Ship bottoms are coated with anti-fouling paints for vessels to prevent adhesion of marine organisms, such as barnacles. Adhesion of marine organisms on the ship bottoms increases resistance and decreases the fuel efficiency and speed of vessels, causing the operational efficiency of vessels to decrease. We have been developing anti-fouling paints for ship bottoms to prevent adhesion of marine organisms and reduce the impact on the marine and atmospheric environments. This technology has two key points. First, the water trap technology using our proprietary hydrogel has made it possible to reduce fuel consumption. Second, anti-fouling performance is achieved by an unconventional solution. Most anti-fouling paints for ship bottoms are hydrolysable. They are made mainly from anti-fouling components and hydrolysable resins. The anti-fouling performance is maintained by renewing the coating film surface in water. Our new technology is designed to form a hydrophilic-hydrophobic domain using a resin and uniformly diffuse the anti-fouling component. This makes it possible to demonstrate the anti-fouling performance at a low polishing rate (coating film consumption rate).

The Nippon Paint Holdings Group has been developing various hydrolysable anti-fouling paints for ship bottoms. Notably, in terms of global warming, which has emerged as a problem recently, these paints can contribute significantly to reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere by reducing the frictional resistance of vessels and significantly reducing fuel consumption. In fact, CO2 emissions from ocean-going transport vessels are comparable to emissions in Germany. We help improve the operational efficiency of vessels by offering paints for ship bottoms. We believe that this contributes significantly to improving the operation of vessels around the world and reducing the environmental impact.