Life Cycle Assessment of Marine Coatings

Abstract

In this thesis I present two unique studies to capture the environmental performance of a new marine coating, XGIT-Fuel. A small-scale fishing boat study was analyzed and a relationship between the hull condition of the vessels (fouled, clean, and coated) and their fuel efficiency, was successfully identified through performing speed trials. A fully turbulent flow channel was used to determine the roughness functions of a controlled depletion polymer, a silicone foul release, a gelcoat barrier, an ice breaking coating and the XGIT-Fuel coating. The obtained data was used in a scaling procedure to determine the effects of each coating on the frictional resistance and powering of a full-scale containership in its applied condition. The results from this study were used to perform a comparative life cycle assessment on the production, application, and in-service phases of BRA640, INT1100SR, and XGIT-Fuel when applied to the hull of a 3,600 TEU containership.