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PRONICARE

Transnational cooperation for protecting niche areas from marine corrosion and biofouling by green coatings and new testing technologies

Description

Transnational cooperation for protecting niche areas from marine corrosion and biofouling by green coatings and new testing technologies

75.652618317451%

75.652618317451%

75.652618317451%

  • Ongoing

Overview

Funding

€ 1,400,000

Duration

Jul 2022 - Jul 2025

Type of action

Joint Call

Project Abstract

The main objectives of PRONICARE are (i) to develop an eco-friendly, cost-efficient, thin hybrid sol-gel coating with functional additives to provide a combination of corrosion and biofouling protection for metal surfaces in niche areas relevant to shipping and offshore aquaculture; (ii) to establish testing methods and a mobile test unit to evaluate the new coating with respect to marine growth protection, corrosion, competitiveness and eco-friendliness. The goals of PRONICARE will be achieved by

  • Investigating a wide range of copper free sol-gel based green coating formulations with functional additives
  • Applying the novel coating to a set of modular prototypes of heat exchanger/box cooler and sea chests
  • Developing a new mobile test unit and methodology to validate the effectiveness of the coating on the prototypes mimicking real ship conditions creating a new standard procedure
  • Conducting environmental impact and life cycle analysis of the coating

We expect the following major outcomes:

  • New coating formulations able to protect metal surfaces from corrosion and marine growth, with less environmental impact compared to the current SOA technology
  • New test methodology and test unit
  • Improving understanding of biofouling propagation and protection of niche areas

PRONICARE is a collaborative effort by six partners including industries (ANKRON, ABT, Funzionano, Kelvion) and research institutions (SINTEF, AWI) from three different countries (Norway, Germany and Malta). This cross-cutting perspective will result in innovations capable of benefiting multiple sectors of high potential for a sustainable marine economy, like transport and aquaculture. This strategy will increase the competitive strength of European maritime industries, secure and create jobs, and improve sustainability. It will provide a significant added value against the spread of marine invasive species, as it offers a new solution to test antifouling systems under real life conditions and to detect their design limitations.

Consortium

Coordinator

Dr Juan Yang, SINTEF AS, Norway

 

Consortium

SINTEF AS, Norway

Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Germany

AquaBioTech Group, Malta

Ankron Water Services GmbH, Germany

Funzionano AS, Norway

Kelvion Machine Cooling Systems GmbH, Germany