UNACCEPTABLE LEVELS OF BARNACLE FOULING FOUND IN OVER 40% OF SHIPS REVEALS I-TECH WHITEPAPER
More than 40% of vessels were suffering from over 10% hard fouling coverage on the hull even before the idling of fleets caused by COVID-19. This is one of the key findings of hull fouling collection data in a study commissioned by I-Tech AB, the results of which are set out in a white paper entitled ‘Quantifying the scale of the barnacle fouling problem on the global shipping fleet’.
I-Tech contracted independent marine coating consultants, Safinah Group, to analyse underwater hull barnacle fouling conditions on a sample of 249 ships which drydocked over a four-year period between 2015-2019. The sample included all major ship types covering a range of trading activity and it transpired that nearly every vessel surveyed had some degree of underwater hull hard barnacle fouling.
On 44% of vessels surveyed, over 10% of the underwater hull surface was covered with hard fouling. According to experts, anything more than 10% coverage is deemed to cause an ‘unacceptable’ impact on vessel performance. On many of the vessels surveyed, fouling levels were even worse; approximately 15% of vessels had between 10- 20% of hard fouling coverage on the hull, 10% of vessels had 20-30% of hard fouling coverage and the remaining 10% of vessels had between 40-80% of hard fouling coverage.
Barnacle fouling can only occur when a vessel is static for a few weeks in coastal waters. Since this data analysis was carried out before the COVID-19 pandemic, I-Tech believes it is inevitable that in recent months, the extent of barnacle fouling coverage across the global fleet will have increased significantly.
“With up to 5% of underwater hull fouling coverage being seen as good and up to 10% being considered acceptable, the findings that 44% of vessels having more than 10% hull fouling is troubling, even more so when we consider the impact of long idle periods,” Markus Hoffmann, Technical Director of I-Tech AB said.
Read the whitepaper at
https://bit.ly/2WJIPXA.
SCRUBBER COATINGS AS IMPORTANT AS QUALITY MATERIAL OF SCRUBBER COMPONENTS TO PREVENT CORROSION
Corrosion has emerged as the arch-enemy of the exhaust gas cleaning systems as the uptake of the technology rose with the entrance into force of the IMO 2020 sulphur cap. Like with any new technology, scrubber maintenance and operation has been a learning curve for ship owners and operators, especially in the context of preventing failures of the technology and reducing downtime.
“Corrosion mainly happens on the overboard pipes, the last piece from GRE piping and connection to shell plating of the hull, especially near the connections and welding seams, and the area on the external hull around the overboard pipe outlet,” said Manuel Hof, Sales & Production Executive, NACE Coating Inspector Level 2 at Subsea Industries.
“These areas will need to be protected against acid-containing water (highly corrosive sulphuric acid) coming from the exhaust gas cleaning system. Traditional coatings applied inside the overboard pipes and on scrubber outlet areas are in most cases not chemically resistant. In that case, the coating will degrade, the steel will be affected and corrode. This can result in water ingress in the engine room, ballast tanks and cargo holds.”
“Scrubbers that are scheduled to be installed will still need to be completed. Now we see quite a lot of issues from scrubbers installed last year with corrosion and leakage problems. Protection systems are failing after a few months in service. We have been involved in repairs where it was required to replace overboard pipes of the vessel while still in the water,” he added.
“Material selection is also important. That is why scrubbers are made of special materials and most of the piping made of GRE/GRP. The last part of the overboard pipe and area of the hull will be in steel. Protection on those areas is very important, if not vital. To apply the correct coating system is essential and should not be tampered with,” he added.
12 | The Report • September 2020 • Issue 93
Marine News
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