New coating increases cargo flexibility Anext generation tank coating has been unveiled in the chemical tanker market which promises to cut cleaning times and costs and increase the flexibility and volume of cargoes which can be carried. Downtime, as everyone knows, means loss of income so new products which enable ships to get back out to sea quickly are being heralded as an important investment. So says International Paint which recently unveiled its latest chemical tanker cargo tank coating which enables ships to carry all of the cargoes that the standard epoxy phenolic technology can, plus a further 25% of the large volume cargoes that it cannot. It also has over 60% fewer cycling restrictions. Many cargoes previously classed as easy chemicals are now classed as high specification chemicals, so the challenge is becoming greater, said Andrew Hopkinson, International Paint s Business Development Manager. The main traditional industry difficult cargoes include ethylene dichloride, styrene monomer and benzene. Up until now, coatings used have been zinc silicate and the largely popular epoxy phenolic but both have limitations in that they absorb and retain cargo resulting in lost earning potential as lengthy cleaning processes are needed to eliminate traces of the previous cargo. For example, a tanker carrying methanol from the Middle East to the Far East and then carrying clean petroleum products back into the Middle East would need seven to 10 days of cleaning in between if it had an epoxy phenolic coating. From a paint company s perspective this phenomenon is putting a level of stress on the coatings so we normally evoke a recovery period, having carried one of these cargoes, which usually takes about 10 days, explained Mr Hopkinson. If you cannot carry another aggressive chemical for 10 days it clearly affects the operational flexibility for the owner. Cargo retention causes the cleaning headache because we have to run the cleaning machines long enough to remove that retained material. If we don t spend the time and effort and costs, in terms of bunker fuel we are burning, we run the risk of contaminating the subsequent cargo, stressed Mr Hopkinson. Stainless steel tanks, which do not require coatings, are an alternative option as they do not absorb or retain cargoes but they have become extremely expensive, often to the point where it is uneconomical for them to be used. Indeed, stainless steel prices increased 42 SHIP MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL ISSUE 31 MAY/JUNE 2011
four-fold from 2002-2007 and have stayed at that level since. Mr Hopkinson again: We have certainly seen, over the last few years, the trend back towards coated mild steel tonnage. Clearly owners and charterers would like the attributes that stainless steel offers but they want it as a cost-effective coating solution. Many cargoes previously classed as easy chemicals are now classed as high specification chemicals, so the challenge is becoming greater Andrew Hopkinson, International Paint s Business Development Manager Interline9001, the latest coating technology from International Paint, is a bimodal epoxy coating which works with a special combination of low and high molecular weight polymers creating a loosely bound, but highly cross-linked, flexible network chain on ambient curing. The result, said Mr Hopkinson, is a highly chemical resistant film while maintaining flexibility. It eliminates the limitations of zinc silicates and the Achilles heel of epoxy technology. You get the best of the epoxy world without the limitation of absorption, he added. Flexibility is important because vessels and their tanks are getting bigger. Vessels are subject to flexing the bigger they get and so the ability of the coating to resist cracking on welds when the vessels flex is very, very important. Along with greatly improving the downtime, Mr Hopkinson said the actual costs associated with cleaning are also significantly reduced with Interline9001. The cleaning time is reduced by up to 70%. Because you don t have to remove the cargo from within the paint film, the cleaning process essentially becomes a surface cleaning prep. We also have a significantly easier to clean surface. The company took the coating to a third party tester L & I Maritime (UK), an industry cleaning consultancy. With one full cleaning cycle following a styrene monomer cargo, there was no detection of the cargo and the same result was achieved on a tank that had contained ultra low sulphur diesel. With an epoxy phenolic coating the cleaning cycles would have to run many times before no cargo could be detected. MAY/JUNE 2011 ISSUE 31 SHIP MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL 43
The savings in fuel costs with the new coating has been put at around $70,000 per vessel. If your coating is in good condition the tanks are very easy to clean, but if the coating starts to break down you get problems. It is essential that the coating remains intact because if it does not cargo can get trapped. Minute contamination can wreck a cargo Eddie Bucknall, Technical Director Columbia Shipmanagement International Paint is already in contract negotiations for 14 vessels under seven different companies six are newbuildings and the rest are for maintenance and repair. And with the chemical carrier market doubling over the last decade with significant newbuild activity and larger ships, the company is hoping to achieve even more growth. Mr Hopkinson estimates there are currently about 7,000 chemical carriers in the market 4,000 chemical tankers and 3,000 product vessels with a further 800 to 900 currently in production for each sector. He believes the new coating will hit both newbuild and maintenance and repair markets as vessels coated with epoxy phenolic coatings in 2003/04 would now be due for maintenance and repair. We also expect more orders to come in for newbuilds over the next 12 to 18 months, he added. The projected growth for the chemical market is 6 to 8% year on year. Although Interline9001 comes at a price up to three times more than the selling price of an epoxy phenolic coating Mr Hopkinson claimed payback would come as soon as between six and 12 months. International Paint also expects the coating to last twice as long as an epoxy phenolic coating, which usually has a lifetime of about seven and a half years. It is still extremely competitive compared to the price of stainless steel, he said. However, Eddie Bucknall, Technical Director for Cypus-based Columbia Shipmanagement said his company still preferred to use stainless steel tanks for the more difficult cargoes. We do have tankers with coated tanks for what I class as easy chemicals. All of our more difficult chemical tankers, of which there are about 10, have stainless steel tanks. Stainless steel is the most expensive but it s the easiest to clean form of coating. He did agree that tank cleaning can pose a headache, but only if coatings were not maintained well. If your coating is in good condition the tanks are very easy to clean, but if the coating starts to break down you get problems. It is essential that the coating remains intact because if it does not cargo can get trapped. Minute contamination can wreck a cargo. He said Columbia Shipmanagement did keep an eye on the coatings market and what was becoming available. However, he said the company would not want to go about changing coatings on existing ships. With a cargo coating, once you have chosen a coating at newbuilding you are really stuck with that for the rest of the ship s life. You don t want to change the coating as it becomes too expensive and too
complicated to blast it all off and start again. He said the cost issue of the stainless steel was irrelevant as the chemical carriers were expensive vessels anyway and quality needed to be invested in. However, Mr Bucknall did not rule out the possibility of using Interline9001 in the future. He said: It definitely would be popular, if it works. We do look at new coatings and if we were talking about newbuildings we would look at it. If the tanker was carrying easy chemicals, we already have a very good experience with International Paint and its cargo tank coatings they are excellent and we have no problems at all but if the vessel was going to carry more difficult chemicals I would seriously have to look at whether to use a coating or stainless steel. The cost of fuel is the largest variable in the operational budget in the marine industry and as with Interline9001 cutting cleaning bunker fuel costs, many companies are tapping into the greener coatings market to reduce fuel and, subsequently, environmental costs. Netherlands-based Sigma Coatings says fuel consumption is set to rise by about 117m tonnes by 2020, meaning a total cost increase for global shipping of $60bn. Longer range scenarios also show that by 2020, in the absence of policies, CO 2 emission from international shipping may grow from 1,120m tonnes in 2007 to 1,457m tonnes. In response to the financial and environmental challenges, Sigma Coatings launched its new coating, Sigmaglide 990, a third generation fouling-release product. Sigma says its pure silicone topcoat reduces frictional resistance to the point where fuel savings of a guaranteed 5% can be made. Sijmen Visser, Sigma Coatings Global Segment Manager Marine Maintenance and Repair, said it was vital to look at fuel costs and ways of cutting back on the amounts used within the shipping industry. With conditions improving within the global economy, and the prospects of continued growth in global trade, it is foreseen that fuel consumption will increase in the coming decade. Carbon dioxide emissions will also develop at a comparable pace. Since the launch of the Sigmaglide system, more than 200 vessels have been coated ranging from static vessels and shuttle tankers to high speed ferries. Another company making waves in the greener coatings market is Gibraltar and UK-based Brunel Marine Coating Systems. Its EnviroMarine hull coating has been around for over a decade now and was the first and only hull coating to be approved and certified by DNV as eligible for a subsidy from the Shipowners Environmental Fund, due to its green credentials. With conditions improving within the global economy, and the prospects of continued growth in global trade, it is foreseen that fuel consumption will increase in the coming decade. Carbon dioxide emissions will also develop at a comparable pace Sijmen Visser, Global Segment Manager Marine Maintenance and Repair, Sigma Coatings While the industry is searching for ways to extend dry-docking intervals and
others trying to achieve a seven and a half year docking interval, EnviroMarine has been singled out as suitable for a 10-year docking interval. This will allow an owner to apply a full coating of Enviromarine at the vessel s five-year Special Survey and not dry dock again until she is due for her 15-year Special Survey and TMON requirements. David Shreeve, Director and Co- Founder of the UK s Conservation Foundation, praised the company s green credentials: Whoever we are, wherever we are, we all have an environmental footprint. From what I have seen of Brunel s EnviroMarine, it certainly helps the marine industry to reduce its environmental footprint. Soren Valbro, Director of Brunel MSC, said EnviroMarine was still selling well and the company was concentrating on more advances in technology. We are working on quite a few very interesting new developments at the moment but as always in this business, we are not at liberty to disclose anything until the final approvals are in place, he said. Advanced Marine Coatings, from Norway, claims its products, trade-named Green Ocean Coatings, could make a significant difference to a ship s speed and fuel consumption. It says it has harnessed a breakthrough nano-science and a patented dispersion technology to make a type of paint with exceptional abrasion resistance and smoothness. The way it works lies in the carbon nano tubes (CNT) which are distributed evenly in a liquid resin, reducing viscosity and working as a tough reinforcement to the coating. These tiny, carbon tubes, AMC says, will improve abrasion resistance by at least 100% compared to traditional, solvent-borne epoxy systems. The company has partnered Finnish firm Amroy Oy and has obtained worldwide exclusivity to use this technology in marine coatings. Paal Skybak, Managing Director at AMC, said: This is an ideal partnership. It has formed the foundation for developing several subsea and topside marine coatings with properties superior to those of traditionally reinforced epoxy coating systems. AMC receives sponsorship for Green Ocean Coatings through a development programme funded by Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Research Council. Many companies are acutely aware of the costs to the environment and looking at ways to reduce these, concluded Columbia Shipmanagement s Mr Bucknall.