Catalytic Innovation Paves the Way to Billion Dollar savings Through Better Marine Bio-fouling Management

The cost of Bio-fouling is a major drag on profitability in marine industries such as aquaculture, shipping and offshore. Accumulation of bio-organisms on the surface of marine assets causes a range of issues from lower aquaculture biomass yields, increased shipping fuel consumption and increased structural loads on offshore facilities. Due to the limitations of existing bio-fouling mitigation techniques, the direct costs related to bio-fouling currently exceeds USD 40 billion/year in these industries. Foulstopp’s catalytic technology enables elimination of a substantial share of these costs by removing major limitations of todays antifouling methods.

Bio-fouling is widely recognized to have a significant adverse effects on the performance of marine assets. Today, marine operators typically have implemented bio-fouling management programs based on coatings and/or mechanical cleaning which leaves a very large room for further improvement. While highly effective coating methods based on leaching of potent long-life biocides such as TBT and copper based chemicals have been used in the past these have for all practical purposes been rendered useless or ineffective due to outright bans or strict limits on use by regulators. Coatings available to the marine industries today are limited by environmentally benign but less effective biocides and typically have a relatively short service life relative to the maintenance cycles of the assets they are supposed to protect. Accordingly coatings are typically combined with frequent mechanical cleaning which drives costs and creates secondary pollution issues.

Catalytic Innovation meets marine operations reality 

FoulStopp's bio-fouling prevention technology has been developed to sustain marine asset performance in harsh bio-fouling conditions without breaching regulatory barriers. By using a novel long-life, light-weight catalyst system for in-situ generation of an approved active substance FoulStopp is able drastically suppress bio foulant growth, improving asset performance as well as reducing costs of fouling management. 

Strong incentives for improved bio-fouling management

The business impacts of bio-fouling are significant across several marine industry domains. Within shipping bio-fouling accounts for a staggering 10% of the fuel consumption globally, while for individual vessels the penalty may exceed 50%, further compounded by reduced availability for hull cleaning and restoration. Unwanted growth on energy infrastructure is known to cause 10% of the LCOE within offshore wind and reduce the energy performance up to 17% while reducing mooring line fatigue life by as much as 76% for wave power plants. Furthermore, in sea based drilling operations in the oil and gas industry, biofouling accounts for 30 % of the total maintenance cost. FoulStopp’s initial area of focus is the aquaculture sector where bio-fouling is responsible for up to 30% of the direct production cost, reduced biomass yields and limiting expansion of otherwise highly profitable farming activities.

Taking the steps towards profitable salmon framing growth  

FoulStopp is together with established players in the salmon aquculture sector taking the steps towards a first industrial deployment of the technology. Recently completed prototype testing has verified the technologys ability to achieve distributed and controlled generation of biocide with the proprietary low cost catalyst system in an easy to manufacture product assembly. FoulStopp is currently carrying out long term prototype testing and validation in a controlled environment in preparation for industrial testing with an aquaculture industry operator. 

Cash flow and environment drivers for Transition 

— We see great potential in integrating our effective, scalable, low cost fouling prevention technology in the aquaculture supply chain. While the positive effect of copper-based coats on farm performance is well known, so are the negative effects on the surrounding ecosystem which has caused regulators to render this method unfeasible in a growing number of locations and markets. “Together with our partners in the industry we see that there is a clear opportunity to substantially increase profitability of existing farms while enabling development of new farm projects in attractive locations” says Lars Erik Fareid, co-founder at FoulStopp.

Market Potential and Future Outlook

Bio-fouling management is a critical factor in a number of industries with long term structural tail winds such as food production and renewable energy.

Conservative estimates indicate that the direct costs of bio-fouling exceed 40 billion dollars per year across marine segments and further opportunity to unlock profitable growth means the market potential for effective bio-fouling prevention technologies is enormous.

For investors and industry players, it is becoming increasingly important to apply the best mitigation strategies as this will have an outsized impact on their ability to profitable growth in the coming years.