Norwegian coatings company Jotun and marine robotics manufacturer Kongsberg Maritime have joined forces to develop a proactive hull cleaning solution designed to provide full operational flexibility and an unbeatable environmental footprint
Called Jotun HullSkater, this new lean, green cleaning machine is part of Jotun Hull Skating Solutions. This is the first solution developed for proactive bio-fouling control on ships and offers the potential to reduce fuel costs by around US$3.6mn and CO2 emissions by 12.5 per cent annually, on a typical vessel.
As Jotun’s strategic partner on the HullSkater project since 2015, Kongsberg Maritime has contributed to the technology and know-how including the development of secure remote control, cloud-based data storage, battery technology, acoustics and composite materials. HullSkater also uses KONGSBERG’s global communications infrastructure and Kognifai cloud ecosystem, both of which contribute to its ability to abolish significant performance losses caused by fouling and negate the need for waste collection.
Kongsberg Maritime is responsible for the industrialisation and manufacturing of HullSkater, which will take place at a new facility located close to its Sensors & Robotics campus in Horten, Norway. HullSkater will be supported by extended performance and service level guarantees, with global technical support from Jotun and Kongsberg Maritime.
Alfie Ong, vice-president, Jotun Marine Coatings, said, “We have devised a truly innovative solution, which we believe will revolutionise the shipping industry, moving away from traditional, reactive methods of managing fouling to a proactive approach which will ensure that vessels are always operating efficiently and sustainably.”
HullSkater can inspect a 10,000m2 hull in approximately two hours. As a permanent member of the crew, it is always on the station, ready to clean all known fouling from the hull, which if left to accumulate causes increased drag leading to extra fuel consumption and emissions to air (GHG and CO2).
Egil Haugsdal, president, Kongsberg Maritime, commented, “Conserving our ocean environment and enabling sustainable marine operations is a priority for KONGSBERG, and HullSkater offers a uniquely proactive way to solve the difficult problem of fouling growth.”
