Iodine-infused aeration for hull fouling prevention: a vessel-scale study

Abstract

Biofouling is a significant economic and ecological problem, causing reduced vessel performance and increases in fuel consumption and emissions. Previous research has shown iodine vapor (I)-infused aeration to be an environmentally friendly method for deterring the settlement of fouling organisms. An aeration system was deployed on a vessel with hull sections coated with two types of antifoulant coatings, Intersleek 1100 (fouling-release) and Interspeed BRA-640 (ablative copper biocide), as well as an inert epoxy barrier coating, to assess the effectiveness of aeration in conjunction with common marine coatings. I-infused aeration resulted in consistent reductions of 80-90% in hard fouling across all three coatings. Additionally, aeration reduced the soft fouling rate by 45-70% when used in conjunction with both Intersleek and Interspeed BRA versus those coatings alone. The results of this study highlight the contribution of I-infused aeration as a standalone mechanism for fouling prevention or as a complement to traditional antifouling coatings.

Marine Biofouling: A European Database for the Marine Renewable Energy Sector

“…Creating coatings that are effective and repellent to settlement under stationary conditions is challenging and many different strategies are under development and consideration in addition to classic biocide and fouling release technologies. Some examples include mechanical cleaning, physical control by applying acoustics [102], pressure or UV radiation [108], electro-chemical treatment [109], iodine vapor [110] and the development of repellent micro-and nano-textures [111]. Several of these approaches are inspired by how stationary marine organisms cope with the threat of being overgrown and colonized [112,113].…”

Using Virtual AChE Homology Screening to Identify Small Molecules With the Ability to Inhibit Marine Biofouling

“…While effective, collateral damage to non-target marine organisms and extended environmental half-lives and sediment accumulation has led to historic and emerging bans on many broad-spectrum antifouling biocides (Yebra et al, 2004;Dafforn et al, 2011). While innovative counter measurements such as iodine bubbles (Dickenson et al, 2017), UV-light (Richard et al, 2021) grooming strategies (Hearin et al, 2015) and functional coatings (Tian et al, 2020;Jin et al, 2021) are being researched, it is clear that more targeted and less toxic alternate antifouling technologies are urgently needed (Vinagre et al, 2020).…”

Deploying Elemental Iodine in a Vapor Form to Disinfect Water and to Clear Biofilms

“…The I 2 VP technology has also been tested elsewhere. A study funded by the US Navy demonstrated the potential for the patented I 2 infusion system to reduce the rate of bio-fouling within Department of Defense shipboard heat exchangers [23,47]. For this project, periodic infusion of air containing elemental iodine vapor into the heat exchanger reduced the need for routine physical cleaning (which requires hazardous chemicals) while maintaining with acceptable operating parameters.…”

“…We evaluated the effectiveness of an "I 2 vapor infusion" (I 2 VP) technology that introduces free iodine into solutions via transitory air bubbles that contain I 2 vapor [22] The I 2 VP technology is an adaptation of the iodine-infused aeration of elemental I 2 for hull fouling prevention. This method uses an infusion of air bubbles containing I 2 to prevent or reduce fouling by inactivating bacteria that create fouling matrixes [23]. The goal was to determine if I 2 VP was capable of general water disinfection by testing the killing of gram-positive and negative bacteria either in free solution or as biofilm communities.…”