Subsea Industries has won the Environmental Protection Award at the 10th IBJ Awards, held at The Eskimo Factory in Ghent. The award was presented by Ray Girvan, Publisher of International Bulk Journal and Femke Brenninkmeijer, Port of Amsterdam’s Head of Energy, Bulk, Agri, Breakbulk & Offshore.

Subsea spokesperson Tamara Slight accepted the award on behalf of our company. She said: “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award. We know that the judges are highly expert and discriminating and we take the award as a very valuable acknowledgement for our achievements with our line of environmentally friendly washable coating systems.”

The washable coating system relies on ship hulls protection allowing fast, effective cleaning without risk of damage to the coating and without posing any kind of hazard to the environment. Ecospeed is this system.

There is currently no hull coating available which will not foul, say Subsea. The only way to remove this fouling is to clean it off. The Ecospeed coating has a glassy surface that was designed to be washed without being damaged. This enables fast and efficient fouling control throughout a ship’s entire service life.

Underwater maintenance of Ecospeed is carried out with specially designed underwater hull cleaning tools that simultaneously remove all fouling and optimize the smoothness of the paint surface. It allows divers to clean the flat areas as well as the harder to reach parts of the hull without damaging the coating.

One of the many unique characteristics is that with repeated underwater hull cleaning the coating’s surface improves. Cleaning can be carried out whenever needed, at any point in its lifespan.

Ecospeed can also be cleaned in drydock with high pressure tools. With Ecospeed the coating is always in a brand-new, excellent condition after a high pressure washing and no material is lost. Only the fouling is removed. The coating stays on the ship instead of dispersing in the water and contaminating the shipyard and the surrounding waters.

The coating is also suited for ships which have a stationary period because an impermeable and impenetrable barrier is created. This gives the coating its excellent and durable anti-corrosive properties and protects the underwater hull against mechanical damage. Despite the aggressive nature of certain types of fouling, no corrosion or damage to the steel will be present on the underwater hull of the vessel after cleaning. The hard fouling is unable to penetrate or damage the coating.