Marine Coating Specialists Jotun and Coating Solutions Provider Safinah Group have long been assisting marine industry clients; one by offering ever-advanced technology for best results and the other in a wide variety of ways working with all market players in the industry. When they join forces to provide the most optimal tanker solutions for shipowners and charter operators, the one thing that needs to be done is listen. Jotun’s Global Concept Director Habibe Escobar Melendéz and Safinah Group’s Managing Director Andrew Hopkinson, who were both in Istanbul for their joint seminar entitled “Performance and Efficiency in Tank Coatings”, talked to MarineDeal News in an exclusive interview.
Escobar Melendéz: Tankguard Flexline significantly adds to earnings
Jotun’s Escobar Melendéz has sighted savings of up to USD 14,000 by relying on Jotun’s Solvoxirane technology, which also offers greater flexibility to owners and operators. Her answers below provide more information:
Could you possibly provide some information about the technology behind Tankguard Flexline?
Jotun’s Solvoxirane TM chemistry is at the heart of the solution. Standard tank coatings typically absorb low molecular weight, aggressive cargoes leading to swelling that stresses the structural network of the coating film. However, the composition of the Solvoxirane TM chemistry provides greater coating flexibility, minimizing structural stress over repeated absorption/desorption cycles. The Flexforce technology thereby increases the durability and life time of the coating system.
What kind of benefits does the coating offer to the ship owners in transportation of cargo?
In the ultra-competitive tanker market optimal vessel flexibility, efficiency and utilization are top of the ‘wish list’ for our global customer base.
Tankguard Flexline has been developed to solve this pressing industry problem, with its Flexforce technology designed for effective operation enabling vessels to carry critical and aggressive cargoes shipped in coated cargo tanks. That provides full flexibility to ship owners giving them a real business advantage.
Faster desorption times lead to decreased ventilation requirements, quicker turnaround and enhanced vessel earnings.
Typically, one day saved on ventilation equates to USD 14,000 in increased earnings.
What advantages does Tankguard Flexline offer during coat application? What advantages does it offer in terms of repair and maintenance cost-cutting for shipowners?
The application of Tankguard Flexline is not more complicated than other tank coating products in the market. Its application can be easily handled by yard applicators used to tank coating jobs.
Additionally, the raw materials of Tankguard Flexline have carefully been chosen to ensure that workers, applicators and environment are not exposed to unnecessary HSE risks. Tankguard Flexline requires hot curing, which can be achieved through different procedures.
However, this hot curing process does not necessarily need to be done using hot air, which normally is more complex and expensive and requires specialized heating equipment. The lifespan of any tank coating depends greatly on the coating technology, quality of application, cargo sequences, cleaning and ventilation procedures followed. Having said that, Tankguard Flexline endures; exposure to aggressive cargo for a long time period, extended cleaning cycles with hot water and approved cleaning agents, repeated absorption and desorption cycles of low molecular cargo, hot cargoes over a longer time period, contributing to a longer lifetime of the coating. Therefore, Tankguard Flexline can help ship owners to prolong maintenance intervals up to 50%. The prolonged coating lifetime can save up to USD 600,000 in maintenance costs on a typical tanker vessel.
Is there here any further information that you would like to add?
Tankguard Flexline has allowed customers to increase flexibility to carry an extensive range of products and chemicals.
Hopkinson: Owners should work with coat producers for better solutions
Responding to questions from MarineDeal News, Safinah Group’s Managing Director Hopkinson has shared expert insight that might provide invaluable for many owners and tanker operators; both on the general situation of markets and on the specific technical details of day-to-day business.
From a global aspect how do you see the chemical tank market? How is the trend in the forthcoming years?
It’s been a longtime coming since shipping markets have seen increased freight rates, but the recent explosion of rates experienced with VLCC’s partly driven by sanctions and temporary removal of DWT from the fleet is hope and encouragement for all. The demand for chemicals shipped on a global basis is ultimately driven by global GDP and population growth, both of which are forecasted to continue to grow in the coming years. Freight rates are of course dictated by the supply / demand balance and here we also expect a tightening. New build deliveries for the next 3 years are lower than recent years which will immediately create a better balance. All things considered, it would be expected that there should be an increase in freight rates in the coming years.
What would be your comments about market drivers?
One key change in the market over recent years is the banning of methanol washing of tanks unless the tanks are in inert atmosphere. This essentially bans methanol washing as the process to inert and gas free a tank to ensure cleanliness, then re-inert if not clean and continue the methanol wash, is both time consuming and costly. With the banning of methanol washing, owners are resorting to essentially surface-active cleaning agents which are generally inadequate to remove retained cargoes meaning Phenolic Epoxy coatings are essentially not fit for purpose with traders wishing to carry high purity chemicals.
A common back cargo would be a Clean Petroleum Product (CPP) but with the methanol washing ban it takes longer and longer to clean the rough Zinc Silicate coating from the CPP to a standard suitable to carry the subsequent Methanol cargo. The option for owners is to spend extra time and money cleaning, trade with an empty backhaul or look for alternative technologies.
In both situations, owners are spending longer and longer cleaning tanks, burning more bunker fuel to heat cleaning water and using more cleaning additives at a time when emissions and costs are critical. Additional challenges within the market include tightening of cargo specifications, better analytical techniques for detecting cargo contamination and a less than scientific approach to assessing tank cleanliness – the methanol wall wash test. The process of cleaning tanks is a differentiator in the market, but the challenge is becoming greater, experience is typically on the decline and entry into confined spaces to complete the task is under increased scrutiny.
What are the challenges in the chemical tank coatings market, what would be your recommendations for solutions to these challenges? What influences the life of a cargo tank coating?
One of the key issues in the chemical tank coating market is the alternative perspectives of the many players involved, all of which have a potential to create additional demands on the coatings. One option for improved performance is more collaborative working between each of the parties; ship owners and charterers working with paint companies to bring new technologies to market and to guide coatings through the real-life practicalities of field application versus laboratory testing, to enable an understanding of how the latest technologies behave against the aged surface preparation and application process.
What activities does Safinah Group conduct around the world?
Safinah has been in existence for 21 years and is a technical leader in providing independent support to the marine, protective and yacht industry primarily in paint and coating issues. Safinah also has considerable expertise in the application of engineering and design for shipbuilding, ship repair and conversion projects worldwide.
Our staff is made up of 20 x NACE and FROSIO qualified Coatings Superintendents, 10 x Degree / PhD Chemistry qualified consultants with expertise in formulating, testing and analysing coatings and 10 x degree / PhD qualified Chartered Naval Architects and Engineers.
Specifically, within the Marine sector, we work with the full value chain from raw material suppliers, paint companies, shipyards, owners, charterers, legal, insurance, arbitration and loss adjusters.
For Raw Material and Paint Companies we assist with formulating knowledge, assessment of market size and value propositions to direct the focus of activities and help prioritise spend in areas of marketing and R&D activities.
With shipyards we work to optimize coating processes to minimize the bottleneck in production process and reduce costly rework and potential claims situations.
With Owners we prefer to work in prevention rather than cure, but typically it is the latter that dominates. However, with good planning, functional specification and expert Coating Superintendents present at New Build or Maintenance and Repair, looking specifically after the owner’s interests, we can optimise project spend, ensure completion to timelines and maximise the operational performance versus the application budget. We also spend significant time supporting owners with failure investigations and issue resolution. From a legal perspective we have the scientific and engineering knowledge, experience and qualifications to take on the most challenging expert witness cases if prior settlement can’t be achieved.
Across all sectors we deliver training either bespoke or standard across all customers types and service offerings whether that be insurers wanting to understand the chemistry of paint, shipping companies wanting on board maintenance training or raw materials companies wanting to understand the markets and dynamics.
What would ship owners consider in tank cleaning processes?
The tank cleaning process is really a specialized area where large operators have differentiated themselves in the past. One large operator used to qualify themselves as cleaning experts rather than shipping experts as the speed and quality of clean plays a significant part in the profitability of a chemical operator. Normally each step in a cleaning process has a purpose and if not adequately achieved can cause many issues down the line. There are many other factors to consider like duration or carriage, coating type selected, age of coating and temperature or carriage which can all have a significant effect. From an opposite perspective, we should not assume that a set of steps that is always followed and produces a clean tank is necessarily the most effective cleaning process.
There is a huge potential to optimize cleaning processes to reduce costs, emissions and stress to coatings. Taking a methodical process improvement approach and working in collaboration with paint suppliers and external experts is, in my belief, the correct route forward.
Could you share some information about the cooperation between Jotun and Safinah Group for Performance and Efficiency Tank Coating Event?
Safinah’s involvement is merely to deliver an independent perspective on the health of the chemical tanker market and a view of the key drivers and issues faced by all parties within the value chain specifically related to coatings.
A key aspect is what Safinah believes the industry could do to work together for mutual benefit.
