Barnacle fouling is a significant to huge problem, say the majority of recently surveyed webinar participants

December 10, 2024

When a group of +200 respondents, to an interactive survey conducted during the recent “Coatings’ key role in shipping decarbonisation” webinar, were asked to rank if hard biofouling including barnacles was a problem on a scale from being no problem at all, to being a huge problem, 53% of attendees expressed that hard biofouling is a “significant problem”, with a further 27% describing it as a “huge problem.” Only 2% of the respondents to the survey choose the option that hard biofouling was ‘no problem at all’.

The participants during the marine-coatings webinar comprised mainly charterers, shipowners and shipyards together with antifouling coating companies, biocide suppliers, academia, class societies and regulators.

371 registrants gathered for the webinar, hosted in late November by Riviera Maritime, to examine the impact of advanced hull coatings on fuel efficiency and emissions reduction. Presentations delivered by experts from the field of marine coatings technology, Markus Hoffmann, Technical Director at I-Tech developers of Selektope, Carl Barnes, General Manager – Marine Consulting at Safinah Group and Nikolaj Malmberg, Head of Global Business Development, Marine at Hempel provided a porthole for participants to look through to advance their awareness of emerging trends and R&D in sustainable marine coatings.

When asked to select the most important factor when adopting new antifouling technologies, better performance metrics (39%) and cost-effectiveness (26%) were ranked by participants as the most critical factors, indicating the industry’s dual focus on technical and financial feasibility. This was followed by regulatory compliance (20%) and environmental impact (15%).

Questions around fouling control coatings selection strategies saw participants confirming that paint supplier recommendation was the most common method used for the selection of antifouling coatings among the group (35%). This was followed by selection based on cost (25%), using third party advice (21%) and continuing with a previous product/supplier (19%).

On the topic of hull cleaning, when participants were asked how often hull cleaning was typically conducted during a 5-year dry dock cycle, almost half of the participants surveyed selected the survey option ‘every 1 – 2 years’ (45%), whereas 34% of respondents confirmed that they conducted hull cleaning only ‘1 or 2 times’ during the full dry dock period. Equally 11% of respondents said that they clean every 6 months, and 11% said that they never clean at all.

Dr. Markus Hoffmann says: “Small scale market surveys like this, enable the antifouling coatings sector to understand the biofouling management challenges faced by ship owners and/or operators, and shipyards. Having our finger on the pulse of what ship operators need is important, especially when 84% of the respondents in this particular survey confirming that they are exploring alternative methods/technologies for combating biofouling.”

“There is great appetite for existing and new solutions that combat biofouling, particularly for owners and/or operators looking to meet regulatory requirements and improve ship efficiency and sustainability. For the significant to huge problem of barnacle fouling that ship operators are facing, active protection delivered by presence of biocides that target hard fouling, such as the biotechnology Selektope, is an absolute necessity if barnacle fouling is to be prevented on a global fleet scale,” concludes, Dr Hoffmann.