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MAROFF-2-Maritim virksomhet og offsh-2

An environmental friendly antifouling system for ship hulls

Awarded: NOK 2.4 mill.

All surfaces exposed to the marine environment, including man-made structures such as ships, are subjected to biofouling. The current project aims at abolishing detrimental ingredients in antifouling paints and thereby the threat of leakage of toxic subst ances from ships on the ocean. In addition, this project can potentially improve the problems with increased fuel consumption and corrosion related to biofouling and also decrease the cost correlated with removal of fouling organisms. It is difficult to p ut a figure on the worldwide cost of combating biofouling, but the fact that the US Navy alone spends about $1 billion every year on the problem hints at the economic scope involved. The principal objective of this project is to elaborate an environmen tal friendly antifouling paint by incorporating natural or chemical additives into the promising polymer polyurethane. The basic idea is to control the microfouling, settlement of bacteria and single-cell diatoms, to prevent further succession into macrof ouling, e.g. settlement of barnacles. The basic method is to make a polyurethane coat with environmental antifouling additives. In this project we are coupling people from two different spheres, maritime industry and marine biotechnology. This project is a continuation of the MAROFF projects, NFR 162073 and 168182, and the results acquired in these preceding projects are the fundament for this project.

Funding scheme:

MAROFF-2-Maritim virksomhet og offsh-2