Watch: NBIC/SCELSE-SNBC/PML Marine Biofouling Webinars
In conjunction with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the Singapore National Biofilm Consortium we held a series of webinars on marine biofouling.
This webinar series was designed to inform cross sector participants of the current challenges in producing efficacious antifouling coatings under the current regulatory framework, but also to investigate the novel antifouling technology development opportunities this legislative pressure is stimulating.
Recordings of all three webinars are available to watch on this page.
Watch our Marine biofouling webinars
Webinar One : Biocide use in Antifouling Coatings – The Regulatory Framework, Monday 12 October 2020
Guest speakers: Tomoyoshi Chiba, from Chugoku Marine Paints, in Japan and Geoff Mackrill, Teamac Marine Paints in the UK.
Webinar Three : Biofilm control – what’s next?, Monday 16 November 2020
This webinar provided an opportunity to gain an insight into the latest developments in marine biofilm control approaches and technologies in relation to maintaining a clean hull despite the restrictions on traditional antifouling technologies.
Featuring pitches provided by a range of technology developers and researchers, details of which can be found below.
Pitch statements from webinar three
Combatting marine fouling using biofilm dispersing nucleases
Grant Burgess, Newcastle University
Combatting marine fouling using biofilm dispersing nucleases. Biofilms are held together by sticky extracellular DNA (eDNA). By attacking this structural component of biofilms with a nuclease (DNA degrading enzyme), we can bring about deliberate and efficient biofilm removal.
We have patented this technology at Newcastle University and it is available to licence. We have also worked with global consumer products manufacturer Procter and Gamble to commercialise this technology into laundry detergents, which are on the market today globally. We now wish to partner with marine industries who wish to bring this technology to the marine fouling sector.
Online and real-time biofilm monitoring
Manuel Anselmo, ALVIM
ALVIM Srl developed, in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council, a real-time, on line, Biofilm Monitoring System. This Technology is able to detect bacterial settlement since its first phases, and, based on these data, to manually or automatically adjust and optimize biocide / sanitation treatments (in industrial water systems, pure water lines, etc.) allowing to check, at the same time, the efficacy of the cleaning. Here you can find a short video illustrating ALVIM Technology.
Our Sensors are used since many years, with very good results, in Oil&Gas, cooling water systems (including those of ships), industrial water treatment, desalination, Food&Beverage, Pulp&Paper and others. Among our Customers there are many large international Companies like Total, GDF Suez (ENGIE) and Danone. Also the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used ALVIM probes, in a Project regarding water distribution systems, and the European Defence Agency (EDA) indicated ALVIM Biofilm Sensor as a promising solution.
ALVIM Technologies can also provide a great added value toward the research of new antifouling strategies in the marine sector. Indeed, biofilm growth, or microfouling, represents the first phase for the development of biofouling – and this is of course a biological parameter of great interest in this field. With this respect, ALVIM Probes were successfully applied, in past and present projects, developed in collaboration with public and private research institutes at international level, aimed at :
– studying corrosion and biocorrosion kinetics in marine environments;
– developing new antifouling coatings, or innovative materials, aimed at protecting structures in contact with freshwater and seawater.
In these projects, ALVIM Technologies are commonly employed with the aim to monitor biofilm growth in the specific conditions in which experimental tests are peformed. This allows to identify the ‘biological pressure’ of the specific acquatic system, and provides a useful indication of the actual adhesion of microorganisms on control coupons.
Download pitch supporting document
Application of Biotechnology in Antifouling Solutions for Hard Fouling Prevention
Markus Hoffmann, I-Tech AB
Selektope® is an active agent for marine coatings that repels barnacles from ships, even under static conditions for extended periods. When present in a marine antifouling coating, Selektope® stimulates the approaching barnacle larvae’s octopamine receptor, keeping the larvae in swimming mode with temporary, non-fatal effect. Selektope enables coatings to contribute significantly to reduce the fouling and as a consequence the fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
SLIPS (Slippery-Liquid Infused Surfaces) coatings as biocide-free, marine anti-fouling coatings.
Ali Miserez, Nanyang Technological University
Both lab-scale coatings in which silicon oil is replaced by biolubricants, as well as commercial coatings developed by our start-up collaborators and tested in Singapore were presented.
Facilities at SJINML for marine antifouling/biofilm research (Singapore)
Serena Lay Ming Teo, National University of Singapore
Information was shared on the new facilities at SJINML for marine antifouling/biofilm research.
Learning from in-service coating performance – the importance of ship-specific functional specifications
Ralitsa Mihaylova and Carl Barnes, Safinah Group
Informed choices and a considered biofouling control strategy, which begins with a carefully developed functional specification, benefits the shipping industry and the environment.
For better selection and specification choices to be made, some fundamental questions, such as the variability in product performance, need to be addressed. However, in-service performance data allowing independent comparisons between technologies has been limited.
With this in mind, Safinah Group has started to release findings based on a unique in-house database of coating condition assessments from supervision activities at drydock dating back to 2010. The data, comprising hundreds of observations that are constantly being updated and spanning across ship types and coating technologies by all major manufacturers, can be used in a variety of ways, including for reviewing and developing functional specifications to achieve optimal in-service performance.