Application of ceramic coatings to minimize the frictional drag penalty on ships

Biofouling is one of the more important problems of different industries on wide world, which they use to seawater system for their process, or they are in contact with seawater, like the hull of a ship, where an increase in roughness due to the accumulation of biofouling leads to a drag increase causing an increase in fuel consumption and consequently higher CO
2
emissions. The principal aim of this work has been the study of the application of ceramic coatings, as an innovative and sustainable solution for ship hulls. For this purpose, it is proposed to extend the lifetime of metallic hull ships with lower maintenance to reduce usage cost, to development a new coating non-release and low shear flow conditions and to provide antifouling surface conditions to avoid biofouling adhesion and to minimize bio-corrosion and frictional resistance. To achieve these objectives, new enameled surfaces are developed by combining biofouling resistant enamel compositions and low roughness surfaces; coatings are tested in real environment with theoretical and laboratory evaluation according to ASTM D3623. The results indicated that conventional ceramic paints had excellent antifouling properties during the first months of exposure in sea water but progressively lost their antifouling properties, while the antifouling properties of ceramic coatings remained intact throughout the experimentation.