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Regulatory Mandate
For centuries, man used toxic copper metals to repel fouling organisms. But, when the tributylitin (TBT) class of toxic chemicals arrived on the scene, copper’s reign ended and TBT was considered superior to previous antifouling coatings. TBT is a trialkyl organotin compound with active ingredients in biocides used to control a wide spectrum of organisms including
- Antifouling of boats in marine paints,
- Antifungal action in water systems and textiles,
- Wood preservation,
- Paper mill and wood pulp systems, and
- Breweries
Tributyltin oxide is a toxic compound used extensively in TBT commercial products. These compounds result in negative effects on humanity and the environment, causing the TBT revolution to come to an end, effective January 1, 2008.
During TBT’s lengthy existence, growing evidence proved the compound was the marine equivalent of DDT (the first organic pesticide). The killing effects of this substance became alarming in 2001 and the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) forced a global ban on any new application of TBT, covering all anticorrosive paints.
The International Convention on the Control of Harmful Antifouling Systems on Ships has also prohibited the use of harmful organotins in antifouling paints used on ships. As a result, they will establish a mechanism to prevent the potential future use of other harmful substances in antifouling systems.
Paralleling the TBT regulatory ban, initial local copper prohibitions are spreading in scale and scope: Copper antifoulants are currently banned in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Norway, and are closely regulated under increased legislative scrutiny in Canada, the EU, and various U.S. states such as California, where a ban is expected in 2007.
The European Union and the IMO have announced they intend to propose prohibitions on all copper-based antifoulants (and a number of co-biocides) as soon as non-toxic substitutes become available. As a result, copper is widely perceived as being only a bridging solution to future non-toxic coatings.
With the prevention of previously effective TBT-based coatings and regulatory toxicity restrictions, marine coating manufacturers can only provide products that are barely more effective than those used 380 years ago. As a result, two significant unmet needs exist within these markets:
- Coatings with improved antifouling qualities, and
- Coatings that are non-toxic and environmentally benign.
Consequently, the $2.5 billion antifouling coating market is inclined to adopt products from a company that can deliver highly effective, environmentally friendly antifouling coatings to buyers.
SGEP Marine Advisor Leigh T. Johnson once said: “The antifouling properties of copper have been known for centuries when intrepid mariners would line their hulls with sheets of copper … Most modern day boaters use cuprous oxide paints that are engineered to leach out copper over time and thus retard the growth of barnacles, algae, tubeworms and other critters that inhabit the world’s harbors … they reduce maneuverability, increase drag and corrosion, and decrease fuel efficiency.”
Nano Surfaces Inc. (NSI) is a start-up company that has devised a plan to relieve manufacturers and create coatings that mimic non-fouled surfaces of marine mammals and plants. NSI will focus on technologies that combine various nano- and bio-technological techniques to create new and improved coatings.
NSI uses a small set of nano-sized components that can be combined in different ways to produce a wide range of next generation coating materials with defensive properties that are impossible to obtain through conventional production systems.
Objects that are submerged in the ocean and quickly covered with seaweed or microbial slimes degrade marine operations by fouling equipment/structures, increasing fuel consumption vessels, speeding up corrosion rates of metals and reducing operating efficiencies. To counteract these processes, specialized marine coatings are applied to the affected surfaces.
The coatings created with these processes have undergone a series of comprehensive efficacy tests, producing favorable results that show the coating defenses, and longevity characteristics (superior to current toxin-based products). While existing synthesis methods produce compounds at the laboratory scale, commercialization requires these processes be scaled-up to industrial production quantities. A significant portion of funds raised will be dedicated to accomplish this “scale-up” task and additional marine testing.
NSI understands that a next generation of environmentally friendly and highly effective antifouling coatings must be based on proven biological systems and their complex chemistries. By imitating these examples of matchless effectiveness, NSI will not have to reinvent the wheel. It will exploit nature’s toolbox of biopolymers and organic molecular systems, which already contain the biomolecules nature provides to design and produce superior coating materials (at low cost).
NSI will employ a portfolio of licensed technologies that employ a combination of organic and naturally occurring biomolecules to create coatings that closely mimic the non-fouled surfaces of marine mammals and plants. The resulting product mix will allow NSI to deliver products that can do the following:
- Deliver superior defensive capabilities,
- Are environmentally friendly, and
- Uniquely comply with present and anticipated regulatory mandates.
For an extensive description of NSI’s technologies, click here.