A Norwegian start-up is solving the twin challenges of operational efficiency and environmental protection, with a little help from the Orcelle Award
The ratification of the IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention is a milestone in the battle to manage the spread of invasive aquatic species. Yet despite the importance of the decision, regulators and shipowners alike have long recognised that the spread of invasive species through fouling of ship hulls is as big – if not a bigger – problem.
The IMO has already put in place guidelines for the control and management of ships’ biofouling that aim to minimise the transfer of invasive aquatic species. Co-founder and CEO of ECOsubsea Tor Østervold believes the issue has the potential to be even more important in the years ahead.
“Now that IMO members have ratified the BWM Convention, the next controls, dealing with the spread through biofouling will come much faster,” he says. “But I think the positive commercial and environmental benefits of reduced fuel consumption and lower air emissions from having a hull free of fouling will be obvious to the industry as a whole.”
Overcoming Hull Resistance
When slime builds up on a ship’s hull, it attracts aquatic organisms that must be quickly removed before they can build up. Once fouling becomes established the mechanical cleaning required to remove it presents a challenge to safety, coatings management and to marine pollution.
Owners face an unpalatable choice: wait until dry dock and see performance reduce over time or clean when the ship is in the water, a difficult and dangerous option which risks further spread of non-native organisms.
In-water hull cleaning is traditionally carried out by divers using portable brushes, a process Geir Fagerheim, Head of Fleet Operations, Ocean Operations, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics AS, describes as brutal in its effects on the coating and potentially harmful to the environment.
“The brushing can do more harm than good because it is aggressive and gives uneven results. You can’t maintain pressure and have poor visibility and may end up damaging the paint and creating conditions that are even better for new growth,” he says.
For cost reasons, operators want to be able to clean hulls within the timespan of normal cargo operations ideally when cargo operations are taking place. At many ports it is hard to get permission to do this for safety reasons. Local environmental agencies may not approve brush cleaning because removing non-native shells creates the risk that live organisms are transferred to the local seabed.
“It’s a paradox. Everyone wants to reduce their GHG emissions but not for vessels to be cleaned in their ports,” he adds.
Reducing Costs and Emissions
ECOsubsea was founded with the aim of solving this problem and by setting out to make a difference to operating costs as well as environmental protection, it has quickly found acceptance.
The ECOsubsea solution is a remotely operated vehicle which removes the need for divers and uses a newly-developed high pressure water cleaning principle called ‘soft jets’, which is gentler on the hull than mechanical cleaning. The process provides an accurate inspection of the hull condition and cleaning progress can be monitored by cameras.
In addition to minimising damage to the coating, of interest to Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) was its ability to act as a vacuum cleaner, locking on to the hull so that the waste water is pumped back to a collection tank. No waste is released to the local environment and the residue has application as biomass fertilizer.
Before founding the company, brothers Klaus and Tor Østervold had worked on fishing vessels and were part of a project working on the cleaning of fish farming nets using mini submarines. Both experiences demonstrated the need for a means of hull cleaning that was safe, environmentally-friendly and did not damage the coating.
Having developed the concept, they spent three months researching fouling-related emissions and potential fuel savings. The results were interesting enough to attract the funding that would help them realise a solution to keep a hull performance optimised.
“We have been lucky to have friends, family and fans as well as investors including Innovation Norway and Nordea that understood the opportunity right from the start,” says Tor. “Equally important was to have customers that have been demanding but who trusted us to come up with solutions.”
Industry Partnership and Recognition
It was here that support from WWL proved decisive. The brothers entered ECOsubsea for the $100,000 Orcelle Award sponsored by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and won. Unlike some industry garlands, the Orcelle Award is designed to be a practical process. WWL worked closely with ECOsubsea to help them develop their products and ideas further to make them commercially viable.
“Winning the Orcelle award was a fantastic endorsement for us. It led to numerous new contacts and put a stamp on the technology which meant it could be a real solution, not just a marketing idea,” says Tor.
WWL paved the way for ECOsubsea to found its ’operational centre of excellence’ at the Port of Southampton and created space at its terminal for them to set up operations. Thanks to this concrete support, the company can capture business from liner, ro-ro cruise and ferry operators making European port calls. In addition to WWL, the company counts Höegh Autoliners, Svenska Orient Linen, Statoil, UECC, DFDS, Grimaldi, Color Line and EUKOR among its customers.
Fagerheim agrees that close relations with WWL has been important in setting up, supporting and promoting the ECOsubsea solution.
“It’s not our core business but it supports the business in getting more efficiency out of the vessels we operate. It is a tangible product which has the potential to make a major contribution to reducing GHG footprint if it is adopted more broadly. We could be talking about fuel consumption savings of up to 10% from reducing the drag effects of marine growth.”
Succeeding as a Start-Up
As relative newcomers to the industry, the brothers have benefitted from the ‘start-up’ approach of focussing on the customer need and developing a solution that can deliver benefits quickly. Tor believes the ‘virtuous circle’ this creates can foster innovation as well as benefitting the end users.
“Many companies are aware that today’s way of business is likely not be tomorrow’s and more attention is put on entrepreneurship and the influence of disruptors. Being an early adopter of new technology enables new businesses to grow,” he says.
“WWL’s willingness to test our technology and its sustainable initiative of ‘clean and capture’ means our solution to the fouling problem is not just recognised but actually used. This means that we can continue what we love the most; creating new solutions to related problems.”
Fagerheim agrees it can be hard for entrepreneurs to develop ideas without industry backing. “They need investors that believe in them but they also need industry partners that can support them. If the idea is good the partners will be there. In itself, the solution is probably a little more expensive than diver cleaning, but the other advantages it offers means there is real value in it.”
Building on Results
The next step for ECOsubsea is to grow its capacity in Southampton based on the progress it has made so far. Having received the results from long term tests on the health of water at the port, the effluent standard from use of ECOsubsea is 50% below that of the strictest regulations anywhere in the world.
Tor says sediment samples taken directly under four berths where the company has cleaned more than 60 vessels while loading or discharging shows that heavy metal concentration is lower than the port’s average.
“To have documented that the health of the water is actually improved by using our service together with its impact on environmental and financial footprint for shipowners is a good starting point to grow our business.”
The winner of the 2016 Orcelle Award will be selected from 15 finalists announced during the sixth annual Ocean Exchange event to be held in Savannah, Georgia, November 9-11, 2016.
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