Project Abstract top

The goal of ECOPAINT is to enable the efficient use of environmentally friendly paints and coating processes in ship newbuilding. New paints developed by paint manufacturers to limit emissions caused by organic solvents require new optimized surface preparation and application technologies to gain both less hazards to the workers and the environment as well as increased productivity and high quality in the shipyard. This will significantly increase the competitiveness of European shipbuilders on the world market. Based on an auditing scheme developed in the project, alternative coatings and application techniques will be evaluated and tested considering their impact on occupational health and environment, their efficiency and long-term properties both in construction and ship operation. Optimum overall solutions will be developed, approved and described in guidelines and rules.

Objectives top

Coating is an increasingly important area for ship owners and operators. The regulations being imposed in Europe on Health and Safety (H&S) and Environmental control place an extra burden on the shipyards compared to their competitors and so there is a need to develop cost effective ways of managing the coating process to maintain competitiveness. The objective of this project is to develop guidelines and recommendations covering best work practice on industrial coating processes with respect to best product quality, safest health and working conditions and the smallest environmental impact. The project will deliver

• Independent comparison of coating materials
• Improved Health and Safety performance of the coating process
• Guidelines for applications of best practice coating processes considering Health and Safety and environment protection
• A specification and mock-up of a coating management system
• Improved understanding of the Environmental equation and identification of critical areas from this study and specific areas where more detailed work is required to take into account the through life impact of ship operations and scrapping

ECOPAINT will test alternative coating materials combined with new surface and application technologies to reduce solvent emissions so that the shipyards are prepared to fulfil the demands of the VOC-Guideline. The target is to properly integrate the coating process into the ship production activities to achieve improved productivity and coating standards throughout the life of the ship. In addition dissemination of intermediate and final results will be a key objective. The coating process has considerable impact on the environment and generates high levels of waste and poses several Health and Safety risks. The process needs to be reviewed and improved to ensure that it meets the requirements of regulations and legislation. Coating selection and application at new building has a larger impact on the performance of the coating through the life of the vessel. Thus, any changes made to this process must be based on an understanding of the in service performance of the coating to make sure that changes at the new building process do not inadvertently degrade in service performance.

Description of Work top

The project workplan includes six main work packages and an additional task for the project management.

Workplan overview top

• WP1 State of the Art
  Since the process of coating is a complex process covering many separate interrelated activities such as surface preparation, paint formulation and application, health and safety and vessel performance and operation WP1 brings together the knowledge of the individual partners to develop a full picture of the coating process and its various influences. With its four tasks the following areas are to be addressed: Production, Health and Safety Conditions, Environmental conditions, Testing requirements for long-term behaviour. This workpackage enables targeted development and selection of analysis methods and production technologies in WP2, WP3, WP4 and WP5.
• WP2 Enhancement of shipyard coating processes
  WP2 develops coating processes which can be integrated in the newbuilding process in order to find an optimum ratio between productivity, quality, material and labour cost while keeping the environmental emissions and the hazards to human operators to a minimum. These are conflicting approaches. This overall integrated approach are to be co-ordinated by a computer-supported coating management software with an auditing scheme as one part to be developed which will compare existing and alternative coating techniques based on defined overall goals. The tasks of this workpackage than focuses on testing of alternative coating materials, improvement of surface preparation technologies, improvement of application technologies, repair and maintenance aspects, the production of a large scale prototype. These topics are investigated in individual worktasks, which are described in the detailed workpackage description. The work concentrates on four different ship areas: tanks, underwater, superstructure and internals. The large scale prototype is done to ensure the quality when the different tasks are put together. The prototype is supposed to be a special designed test-section but if possible it will be a part of a real ship. The production related results finally summarise in recommendations for the shipyards.
• WP3 Health and safety in shipyards
  Almost all coating materials in the shipyards contain hazardous components. WP3 analyses the effects and improvements of alternative coating materials and application technologies on the working conditions. The WP defines and develops a respective measurement methodology, performs measurements during the production process, and then defines requirements to improve operational safety.
• WP4 Long-term behaviour of coatings
  The goal of this workpackage is to establish methods and criteria for quality assessment of ship paint. Such criteria should not only take into account the long term behaviour of the coatings, but also operational (WP2) and health and safety (WP3) aspects at the yard, as well as environmental impacts (WP5). The work focuses on long-term performance of corrosion protection for tanks, superstructure and internals and coating roughness and anti-fouling properties for ship hulls. It also covers coating technologies, optical appearance especially of superstructure and internals and cleaning-friendliness of coated surfaces.
• WP5 Environmental impact of coating processes
  This workpackage provides information on the short-term environmental impact of alternative coatings by analysing the release of these components into water and sediment during production and operation. It determines and develops a measurement methodology for the respective components, performs measurements during ship application and finally estimates the environmental impact. Baseline for the latter is a model which has been developed by DNV. This model allows calculating world fleet emissions from engines and hull. This model are to be extended toward the entire coating area.
• WP6 Recommendations
  WP2 (production), WP3 (working conditions) and WP5 (environmental impact) are targeting conflicting optimisation criteria. This workpackage harmonises the previous results and develops an optimised solution for the yards. Different ship types and production environments are to be considered. The dissemination of project intermediate and final results is the second task of this workpackage. The project consortium establishes three user groups (paint manufactures, ship owners, shipyards) to ensure intensive exchange of experience and fast technology take-up. Two workshops are to be organised (PM18 and PM36) to discuss intermediate and final results with potential users.
• WP7 Project management
  Proven methods are applied to ensure efficient administration, co-ordination of the work carried out and the technical correct development.

Project Targets top

• The key technical achievements will come in the following measurable forms:
• Improved shipyard productivity with positive results in both Health and Safety and Environmental benefits.
• Improved correlation and test methods to better understand the impact of the coating process adopted on the through life performance of the coatings. Under each of those a number of measurable variables can be easily developed to demonstrate and quantify improvements such as:
• Long term. Reduce overall VOC emissions Replace toxic substance tin coatings Reduce overall environmental impact
• Medium Term Reduce waste generated from the process Improve surface preparation and application technologies Look at alternative products and systems
• Short term Improve productivity Reduce costs Simplify acceptance procedures Reduce re-work Improve environmental image.