Barnacle-busting paint makes ships' voyages greener - Observer

[Eugene]

Note: The article reads like a press release, it is still
an interesting development.

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Source: The Observer

Barnacle-busting paint makes ships' voyages greener

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday June 24, 2007
The Observer

Scientists have developed a novel way to combat one
of the world's stickiest and most expensive maritime
problems: the encrusting of ships' hulls by algae
and barnacles. They have created a special coating,
using nanotechnology, that is engineered to a scale
of a millionth of a millimetre. Organisms that try to
hitch a ride will simply slip off.

The development, announced at the EuroNanoForum
in Dusseldorf last week, is important because 'bio-
fouling' costs billions of pounds a year, not just to
the shipping industry but to private yachtsmen and
owners of power and desalination plants whose pipes
get blocked by bacteria and barnacles. In addition,
ships burn excess fuel with encrusted hulls,
increasing carbon emissions; while current anti-
fouling paints are thought to harm sealife.

'We badly need a new anti-fouling agent and
nanotechnology will provide it,' said Frederic Luizi,
research director of Nanocyl, a member of the
European consortium Ambio.

-snip-

'Nanotubes disrupt the paint surface at the molecular
level so the glue molecules cannot operate effectively.
When the ship moves, the organisms are swept away,'
said Professor James Callow, the consortium's co-
ordinator.


Read more: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2109953,00.html

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Press release or not, anti fouling paints are pretty nasty stuff

and the non-nasty versions don't work all that well. If this is an AFFORDABLE improvement, then its a good thing