The AIRCOAT Horizon 2020 Project – One Last Year to Validate Bioinspired Air Lubrication Foil System

TUESDAY 4TH MAY 2021

Summary:

• One-year extension of the project and pilot experiments on research vessel and container ship
• Stakeholder workshop conclusions at the LEC Sustainable Shipping Technologies Forum 2021
• Online event on May 19th during EU Green Week Partner Events: How can nature help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry?

The reduction of greenhouse gases has played an important role in the 21st century in limiting climate change. Yet with the increase in the international transportation of goods, with most of them being transported by ships, new regulations and decarbonisation targets have been implemented. As a result, the need for new technologies to reduce emissions is high. In response to that challenge, over the last three years the AIRCOAT H2020 project has been developing a foil system to be applied to ship hulls. The surface structure of the foil aims to retain air when submerged under water reducing the frictional resistance of the ship, forming a passive lubrication technology.  As we move towards the end of the project, it is clear 2021 will be an intense and productive year in order to validate the technology.

After three years of research and small-scale experiments – in laboratories and in open water – the project is ready to test the prototypes on a larger scale. With a one-year extension – due to massive delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – AIRCOAT will now end in April 2022 and will be able to finalise the pilot experiments. Large-scale pilots are essential to demonstrate the efficiency and industrial feasibility in operational environments. The two experiments will be done on a research vessel and a container ship. The research ship experiment aims to observe the stability of the air retention of the foil. The container ship experiment is about observing its efficiency over time. This last step is fundamental for the product before being released on the market.

Container ship pollution represents the biggest environmental impact of the shipping sector. A reduction of their drag resistance would offer the possibility of a substantial decrease in fuel consumption and subsequently reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.  More than 50 % of the energy required for propulsion – which is approximately 70% of the total fuel usage – is used to overcome frictional resistance.

On 27th April, AIRCOAT participated at LEC Sustainable Shipping Technologies Forum 2021. Project Coordinator Johannes Oeffner from Fraunhofer CML moderated Session II: Ship efficiency technologies, combining speeches on the latest technology innovations to improve the efficiency of ship propulsion. During the event Nils Hagemeister presented the latest developments in AIRCOAT: LDA channel experiment results, laboratory fouling test results and prototypes, and laboratory roll production results where we obtained a “replication ratio of the structure at 99,95%” explained Nils Hagemeister, research associate at Fraunhofer CML.

WEBINAR | Wednesday 19 May at 3.00 pm CET | EU Green Week – EU Partner Events

AIRCOAT H2020 project: How can nature help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry? 

As part of the EU Green Week Partner Events, the webinar will give insights into the development of the surface structure and test results. We will demonstrate how the size, geometry, and chemical properties of the surface structure play a crucial role in creating air lubrication.

Speakers:

• Jonathan Weisheit, Research Associate | CML Fraunhofer
• Dr Jukka-Pekka Jalkanen, Senior Researcher | Finnish Meteorological Institute – FMI
• Dr Stefan Walheim, Senior Researcher | Karlsruher Institut Für Technologie – KIT
• Dr Albert Baars, Group Leader Computational Fluid Dynamics | B-I-C of City University Of Applied Sciences Bremen
• Christoph Wilms, Researcher | B-I-C of City University Of Applied Sciences Bremen

Moderator:

• Clémence Contant, Project Manager, REVOLVE

AIRCOAT technology is aiming to reduce energy consumption and ship emissions, as defined by the EU Green Deal looking to reduce gas emission for the ship industry by 40% by 2030. The air barrier created by the AIRCOAT foil further limits the attachment of fouling and consequent invasive species translocation. It will also avoid the release of biocide substances of underlying coatings to the water and mitigate the radiation of ship noise, something that has detrimental effects on marine life such as cetaceans.

The project will help to understand and validate environmentally friendly initiatives within the maritime industry, paving the way for further marine research initiatives that reduce our footprint in the oceans.

CONTACTS

Read more on www.aircoat.eu