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As global water temperatures increase, global ‘biofouling hotspots’ in subtropical/tropical areas are intensifying, exposing newbuildings at the world’s major shipyards to greater risk of hard fouling during the outfitting process. The effects of intense hard fouling on idle newbuilds can have great impact on a newly applied hull coating and on a vessel’s performance in sea trials.

In response to this problem, a new antifouling coating specifically targeting hard biofouling prevention during the outfitting period was brought to market by Danish marine coatings specialist Hempel in late 2017. GLOBIC 9500S includes the unique antifouling ingredient Selektope® as part of its ‘smart biocide package’ that delivers boosted static performance against hard fouling for ships with extended idle periods.

Philip Chaabane, CEO I-TECH AB, says: “Our product is boosting the performance of sophisticated antifouling systems under harsh fouling conditions, such as those experienced during outfitting at shipyards in South Korea. Selektope® is clearly adding value to the coatings products that the major coating manufacturers offer.”

Selektope® is an organic, non-metal compound that repels barnacle settlement on ships’ hulls by temporarily stimulating the barnacle larvae’s swimming behavior. It is characterized by high efficacy at extremely low concentrations (0.1% w/w), is ultra-low leaching and offer paint manufacturers the flexibility to boost copper-based paint formulations or replace copper completely. Due to the low concentration required, Selektope® does not compromise the chemical structure, color or other cooperative biocides of a marine coating.

This first-of-its-kind antifouling technology caught the attention of coatings suppliers in the early stages of its research and development. To-date, several products have been launched onto the market and the number of Selektope®-containing coatings being sold by different manufacturers is increasing year-on-year.

I-Tech AB, the Swedish biotechnology company behind the development of Selektope®, recently responded to strong market demand for the antifouling ingredient in South Korea by appointing KhaiEL as Selektope’s exclusive importer and agent. Under the new agreement, I-Tech will continue to manage sales of Selektope® in South Korea while KhaiEL will exclusively handle imports.

“We are delighted to be working with such a highly reputed company in KhaiEL to strengthen the supply of Selektope® to South Korea. This business relationship reflects the need to address increasing demand for our product in South Korea, particularly from the shipyards and many owners running risks of extended idling, whether during newbuilding or operations,” says Philip Chaabane.

“KhaiEL is very proud to partner with I-Tech to represent the highly innovative Selektope® technology in the Korean market,” says Paul Cho, Marketing Director KhaiEL.

South Korea is a key market for I-Tech. The company believes that coatings containing Selektope® play a vital role for shipyards located in biofouling hotspots with its barnacle-repellent technology.

Selektope® is an organic, non-metal compound that works to prevent barnacle fouling by temporarily activating the swimming behaviour of barnacle cyprid larvae, making it impossible for them to settle on the hull. It is characterized by high efficacy at extremely low concentrations (0.1% w/w), is ultra-low leaching and offers paint manufacturers the flexibility to boost copper-based paint formulations or replace copper completely.

In 2015, the vertical sides and flat bottom of Laurin Maritime’s vessel Calypso were fully coated with an antifouling coating containing Selektope® during its first five-year drydock. The vessel has spent two years in active operation across a wide range of trade routes, with more than 50% of operating time spent in biofouling hotspots with > 25oC (up to 32oC) temperatures.

Independent hull and propeller performance analysis has verified that after twenty-four months Calypso’s increased total resistance was calculated to be 7%, compared with a benchmark new vessel that would see an increase in resistance of 10-20%. Over the period, speed losses experienced by Calypso amounted to a mere 2% when measured against sea trial performance. Data also confirmed that the development rate of added resistance for Calypso amounted to 0.1 % (0.5% to 1.5% is expected).

A recent underwater hull inspection established that Calypso’s hull is very clean, with divers finding no soft or hard fouling over the starboard and portside verticals, flat bottom and bilge areas.

Laurin Maritime’s technical director Bertil Andersson says: “The vessel has now operated for two years since last dry dock, and we can conclude that the fouling of the hull (read added hull resistance) remains at a very low level and the trend continues being flat.”

I-Tech CEO Philip Chaabane says: “This independent analysis of performance data and the underwater hull inspection provide convincing long-term performance results from a full-vessel application of a Selektope®-containing hull coating for a vessel with significant exposure to severe fouling conditions. The fact that the hull fouling trend continues to be flat means that our general outlook on the continuous performance of the Selektope®-containing coating is very positive. This delivers the proof required that our unique antifouling ingredient can offer ship operators guaranteed hard fouling prevention performance for any vessel activity and trading patterns.”

With multiple major coatings suppliers now turning to Selektope® to enhance their products, I-Tech AB is urging ship owners to check whether the ingredient is available in all antifoulings being considered as part of the coatings selection process.

Under the new agreement, I-Tech will continue to manage sales of Selektope® in South Korea while KhaiEL will exclusively handle imports.

“We are delighted to be working with such a highly reputed company in KhaiEL to strengthen the supply of Selektope to South Korea. This business relationship reflects the need to address increasing demand for our product in South Korea, particularly from the shipyards and many owners running risks of extended idling in conjunction with new buildings and subsequent operations,” says Philip Chaabane, CEO I-Tech AB.

“KhaiEL is very proud to partner with I-Tech to represent the highly innovative Selektope® technology in the Korean market,” says Paul Cho, Marketing Director KhaiEL.

The organic, non-metal compound Selektope® is the only ingredient of its kind used in a marine antifouling application. It is characterized by high efficacy at extremely low concentrations (approx.0.1% w/w), ultra-low leaching and flexibility and can boost the performance of copper-based paint formulations or replace copper completely. Due to the low concentration required, Selektope® does not compromise the chemical structure, color or other cooperative biocides of a marine coating.

KhaiEL GmbH is a chemical company based in Germany and South Korea that has a distribution business and has been developing specialty chemicals since 2007.

I-Tech AB is a Gothenburg-based biotech company that has developed and marketed the unique antifouling ingredient Selektope® since 2006.

A statement from I-Tech CEO Philip Chaabane:

“Merry Christmas and Happy new year to you all. As 2018 approaches, it’s good to look ahead and think about what the year may bring us. But first, a quick look back at successes we have celebrated throughout 2017 for our unique, bio-repellent ingredient Selektope. It has been an outstanding year of developments for our technology, with new antifouling coatings products being launched by new paint manufacturers boosted with barnacle-repellent power thanks to Selektope. I-Tech AB has won awards, welcomed new team members and our team has worked to strengthen our production and supply chain to guarantee delivery of our product in the face of snowballing demand. We will unravel the details of this work and associated developments in early 2018, but for now I can confirm that I-Tech is securing a long future for Selektope in the marine coatings sector. Watch this space – 2018 will be an exciting year for Selektope!

As a Swedish company, and on behalf of the entire I-Tech AB team, I wish you ‘God Jul’ and I hope that you enjoy reading our year in review.”

2017 was quite a year for all of us at I-Tech AB. We’ve been through many developments, both for our innovative antifouling ingredient Selektope and within our team. So much has been achieved, making 2017 a remarkable year for the company and the technology and we are proud to present a review of our 2017 highlights.

Early in the year, I-Tech made two senior appointments to our management team. Catherine Austin assumed the role of Director of Marketing and Communications bringing her extensive experience from various roles in the shipping sector including the ownership and operation of a publishing and events company, ownership of a technical consultancy company and being a well-reputed technical journalist and magazine editor. Then, Magnus Henell assumed the role of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) within I-Tech’s management team, bringing his extensive CFO and CEO experience from various small and medium companies including his role of CEO for PowerCell Sweden AB and vast experience of M&A work within the Volvo Group to I-Tech.

From the start of 2017, Selektope was being shortlisted for multiple maritime industry awards, confirmation of the impact of the technology on the sector. Also, we celebrated our first award in the European Biocides sector, when I-Tech was recognised as the technology innovation leader in the European marine biocides market by Frost & Sullivan, being awarded the 2017 Technology Innovation Award. Based on their independent analysis of the European biocides market, Frost & Sullivan found that the long-term environmental and economic benefits of using I-Tech’s unique bio-repellent antifouling ingredient, Selektope, make it a truly innovative technology in the European marine biocides market. Frost & Sullivan saying that: “The solution has the potential to induce transformative change in the marine industry,” and that they expect the technology will become the trendsetter in the European marine biocides market in the coming years.

In June, Stena RoRo signed a contract to coat the hulls of four newbuild RoPax ferries with a Selektope-containing coating. Amongst the many vessels being coated each year with Selektope-containing antifouling products, this is a stand-out milestone for the company as it represents a vessel type that is pioneering the use of Selektope. The delivery of the newbuild Stena RoPax ferries is scheduled for 2019/2020 from the AVIC yard in Weihai, China and we look forward to receiving the first performance results.

Then, in late-June we celebrated the increasing diversification in the range of Selektope®-containing antifoulings when a brand-new product was launched by Chugoku Marine Paints. SEA GRANDPRIX 880HS PLUS is the third product Chugoku Marine Paints (CMP) has launched that contains Selektope®. It joins CMP’s SEAFLO NEO CF Premium; and SEAFLO NEO-S PREMIUM that were launched in August 2016. Uniquely, for this product CMP boldly guarantees extended static performance of up to 45 days, thanks to the barnacle-repellent boost enabled by Selektope.

Later in the year, another new coating product was launched; this time by Danish paint manufacturer Hempel A/S. GLOBIC 9500S is an outfitting coating specifically formulated with Selektope to deliver boosted static performance against hard fouling for idle ships during the outfitting process at shipyards. Its development driven by requests from the shipyards, we are extremely proud that Hempel selected our technology in response to market demand.

Strong demand for Selektope in Asia led I-Tech to enhance local supply chain arrangements. In late 2017, we signed an agreement with well-known chemicals trading company NAGASE & CO., LTD to exclusively handle imports of Selektope to the Japanese market. To date, hundreds of Japanese vessels have been coated with antifoulings containing Selektope, but demand continues to grow strongly. As we sail into 2018, I-Tech will be announcing further partnerships with exclusive import agents across the Asia region in a move to strengthen our supply chains.

Last, but not least. The Selektope.com website underwent a complete transformation in 2017. Now optimised for the increasing number of visitors we are welcoming to the site; our online platform is enriched with resources, videos, information and provides everything you need to know about Selektope – and looks rather great (we think!). If you’re reading this year in review article in our news section, take time to look around the new website.

All that is left to say is that, what a year it has been for Selektope! We look forward to 2018!