POLLUTION CONTROL

New anti-fouling system for box coolers

17 years ago

A new oil combat vessel which is being built at the STX Europe yard in Finland will be the first ship to be installed with a new box cooler anti-fouling system which has been jointly developed by Cathelco and Blokland Non Ferro.

Designed to clean up oil spillages and operated by the Finnish Government, the vessel will have a total of six box coolers, each protected against marine pipework bio-fouling with a specially designed Cathelco system. The order was won by Epomare OY, Cathelco’s Finnish agent based in Turku. Cathelco have worked in partnership with Blokland Non Ferro, the Dutch specialists in box coolers, to produce a system that is effective at preventing marine growth and easy to install.

‘The new box cooler unit has many advantages in terms of ease of installation and effectiveness in preventing bio-fouling and can be adapted to the needs of vessels worldwide’,said Justin Salisbury, managing director of Cathelco.

The Cathelco anti-fouling unit containing the anode is simply attached to the base of the box cooler on a framework. In operation, a current is passed to the anode from a control panel resulting in the production of copper ions. These are delivered directly beneath the cooling tubes where they prevent mussel and barnacle larvae from settling and growing.

Less installation work is required by the yard as the box cooler is supplied as a complete unit and it is not necessary to make penetrations in the seachest or carry out additional fabrication work.

This is the first time that Cathelco have provided an integral box cooler unit of this type. However, the principles of the system are well established and have been proved on over 20,000 vessels around the world using the more conventional seachest and strainer installations.

Only very small concentrations of copper ions (around 4 parts per billion) are required to prevent larvae from settling and therefore the system is safe and environmentally friendly.

Cathelco marine pipework anti-fouling systems are being increasingly used in box cooler applications. A total of 78 anodes were recently supplied for Barreras NB1664, a new type of offshore accommodation ship which is being constructed in Vigo for Edda Accommodation, part of the Ostensjo Group.

Earlier in the year, a box cooler anti-fouling system was installed on the Venus, an 86m car ferry operated by the Swedish Road Administration on the short crossing between Svanesund and Kolhattan.