GreenHull – Interreg Italia-Slovenia – CORILA – Consorzio per il coordinamento delle ricerche inerenti al sistema lagunare di Venezia – Consortium for coordination of research activities concerning the Venice lagoon system

Published on 21-12-2020

Development of a prototype for cleaning the incrustations of the hulls of ships

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GreenHull – Interreg Italia-Slovenia

Programme or Providing body: Interreg V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020
Project title: Green technologies for ecological cleaning of biological incrustation on hulls in the Upper Adriatic
Acronym: GreenHull
Duration: 1/03/2019-28/2/2022 – Prolongation to 31/05/2022
Project budget: 882.168,83 €
CORILA budget: 176.480,00 €
Progress: 20%
Contact person in CORILA: dabala@corila.it
Keywords: Biofouling north Adriatic sea Innovative Green Technologies-IGT cleaning of the hulls of boats waste management.

Abstract

The GreenHull project aims to help the protection of the environment of the upper Adriatic Sea thanks to the development of a prototype for cleaning the incrustations of the hulls of ships, consisting of an underwater multisensory platform, with the cleaning unit integrated with a modular purification plant. Such technology will filter polluting compounds and organisms from wastewater of cleaning , before returning them to the sea.

The regions of the North-East of Italy and Slovenia are today in a strategic and barycentric position with respect to international shipping traffic, but ships arriving from ports all over the world represent a threat to the local habitat and its rich biodiversity, as it is known that the bio fouling on the hulls is one of the main causes of the introduction of alien species in marine ecosystems.

Marine biofouling, that is the accumulation of micro-organisms, plants, algae and animals on structures such as the hulls of ships, also causes significant economic losses every year as it increases the corrosion, the roughness of the hull and the fuel consumption.

The legislation provides that the cleaning of the fouling is being made by shipowners, who usually carry it out in ports, in dry docks, but the procedure is very long and expensive. Furthermore, if cleaning is not performed professionally and in accordance with the law, cross-border contamination of the environment may occur.

Objectives

GreenHull aims to contribute to solve the problem of pollution in the Program Area, thanks to the development of Innovative Green Technologies that allow the cleaning of biological encrustations on the hulls of boats, by improving the performance of ships and reducing the introduction of alien species in the environment.

Thanks to the collaboration between Italy and Slovenia in the public and private sector, the GreenHull project will help in defining the procedures for cross-border control, monitoring and management of marine water and for the treatment of hazardous waste produced while cleaning the bio fouling from the hull of boats.

Main results

The partners of the GreenHull project will develop 2 Innovative Green Technologies that will allow to:

remove the biological encrustations from the hulls of boats, directly in the marine environment, in an efficient, effective and safe way;
recover the waste resulting from the biofouling removal operation and filter the wastewater which, once purified, can be released again into the sea.

Additionally, guidelines for the use of these technologies and the control, monitoring and management of marine waters, will be developed in order to be submitted to the marinas and port Authorities of the north Adriatic area for their adoption, together with a strategy for cross-border joint venture in the marine water management sector, as an integration to the existing national and community legislation.