Project: Transnational cooperation for protecting niche areas from marine corrosion and biofouling by green coatings and new testing technologies
| Acronym | PRONICARE (Reference Number: MarTERA-2020_42) |
| Duration | 01/07/2022 - 30/06/2025 |
| Project Topic | The main objectives of PRONICARE are: 1) to develop an eco-friendly, cost-efficient, thin hybrid sol-gel coating with functional additives, to provide a combination of corrosion and biofouling protection for metal surfaces in niche areas relevant to shipping and offshore aquaculture; 2) to establish testing methods and a mobile test unit to evaluate the new coating with respect to marine growth protection, corrosion, competitiveness and eco-friendliness. The goals of PRONICARE will be achieved by - Investigating a wide range of copper free sol-gel based green coating formulations with functional additives - Applying the novel coating to a set of modular prototypes of heat exchanges/box cooler and sea chests - Developing a new mobile test unit and methodology to validate the effectiveness of the coating on the prototypes mimicking real ship conditions creating a new standard procedure - Conducting environmental impact and life cycle analysis of the coating We expect the following major outcomes: - New coating formulations able to protect metal surfaces from corrosion and marine growth, with less environmental impact compared to the current SOA technology - New test methodology and test unit - Improving understanding of biofouling propagation and protection of niche areas PRONICARE is a collaborative effort from 6 partners including industries (ANKRON, ABT, Funzionano, Kelvion) and research institutions (SINTEF, AWI) from 3 different countries (Norway, Germany and Malta). This cross-cutting perspective will result in innovations capable of benefiting multiple sectors of high potential for a sustainable marine economy, like transport and aquaculture. This strategy will increase the competitive strength of European maritime industries, secure and create jobs, and improve sustainability. It will provide a significant added value against the spread of marine invasive species, as it offers a new solution to test antifouling systems under real life conditions able to detect their design limitations. |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | MarTERA |
| Call | MarTERA Call 2021 |