Innovation in ship hull coatings improves fuel economy, air pollutants, noise pollution, and invasive species prevention. Thousands of commercial ships transport crucial goods and supply chains daily. Merchant vessels traverse thousands of nautical miles across countless marine environments over their 20–25-year lifespans.
Without specific coatings, microscopic marine organisms can build on a ship’s hull and increase water resistance, increasing fuel consumption, air pollutants, and underwater noise. Ships’ underwater parts propagate aquatic invasive species including zebra mussels, barnacles, and tunicates.
How Does Biofouling Affect Shipping and The Maritime Environment?
Ever seen algae or mussels on submerged pier pillars? It’s biofouling. Marine species colonize underwater structures’ surfaces, nooks, and crannies through growth. Biofouling on ship hulls, propellers, intakes, and other water-contact components can spread marine life to a new ecosystem.They’re invasive and threaten native species because they upset the new ecosystem. Ship hulls can gather mussels and barnacles, increasing in-water resistance and ecological invasion.
Apart from invasive species, biofouling has other detrimental effects. Marine species on ship hulls and submerged surfaces can compromise cargo vessel performance and environmental impact. A ship’s slim hull helps it glide across the water, like a car’s aerodynamic lines. Resistance raises ship fuel, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. A ship’s water resistance can increase due to biofouling, notably barnacles, slowing it down and increasing fuel usage.
Ship operators and customers worldwide who rely on marine shipping for goods and commodities pay more for fuel, which hurts the environment. Ships’ underwater noise can disrupt marine mammals’ communication, nutrition, reproduction, and survival due to friction from marine organism-covered hulls and propellers.
Biofouling Is Prevented Using Anti-Fouling Coatings.
Anti-fouling coatings are one of the best ways to prevent, manage, and address ship biofouling’s environmental and economic impacts. Anti-fouling paint on ship hulls prevents barnacles, zebra mussels, algae, and other marine creatures from attaching. Anti-fouling paints can prevent ships from spreading invasive species and help commercial vessels navigate without resistance, improving water flow voyage performance and sustainability.
Do Anti-Fouling Coatings Hurt Marine Life?
Old hull coatings exist. Sailors and mariners have used copper hull linings to prevent aquatic life from developing on ships for generations. Early marine transportation preferred copper to combat biofouling due to its toxicity. When iron supplanted wood as the main shipbuilding material, copper was no longer an option since it accelerated corrosion. Then, paints were the best anti-fouling treatment..
Although successful at preventing bioaccumulation, these paints manufactured from copper, arsenic, and other biocides flake off or leach into the water, releasing toxic chemicals. Marine species are taking in harmful substances, polluting the food chain and stunting growth. Anti-fouling paints with dangerous biocides like tributyltin (TBT) have been banned since 2008, but copper-based coatings, which make hulls hostile to marine life, are still utilized. Low-friction anti-fouling coatings prevent marine life from attaching instead of killing it.
Anti-fouling technologies have improved over the past several decades and some factors determine the best antifouling for fresh and saltwater. However, they can still be improved to prevent toxicity and plastic pollution from coating flake-off. Innovators believe there is a solution.
Conclusion
Businesses are developing anti-fouling solutions that enhance ship journey efficiency while still being safe for the marine environment. To stop anti-fouling paints from polluting the maritime environment, organizations have created a new underwater glue that can prevent corrosion and allow low-friction foul-release coatings to be bonded for a long time. Their non-toxic coating can increase the lifespan of maritime assets and boost vessel efficiency by lowering drag thanks to their patented self-healing technology.
