ECOsubsea, the sustainable robotic end-to-end biofouling solution welcomes the announcement of an innovative hull management tool “intertrac Hullcare” from leading marine coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel.

AkzoNobel has identified the need to further support the maritime industry’s carbon neural roadmap and the huge opportunity that can be achieved with sustainable and well-planned but flexible hull maintenance.

“Our decade long collaboration with AkzoNobel gives their customers the ability to plan maintenance with the peace of mind of sustainable collection and disposal of hull biofouling,” says ECOsubsea CEO Tor Østervold.

A clean hull will glide through the water when a vessel is underway a lot more smoothly than one with fouling which will increase friction and therefore require more engine power to meet desired speeds.

The use of high-performance coatings, big data analytics and the ECOsubsea system allows owners to meet and exceed industry standards, providing customers a full sustainability solution in every step of the value chain.

“ECOsubsea’s system works by having a robotic cleaning system, move over a ship’s hull, gently removing the fouling off the hull without damaging the vessel’s hull coating, and then capturing the debris for processing and safe disposal ashore,” added Østervold. “This is an important factor to keep this service available in ports that are increasingly concerned with their local water quality.