I-Tech’s Selektope antifouling agent has been awarded with the Environmental Performance Award at the European Marine Engineering Awards 2016, held this week at the European Marine Engineering Conference gala dinner in Amsterdam.
The Environmental Performance Award celebrates the environmental benefits of a product, process or management approach as a result of implementation for the first time in 2015.
Selektope is an organic, non-metal compound, which features an innovative pharmacological mode of action to combat barnacle settlement, even in minute quantities. It temporarily stimulates the swimming action in barnacle larvae’s, deterring them from attaching to the hull. It is distinguished by extremely low biocidal loading and is harmless to the marine environment.
Initial commercial applications of marine coatings with Selektope, which is now fully approved for use by the relevant authorities in Japan, South Korea, China and Europe, took place in 2015. Following paint product launches in the Japanese market and the Korean new build market, both in 2015), Selektope is now a high volume product. Its first publically-disclosed application took place at Sembcorp in Singapore, when a new copper-free product from Chugoku Marine Paints (CMP) was applied to the side walls of the 2010-built, 46,000dwt chemical carrier Calypso operated by Sweden’s Laurin Maritime.
Tests have shown that antifouling products containing Selektope also significantly reduce fouling, lowering water resistance and potentially saving up to 40% in fuel costs, and thereby cutting ship air emissions. Selektope repels barnacles even when ships are at rest, allowing fuel saving claims made by coatings suppliers to cover the ship’s entire operational cycle.
By repelling barnacle attachment, coatings with Selektope also lower the risk of transporting invasive aquatic species from one oceanic region to another.
I-Tech Chief Executive Philip Chaabane said: “This is a fantastic accolade, celebrating our ten-year-plus journey from scientific breakthrough to Selektope as a fully approved and available, anti-fouling agent that acts as a repellent to barnacles attaching themselves to ship hulls.”
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