Save now, save later, says paint maker

The coating offers guaranteed fuel savings and therefore lower CO₂ emissions. The company says that for

many shipowners, fossil fuel costs not only place a huge strain on operating budgets, they also make up a substantial part of their ecological footprint. Slow steaming may be a viable solution for some vessels and help operators reduce costs and emissions, but 80% of total container ship operating costs are for fuel.

The industry is also facing increasing pressure from governments and legislative authorities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, so many owners have set their own environmental targets for CO₂ reduction, but finding effective ways to meet these targets can be a challenge.

Hempel claims to have developed the most effective antifouling coating system available. Based on pioneering hydrogel technology, Hempasil X3 fools fouling organisms (from biological slime and seaweed to barnacles) into thinking a ship’s hull is liquid, essentially rendering the hull invisible so the organisms do not attach. The resulting smooth hull that sails smoothly through the water means lower friction, therefore less fuel is needed.

The company says it is so confident in Hempasil X3’s antifouling performance that it guarantees fuel consumption, and hence CO₂, will decrease. Furthermore, Hempasil X3’s biocide-free composition and minimal VOC level strengthen its environmental credentials and also ensure that solvent emissions are kept to an absolute minimum.

The hydrogel in Hempasil X3 contains non-reactive polymers, which Hempel says can offer active protection from fouling organisms for up to 7.5 years even at low speeds or low activity. Peter Thorlaksen, a member of Hempel’s R&D team, says: “There are already self-cleaning antifouling products that work at speeds above 15 knots. But when a ship moves slower, there’s not enough friction to clean off the organisms. We deliberately created Hempasil X3 to maintain its self-cleaning ability at low speeds and to ensure that fewer organisms settle on the hull in idle periods.” As a result, Hempel says it typically saves vessel operators between 4% and 8% in fuel costs within the first year of application.

To back up Hempel’s fuel savings guarantee, the Hempasil X3 package includes SeaTrend software to help owners monitor fuel savings. Torben Rasmussen, group product manager, says that feedback has been highly positive from a range of ship types. “To date, Hempasil X3 has saved our customers probably more than $30 million in fuel bills and reduced global CO₂ emissions by 200,000 tonnes. But potentially, if applied to the entire world fleet, it could save 90 million tonnes of CO₂ a year, the same amount of CO₂ emitted by a country the size of Greece.”

Owners of container vessels, dry cargo vessels and MPVs can now keep their vessels out of dock for 7.5-years. All major classification societies have survey schemes for extended dry docking (EDD). In line with this, Hempel has supplemented the Nexus tiecoat for fully blasted hulls. with two new Nexus tiecoats as part of the complete Hempasil X3 package.

The patented Nexus X-Seal tiecoat eliminates the need for full-blasting and makes it possible to seal existing conventional antifoulings before applying Hempasil X3. Intended for situations where the anticorrosive system is still intact, such as relatively new ships docking for the first or second time after newbuilding, this solution can save shipowners between 40% to 45% compared to the cost of full-blasting and applying Hempasil X3 from scratch. Nexus X-Seal is a one coat solution, which reduces docking time and costs and eases the conversion from a conventional antifouling system to a fouling release system.

Hempasil Nexus X-Tend is specifically for repair and touch-up procedures, when applying a new coat of Hempasil X3 to an existing fouling release coating. It reduces the number of steps a vessel goes through in dock and is said to make spot repair using Hempasil X3 as simple as using a conventional antifouling. Hempel estimates that Hempasil Nexus X-Tend could save customers up to $100,000 on dock rent, surface preparation and vessel inactivity time during maintenance.