the problem of hull protection and fouling has been developed.

33

An Interview with Boud Van Rompay, Founder and CEO of Hydrex, on the practical aspects of hull performance monitoring and maintenance

oud Van Rompay began underwater exploration professionally when he was twenty and was soon working as a commercial diver, carrying out ship repairs and hull inspection and cleaning in the early 1970s. Mr. Van Rompay is also responsible for many inventions in underwater repair methods and maintenance equipment, including the worlds most advanced line of hydraulic underwater hull cleaning equipment. His firsthand experience led to his later development of a highly durable, entirely non-toxic coating for ship hulls which lasts the lifetime of the ship, is very easy to clean underwater and in fact gradually improves in performance with the number of times cleaned. Founder and CEO of Hydrex (the company is named after hydro- water and ex- for expertise), Boud Van Rompay here discusses in detail with the Journal of Ship Hull Performance many practical aspects of underwater hull maintenance but particularly monitoring and underwater cleaning of marine fouling.
34

Journal of Ship Hull Performance (JSHP): What is the current general practice for monitoring and dealing with biofouling? Boud Van Rompay (BVR): For many vessels and fleets the usual practice is simply to apply an antifoulant or foul-release coating and then do nothing at all about the underwater hull until the vessel is returned to drydock two, three or even five years later, at which time it is cleaned and blasted and repainted as needed. Another common practice is to wait until overload of the engines occurs or a certain speed can no longer be achieved even at very high RPM, which means that the heavy fouling stage with thick layers of grass and barnacles has been reached, before acting. Then one takes steps to find out about pricing and where to have the ship cleaned, and then one often goes for the cheapest company and gets the cleaning done by whoever comes in with the lowest bid. Usually three to six months are lost before the job gets done. We see that all the time. Usually preventative or semipreventative measures are not taken. The result is hundreds of thousands of dollars per ship in wasted fuel. Underwater maintenance operations such as hull cleaning and propeller polishing are too often performed in the repair mode and are seen as a cost factor instead of being a maintenance tool which can save enormous amounts in fuel. JSHP: How do you advise the shipowner or operator to approach ship hull monitoring, inspection and cleaning? BVR: I believe that every vessel should have an underwater maintenance plan to cut fuel costs and optimize performance. This plan is a combination of using data available from the vessel by means of tracking the fuel consumption, and underwater hull monitoring. In this way maintenance operations will be performed exactly when required. This is the only way to keep very close track of the performance and take immediate action when required. JSHP: How do you define the plan?

BVR: This plan depends on the type of vessel, trading area, speed, idle time, and other factors. Our fleet performance teams know how to set up such a service based on all the variables of each vessel. JSHP: OK. So when cleanings are required, whats the best way to get them done? BVR: The ideal scene is to drop anchor in a sheltered bay where there would be an underwater cleaning contractor available. JSHP: Are they generally available worldwide? BVR: They are generally available and the suppliers are getting better and more equipment. But now it is still a long way from the ideal set-up however. JSHP: So if a shipping company came to Hydrex right now, would Hydrex be able and willing to take responsibility for in-water monitoring and cleaning of the fleets underwater hulls wherever and whenever needed? BVR: Yes, Hydrex already has underwater fleet performance service contracts in place with different shipowners who are fully aware of the possible impact of fouling on the performance of their fleet and, more importantly, the huge overall cost savings which can be achieved. We have a dedicated team who handle the organization of the fleet performance services worldwide with service stations in key locations to execute the required underwater monitoring and maintenance work. The only restrictions now are a ban on hull cleaning on toxic paints in more and more ports but cleanings on non-toxic paints can be organized in more and more ports. JSHP: Can you compare high pressure washing in drydock with in-water hull cleaning as possible solutions to slime and other biofouling? BVR: You can do a lot more underwater than you can in drydock. You dont need scaffolding; the diver is weightless; he can travel all over the place on the ship 35

without needing any other mode of transportation than the machine hes running. The cleaning machine can be designed and built so that it is a vehicle of transportation, of cleaning, of inspection. It can perform all kinds of functions. You can get into all the nooks and crannies. High pressure washing in drydock can be effective, but drydocking is too expensive to be considered a solution to routine underwater hull cleaning. Also high pressure cleaning in drydock has a notable damaging effect on the AF systems, much more than a rotating tool. JSHP: There seems to be quite a range of pricing for inwater hull cleaning. Can we talk about the cost of this service, what a shipowner can expect to pay to have a ships hull cleaned, and why there seems to be such a range of prices for the service? BVR: All too often underwater cleaning is regarded as unimportant something to be done if absolutely needed and then at the lowest possible price, regardless of quality of service.

again during sailing. Ive seen that many times. The cheap cleaning that doesnt really clean will cost much more in mounting fuel consumption within a couple of weeks of the cleaning, than if one had paid for a really thorough cleaning in the first place. There is also the factor of scheduling and speed of service. It takes a well-equipped, efficiently-managed company with well-trained diving teams who really know what theyre doing in order to clean a VLCC of any size in 12 hours or a 400 meter container vessel in 6 hours. A poorly-equipped company with untrained or inexperienced divers may drag the same job out over days, thus seriously impacting the vessels schedule. This can cost much more in off-hire time than is gained by going with the cheapest underwater cleaning company. Its a false economy to save a few thousand dollars on the cleaning when you lose hundreds of thousands of dollars while the vessel is out of service. And it adversely affects the industry. In order to get the job, the reputable companies are forced to cut their prices which inevitably leads to cutting corners. The quality of the job cannot help but suffer which then gives the whole subject and industry of in-water hull cleaning a bad reputation. It ceases to produce the almost incredible results on ship hull performance and reduced fuel consumption which it is capable of. This really lets the whole side down. Whats needed is an excellent job and topnotch service at a fair price.

Here indeed you usually get what you pay for. You can treat the hull cleaning as an afterthought and shop for the lowest price available, but in that case you can only expect a 30-40% result. Its done rapidly and superficially. Those cheap cleanings The moral of the story is that if you are a shipowner never achieve even 50% in or operator who is serious surface area or thoroughness. The moral of the story is that if you are about maximum savings in fuel If you bought a full service a shipowner or operator who is serious costs through underwater hull and tune-up for your car for about maximum savings in fuel costs maintenance, if you have seen $5.99, would you expect to through underwater hull maintenance, the light and realized just how see a great improvement in its if you have seen the light and much the potential savings performance? realized just how much the potential outweigh the cost of quality savings outweigh the cost of quality hull hull maintenance, then you The cleaning can only really work if you take off all marine maintenance, then you will insist on will insist on high quality and high quality and rapid service from a growth, which includes the rapid service from a reputable roots of the fouling organisms. reputable company. company. If you just want to If you dont remove the root be able to say, we cleaned the of the algae then its going to come back in three or hull, to meet some requirement or placate some boss, four weeks. Weve seen that too often, especially on then by all means go for the lowest bid and make sure the copper-based paints. If you clean the underwater you dont inspect the hull after it has been cleaned. hull but dont take everything off then its back in two Youll still see some performance improvement, even if or three weeks one crossing of the Atlantic or Pacific. it doesnt last very long. In general, a clean hull will not pick up fouling when it is sailing, but will do so when the vessel is stationary. JSHP: Once the fouling is attached, if it is not completely Why does the high quality service cost quite a bit removed, then it is going to grow again, and it is going more? to grow even while the ship is sailing. If you dont clean thoroughly enough then whatever you have left grows 36

or other service comes down considerably. If a whole fleet gets into a well-planned routine for such services, Its like the full service and tune-up for your car which then the savings from the lowered fuel consumption I just mentioned. Delivering the high quality hull are so much higher than the cost of the program that cleaning service rapidly requires a much higher initial these costs fade into insignificance. And the reduced investment on the part of the supplier. A professional off-hire time required for such cleaning, when it organization, properly-equipped workboats, powerful becomes an orderly drill, all by itself outweighs the and effective hydraulic cleaning equipment, welladditional cost of having the cleaning done proficiently trained and apprenticed divers and team leaders, all and efficiently by a reputable cost money and capital investment underwater hull services provider. If a whole fleet gets into a which the lower end companies well-planned routine for such I am sure the right approach is to be cannot afford. services, then the savings from prepared to pay a fair price for a 95What is needed generally in the the lowered fuel consumption 99% cleaning done rapidly but with industry is a better estimation are so much higher than the care and thoroughness so that the of what it is going to take to cost of the program that these results will last, rather than to go for deliver high quality underwater costs fade into insignificance. the cheapest possible price and get hull monitoring, inspection and a sloppy job done which keeps the cleaning and propeller polishing on ship out of service for days or weeks and produces only a widespread, industrial level. a shoddy result which doesnt last. The whole point about the pricing is that the savings which can be achieved through a well-managed JSHP: underwater hull monitoring and cleaning program, So how can a shipowner or operator know that the coupled with propeller polishing, outweighs the underwater hull and propeller specialists they are about cost many, many times over. Trying to do it on the to hire will deliver a high standard of work efficiently? cheap defeats the purpose of the concept because the BVR: expected savings are not realized, all for the sake of saving a few hundred or even thousand dollars. One would have to go by reputation and personal The other point is that, as the demand for high quality experience. And one should ensure that the company has good equipment in good shape and an adequate underwater hull maintenance grows throughout the marine industry, the supply will also increase and the number of skilled diver/cleaners. References would help. Then the company should be tried out on a prices can be expected to come down but in a way couple of ships and get the work inspected, preferably that still permits providers to deliver highest quality by an independent company. We have seen it happen cleaning rapidly around the world. that a ship was cleaned underwater but then had to go to drydock a couple of weeks later for emergency JSHP: repairs where it was immediately obvious that the hull What should a ship operator expect to pay for a cleaning had not really been cleaned at all. thorough, efficient and speedy underwater hull cleaning? JSHP: BVR: What are the main variables in underwater hull It depends on where the cleaning is done. Were talking cleaning that need to be taken into consideration? now about a full, thorough cleaning of, lets say, a 300 BVR: meter ship, done in six hours to the highest standards Professional organization and management, workboats, with a result of 95-99% of the slime being removed with the least possible damage to the coating. The all- equipment, personnel and location. in price would probably be about $10,000 in Fujairah, UAE, $16,000 in Singapore, or $20,000 to $40,000 in JSHP: Weve covered some of those. How does location come European or US ports. into it? Reputable providers will offer significant bulk BVR: BVR: discounts. So if a company undertakes to monitor, inspect and clean all the hulls and polish the propellers Location is an issue because the ships have to come of an entire fleet on a routine basis for a year, let us say, to a particular location and drop anchor so that they the price of each individual underwater hull cleaning 37

can be cleaned at anchor. Thats the fastest way. If the JSHP: ship is at anchor you can work freely. Youre not being Can you compare in-water cleaning of hulls with the bothered by commercial activities and other traffic different coatings currently available? around the ship. You have the ship to yourself. That BVR: needs to become the standard operating procedure. Cleaning can still be done in port (but not in all ports) The first thing to know is that, from a fuel saving as long as you restrict yourself to side cleaning and do point of view alone, cleaning should be done routinely, one side at a time. Trying to work between the quay regardless of the coating system used on the hull. By and the ship is very difficult. It complicates things and far the biggest cost associated with hull fouling is slows you down. You can have one side done at one the fuel penalty incurred by end of a route and the other not cleaning when needed. But any shipowner should seriously side done at the other end This greatly exceeds the consider applying an STC to the where the ship is loading or underwater hull at the new-build stage or cost of cleaning and even of discharging. Take a ship on when the underwater hull coating system drydocking and repainting. the RotterdamWest Africa But knowing this, one should needs to be replaced. In the long run it run. One side of the hull also be aware that all hull will result in enormous savings. can be cleaned at Rotterdam coatings are not the same and the other in West Africa. when it comes to cleaning them. This information can Thats a coordination point and thats why shipping be useful when choosing an underwater hull coating at companies are wise to work with a worldwide provider new-build stage and when a hull needs to be repainted. of underwater ship hull services. The problem lies in cleaning thoroughly enough to Not all water is suited for underwater cleaning. On remove the roots and in not damaging the coating. rivers its going to be tough to clean because you have This can really only be done without any adverse current and bad visibility. Usually rivers come with effects on a hard coating such as a Surface Treated visibility problems and currents so youre dealing Composite (STC). With all other types of coating, with two things that are working against divers. Ideal there is a compromise involved with in-water cleaning. conditions include no or low currents, clear and One can clean so lightly that the coating is not much preferably warm water. Thats not vital but it makes affected, but then this level of cleaning doesnt remove it more comfortable for the divers and it reduces the the roots. The problem with weed if you dont take out cost. The warmer the climate the lower the cost of the the root is that it is going to grow again. This applies operation will be. You need less protection and less to weed more than to slime. So in the case of AF and equipment. So cleaning in the Caribbean is always FR coatings its best to remove the slime before it going to be cheaper than cleaning in Rotterdam, Oslo develops into weed and barnacles. Then the cleaning or Copenhagen. can be done more lightly and with milder effects on the coating. Here is a case where it is highly beneficial JSHP: to use a high quality, reputable underwater cleaning company with trained and experienced underwater What about personnel? cleaning divers and the best equipment available. It BVR: may cost more but it will save even more in terms of Its a matter of finding the numbers and the quality of poorly done cleaning and damage to the coating. divers and setting up a training facility. The challenge The compromise involved when cleaning AF coated is not so much the individual divers but finding the hulls is that it will wear away a percentage of the team leaders for the diving companies people who remaining biocides in the antifouling paint. The can actually execute the work and give orders, maintain compromise involved in routine underwater cleaning the standards, get the job done according to schedule. of foul-release coatings is that cleaning can scratch Its a matter of training on standards and techniques. or damage the surface which then makes it easier for A cleaning diver has to know as much about general fouling to attach and grow. repairs and maintenance of mechanical items such as However, regardless of these compromises, it is still hydraulic machines as he has to know about diving better to clean than not to clean. But any shipowner and ships. Its a combined function. They have to be should seriously consider applying an STC to the able to repair and troubleshoot their machines and underwater hull at the new-build stage or when the know the ships too, and well. underwater hull coating system needs to be replaced. 38

In the long run it will result in enormous savings. Overall, economically, it is still better to clean the slime off any hull routinely. But the only type of coating I know of which can be cleaned regularly and thoroughly without any liability is an STC. JSHP:

The fact that Ecospeed lasts the lifetime of the ship hull without replacement and that it only improves with routine cleaning is not an accident. Tests have vindicated Ecospeed completely, not only in terms of durability and performance but also in its total lack of toxicity.

I would like to add one more thing about the cost. Ideally we should never have to take off hard fouling. The whole Surface Treated Composite (STC) concept BVR: which we developed was built around the fact that Its in the coating itself. The root has penetrated the we could apply a coating that, with conditioning, matrix of the coating and now the root has taken looked like porcelain or a glass pane, and once in that hold in the coating itself and you cant get it out condition it can be cleaned with the softest tools to with the normal tools. High pressure washing in remove the slime. On Ecospeed, really soft brushes drydock penetrates and you can then cover it again remove the slime completely, with an epoxy or AF layer; that including the root, all completely Tests have vindicated Ecospeed does get rid of it, but it requires washed off. Removing slime completely, not only in terms of drydocking and also causes before more advanced forms of durability and performance but substantial extra roughness on fouling develop makes really the hull resulting in a significant also in its total lack of toxicity. high speed cleaning possible. increase in skin friction. We should never have to clean Countless are the stories that I more than slime or light weed. As long as we stay in hear from superintendents telling me about fantastic the slime and light weed range, the frequency of the increases in speed and drop in consumption when cleaning may be higher but you get all the benefits, drydocking and grit-blasting the hulls not more than and the cost of cleaning is going to be a fraction of 10 years after new-build. what the benefits are going to be in terms of fuel savings and GHG reductions. The non-toxicity factor JSHP: and the total prevention of the spreading of toxins in It might sound like you are trying to promote Hydrexs the waterways and oceans and the elimination of any STC system, Ecospeed. risk of spreading non-indigenous species (NIS) come for free actually. BVR: It might sound self-serving to point out the limitations When we got the first operational results from Ecospeed we knew we had to stick to slime or light of other types of coatings, and one might get the weed and do it on a regular basis because the paint idea that I am just trying to promote Ecospeed to improves with time and the more we clean it the boost our sales. But the truth is that I developed smoother it gets and the less it will collect slime. At Ecospeed because of these very factors. I was cleaning some point the Ecospeed becomes a real foul-release underwater hulls long before Ecospeed existed, and it coating because its so hard and glassy. was in order to surmount these specific liabilities of the AF and FR coatings which I was able to observe JSHP: firsthand, that I conceived of and then developed Ecospeed. Tell me more about the risk of spreading invasive species. Theres nothing like being a diver/hull cleaner and being right up against the hull, watching the effects BVR: of the cleaning equipment and procedure on various The solution to that is the same as the solution surfaces and coatings to get a full grasp of the reality to improved ship hull performance, reduced fuel of the matter and to make a citizen of you on the consumption and GHG emissions. If you coat your subject. You can talk to divers who have to clean hull with an STC that is easy to clean and then copper-based AF coatings and find out all about the routinely fully and completely clean before the slime red clouds of toxic paint that comes off in the process. film becomes weed and barnacles, there is no risk You can also talk to divers who clean Ecospeed and whatsoever of spreading invasive species. If your vessel hear them marvel about the results in speed, comfort, is at anchor or moored for quite some time in a port, thoroughness and quality of work. lets say Sydney for example, then all you have to do is So the problem there is with the coatings themselves? 39

schedule a cleaning before the ship sets sail for foreign parts. No one is worried about Sydney aquatic species reproducing in Sydney harbor. Theyre worried about them being dragged across the oceans to Rotterdam or Hawaii or any other location where they might be harmful to the local marine life. In fact this is also economically sensible since the fuel you will save in the passage from Sydney to Rotterdam or Hawaii due to a clean hull will compensate many times for the cost of the cleaning. And you wont be taking any unwanted creatures over to foreign ports and waterways. JSHP:

BVR: Most of the ships are carrying fouling anyway so youd have to drydock every ship every few months and nobody is going to do that. In my view, the answer is routine in-water cleaning. It not only prevents the spread of alien species but is also economically beneficial and viable. JSHP: So how often is routine underwater hull cleaning needed? BVR:

In order to keep the hull at optimum performance and thus gain enormous savings on fuel costs and reduction But for the cases of heavy fouling where the ship has of emissions, the hull should be cleaned fairly already traveled from lets say Sydney to Rotterdam with all kinds of heavy fouling attached, do you have a frequently more frequently than is currently the general practice. The frequency depends on a number system of recovery of the removed fouling for filtering of factors, such as the temperature of the waters where and destruction? the vessel is trading (the colder the water, the less BVR: frequent the need for cleaning), the condition of the Yes, we have a system but it reduces the speed of hull and the coating used on the hull; a big influencing cleaning. It picks up probably 70 - 80% of the fouling factor is how much time the vessel is brushed off. Its going to be very stationary compared to the amount of Because the only solution difficult to make a machine that time spent sailing. to alien species, when you picks up everything. You can do it really look at it, is provided This is why routine monitoring of the but its going to be at the cost of your by underwater cleaning on a hull is important. Then one need only production rate. Already the recovery hard inert coating designed clean when it is necessary but one will system we have now, a suction and for the purpose. not go six months without cleaning collection device that sits at the back when it is needed. But in every case of the machine, but it reduces the the cost of cleaning and the time spent on it would be speed of cleaning. repaid many times over by the savings in fuel. In fact, the cleaning action itself kills the animals as they are removed from the hull. There is little risk of JSHP: any aquatic animals surviving the kind of cleaning Isnt a toxic antifouling coating the solution to alien required to remove heavy fouling. species? If Ecospeed is applied by the book and the procedures BVR: are carried out precisely, then the collection system is Quite on the contrary. The dangerous alien species are not needed. I decided to develop it as an intermediary those that have become immune to copper and other stage but in the future it will become redundant. biocides when attaching to the AF paint and traveling for extended periods with the ship. When arriving in JSHP: a new environmental zone, being more resistive, they Does the invasive species issue include weed? will then overpower the local species which has not BVR: been so immunized. Now we are talking about real Weed and slime are not included. Especially not slime. aliens. Weed is not really an issue as far as I know. The major JSHP: worry apparently is about animal life. Has anyone done a study on this? JSHP: BVR: Isnt drydocking, cleaning and disposing of the debris a If not done already, an extensive study should be solution to this issue? undertaken rapidly. I believe studies are being done 40

under the direction of the IMO. Because the only solution to alien species, when you really look at it, is provided by underwater cleaning on a hard inert coating designed for the purpose. If you take a ship from one environment or zone to another, zone A to zone B, the species will be different, then the only way to prevent the zone A species from spawning in zone B is to clean before the ship leaves zone A. Even cleaning it immediately upon arrival is too late because the animals are spawning all the time. Animals spawn. JSHP: What do you feel is needed on an industry-wide basis to improve underwater hull cleaning services and make them work well for the active world fleet? BVR: As an industry, we have to come out of the marginal conditions, cut-throat pricing and what I call the cheap approach to underwater hull cleaning or were never going to be able to deliver properly. Its an extremely cost-effective solution to fouling, but the savings come from the fuel that is saved and the drydocking no longer needed, not from finding the cheapest supplier of underwater hull services who then cannot afford to do the job properly.

abundance at low cost and equipment being built in large numbers. You need an industrial undertaking. It takes a fleet of purpose-designed and built, standardized workboats, trained skippers, a mechanic and four divers per boat. It will require an academy where new divers can go to school to study the mechanics and then go to the boats to apprentice. This is what I mean when I talk about industrial underwater hull cleaning. Shipowners must be prepared to drop the hook and wait for the 6 - 12 hours needed for a full and complete, thorough cleaning to be done. Thats how I see the future and not so much in cleaning in ports. The main thing to know is that you can maintain all the ships in the world with underwater cleaning and thus keep them at optimum performance. And the total effort to do that in terms of manpower and machines and hardware is still going to be much, much less than the current total effort under present general practices. Its going to cost much less to the shipowners and its going to save a lot more.

I estimate that the above steps, the STC combined with routine monitoring, inspection and cleaning will yield an overall cost savings of about 20% and result in a similar percentage of reduction in harmful GHG emissions, plus completely eliminate the ocean and Its like airplanes. You can demand cheaper and waterway pollution cheaper and cheaper Industrial level underwater hull cleaning on caused by current AF fares until the planes suitably coated hulls has never been tried before. and FR systems and fall out of the sky. That It is the answer to the existing hull coating and eliminate the spread of defeats the purpose. fouling problem with its associated fuel penalty, non-indigenous species. Its a question of how pollution of air and water, off-hire and out of much risk you want Industrial level service times. to take? Do you want underwater hull cleaning to be 50% above that on suitably coated hulls margin, 100% above that margin, or do you want to has never been tried before. It is the answer to the be just around that margin so theyre just not falling existing hull coating and fouling problem with its out of the sky? You can keep on reducing the tariffs associated fuel penalty, pollution of air and water, offbut at some point you cant keep the planes in the hire and out of service times. air with a margin. You have to be willing to pay for I predict that in the not-too-distant future this that. The same goes for the underwater cleaning. Do approach will have completely replaced the existing you want the correct effect with long-lasting result model of biocidal or any other active paints, frequent of the cleaning instead of two or three weeks benefit? drydockings to repaint, enormous waste of fuel and Do you want a month or two months depending on heavy pollution of the oceans and the air. where youre sailing? Do you want a durable result and a proper result? Well youre going to have to pay for it. You will save more money immediately. Fuel is expensive. The pricing at this time is not enough to pay for the cleanings unless you have a ship every day of the week per workboat and you have an extremely well brokenin cleaning crew and plenty of divers. It takes a going concern with a factory that supplies spare parts in 41

Upcoming conferences and seminars

n each edition of the Journal we will do our best to announce relevant upcoming events, conferences and seminars. This is by no means intended to be a full list but rather those which we have chosen as particularly relevant. We are open to suggestions for announcement of conferences, seminars and other events which are relevant to the overall theme of ship hull performance.

22 - 23 Feb, London, UK Llloyds Maritime Academy A Practical Guide to Optimising Ship Maintenance Seminar
his practical hands-on seminar is designed to offer you a comprehensive review of maintenance strategies and an in-depth analysis of how to control costs and maintain the performance and reliability of machinery and equipment onboard your vessels. A panel of industry experts will showcase the latest maintenance techniques and applications of new technologies, and examine projects that weigh the advantages of competing maintenance strategies. In-depth analysis of industry projects will allow you to identify ways to maximise revenues by improving overall machinery and equipment efficiency while reducing bunker bills and complying with increasingly demanding environmental regulations. The newrevised seminar programme will allow you to: Assess the effectiveness of your existing maintenance strategy Explore how to adapt your maintenance management system to suit varying vessel operations Discuss the latest cutting-edge developments in maintenance techniques and technologies Examine options to optimise your maintenance programmes to reduce a vessels lifecycle cost and maximise its time at sea Focus on methods to engage crew to successfully execute maintenance programmes Hear industry stakeholders present the business case for condition based maintenance PLUS NEW FOR 2011: Optimising maintenance strategies in an environmental era - examining the maintenance of high profile MARPOL equipment Details and registration:
www.informaglobalevents.com/event/Ship-Machinery-Equipment-Maintenance-Seminar

8th Green Ship Technology 21 and 22 March 2011 Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Oslo, Norway

42

Details and registration:

greenshiptechnology

www.informaglobalevents.com/event/

7th Annual Arctic Shipping 2011 International Conference and Seminar 12-14 April 2011 Paasitorni Conference Centre, Helsinki, Finland
Informa Maritime Events Note that Hydrex is a sponsor and will be hosting a breakfast briefing: Breakfast briefing 13 April 2011 0800-0900 Breaking the ice without breaking the paint...or the bank. This will cover Industry experience, criteria and expectations for durable hull protection in heavy ice conditions How to optimize the performance of ice-going ship hulls in warmer waters and how to deal with marine fouling during summer periods Regulations and environmental guidelines for the use of hull coatings in the highly sensitive and fragile Polar waters. Briefing by Pieter Gysel, Area Sales Manager, Hydrex NV Details and registration:
www.arcticshippingsummit.com

43

Hydrex

ydrex is an international group offering advanced underwater ship hull solutions including hull protection, monitoring, maintenance and repair. Hydrex has developed and provides Ecospeed, an innovative Surface Treated Composite (STC) as discussed in the white papers and interview in this journal. Inquiries and information

We invite inquiries. We stand by to answer questions, provide references, disseminate information and help you with your specific vessel or fleet situations.

Vessel or fleet operational costs assessment

Find out if your operational costs for your vessel(s) or your fleet could be drastically reduced by changing your approach to underwater hull protection and maintenance. To obtain a free initial consultation on ship hull performance for your vessel(s) or fleet simply send an email to the following email address with Free Consultancy in the subject line and information about your vessel or fleet and an expert will get back to you promptly: [email protected] To find out more about Ecospeed and Hydrex, visit the following websites: www.hydrex.be www.hydrex.us www.ecospeed.be If you would like to be added to the mailing list for future white papers on ship hull performance and related subjects and/or copies of the quarterly journal Ship Hull Performance please go to the following URL and sign up. You will be added to the mailing list and can specify your preferences there: http://eepurl.com/caJkv For comments, input, information about the content of this white paper or any communication relating to it, please send an email to the following email address and we will respond: [email protected]

Free initial consultation for your vessel of fleet

We offer a free initial consultation to any shipowner, operator, charterer, navy representative, government official or officer, academic institution and anyone else who can benefit from the most advanced approach we know to the problems of underwater ship hull performance.

Future white papers and journal

We will be writing and distributing a series of white papers, each of which will go into one or more aspects of underwater ship hull performance in more depth and detail. Much of the information has already been researched and written up but this is often in highly technical papers of specialized distribution not necessarily easy for shipowners and operators to come across or digest. We will also be publishing this Journal of Ship Hull Performance on a quarterly basis. Some of the white papers will also appear in the journal. If you would like to receive these white papers and/or future issues of this journal on an ongoing basis, please sign up on line at http://eepurl.com/caJkv or write to us, email us or phone us with your request. Let us know if you prefer electronic or paper copies of the white papers and journals. These are all provided to you free of charge and without obligation. 44

Hydrex around the world

Hydrex Headquarters Antwerp Phone: +32 3 213 53 00 (24/7) E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +32 3 213 53 21 Hydrex US - Tampa Phone: +1 727 443 3900 (24/7) E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +1 727 443 3990 Hydrex Spain Algeciras Phone: +34 956 675 049 (24/7) E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +34 956 921 914 Hydrex India - Mumbai Phone: +91 222 2046 988 (24/7) E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +91 222 2046 988 Hydrex India - Vishakhapatnam Phone: +91 891 2711 863 (24/7) E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +91 891 2711 863 Hydrex West Africa Port Gentil Phone: +241 04 16 49 48 (24/7) E-mail: [email protected] www.hydrex.be

45

European Headquarters Hydrex nv Haven 29 2030 Antwerp Belgium Phone: +32 3 213 53 00 (24/7) Fax: +32 3 213 53 21 E-mail: [email protected] www.hydrex.be US Office Hydrex LLC 604 Druid Rd E Clearwater, FL 33756 USA Phone: +1 727 443 3900 (24/7) Fax: +1 727 443 3990 E-mail: [email protected] www.hydrex.us