ShipCLEAR
Ship Hull In-Water Cleaning Practices:
Capacity, Logistics, Effects, Assessment and Risks.
Ship Hull In-water cleaning Practices:
Capacity, Logistics, Effects, Assessment and Risks.
Ship Hull In-water cleaning Practices:
Capacity, Logistics, Effects, Assessment and Risks.
Why this matters now
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is developing a legally binding framework for the control and management of ships’ biofouling.
In-water cleaning (IWC) is an important component of modern biofouling management, enabling vessels to manage biofouling accumulated on hull and in niche areas between dry-dockings thus maintaining fuel efficiency and minimising biosecurity risks. If expectations around how IWC should be conducted tighten, global demand for IWC practices that have a well understood and quantifiable impact on the environment and associated infrastructure might increase substantially.
Global IWC infrastructure at present may not be sufficient to meet future demand, resulting in potential delays, barriers to just-in-time arrivals, and other unintended consequences such as heightened biosecurity risks and fuel penalties. These effects may be further amplified by the potential requirement to keep submerged areas free of macrofouling.
The stakes are high for industry stakeholders such as ship owners and operators, ports, and service providers, as operational feasibility, compliance costs, environmental risks, and fleet efficiency could be affected by the regulatory outcome.be affected by the regulatory outcome.
Current Challenges:
Currently, the lack of uniformity and the increasing number of national and regional approaches to IWC create confusion, pose operational barriers to international shipping, and may create conditions for substandard, unsafe practices to take place, often in areas not protected via environmental regulations. IWC practices vary in terms of quality of the service, level of sophistication of the equipment used and associated safety and environmental standards.
In many jurisdictions where IWC is not under regulatory scrutiny, the operations often rely on highly abrasive cleaning methods that damage hull coatings and release large quantities of coating substances and biofouling directly into the water. This represents the worst-case scenario from biosecurity and water quality perspectives.
However, the ‘sudden’ replacement of national and regional policies by a uniform, global requirement may not solve all current issues and, in addition, it may pose unforeseen challenges.
There is significant potential to reduce these risks, but solutions must be realistic and tailored to regional contexts, recognising that resources, infrastructure, and regulatory capacity vary widely across the globe. Understanding how potential policy options could shift demand and current practices towards safer, regulated operations is critical for informed decision making.
The ShipCLEAR Proposal
Towards understanding of supply and demand for global IWC infrastructure
The ShipCLEAR Consortium was formed to address the need for strategic research that will investigate the feasibility of requiring IWC on a large scale given global shipping movements and distribution of IWC capacity. In doing so, it will identify priority locations for infrastructure development, and cost implications associated with different policy scenarios.
ShipCLEAR will encompass two phases.
Phase 1
Phase 1 will develop a model of the global shipping network that encompasses the current geographical distribution of IWC infrastructure. This model will be used to quantify and characterise the gap between the current ‘supply’ of global IWC infrastructure and future demand for IWC under different policy scenarios (for example, in terms of capture requirements).
Integrating representative assumptions about cleaning intervals and cleaning durations will allow the study to point to operational challenges and barriers associated with different compliance strategies and technologies.
Phase 1 will identify geographic shifts in demand under different policy scenarios and provide the basis for estimating potential financial implications and priorities for resource allocation to ensure IWC infrastructure is being established where it is most needed.
Phase 2
Phase 2 of the project will evaluate biosecurity and contamination risks, and greenhouse gas emissions of the shipping sector under different IWC policy scenarios.
An analysis of costs, risks and benefits will reveal the economic and environmental implications of competing policy pathways (relative to a status quo), showing where targeted investment and capacity-building could avoid barriers to compliance.
What it means for Stakeholders
The value of realistic capacity modelling is that it enables stakeholders to identify sustainable operations associated with reduced environmental risks, to pre-empt potential unintended consequences and to align strategies with existing environmental targets. ShipCLEAR will use predictive and empirical approaches to identify benefits and challenges of global IWC regulation to highlight areas that may require critical attention during the drafting of a legally binding framework for IWC practices.
Project Proponents: Who we are and why work with us?
This project concept was developed by four independent organisations that have extensive track records in managing and delivering large-scale multinational maritime projects for the public and private sectors as well as the specialised knowledge and in-house data to inform the project phases.
Land Water People (LWP)
Leaders in modelling and analysis of maritime transport and biosecurity pathway data.
Safinah
Specialists in marine coatings and the chain of activities linking vessel design, coatings performance and environmental outcomes.
Biofouling Solutions (BFS)
Experts in biofouling and invasive aquatic species management, including risk assessment, training, port baselines and ship surveys.
Bellona Foundation
An international non-profit dedicated to advancing ecological understanding and protecting nature, the environment and human health.
The ShipCLEAR Consortium is committed to providing unbiased, evidence-based analysis to stakeholders.
In order to ensure that the model results are tested and enriched by diverse expert perspectives representing key stakeholders from industry, government, and non-governmental organisations, focus groups will be combined with a consensus-building process. Combining rigorous modelling with collaborative cross-sector expert review will ensure results are both reliable and representative.
Get involved
We are seeking funding and partnership from organisations interested in ensuring that new regulations are both practical and environmentally effective, such as shipping organisations, ports, and service providers.
To express interest in learning more or joining the ShipCLEAR Consortium contact us at: project@shipclear.org
