Latest Fouling Stories

WATSONVILLE, Calif., Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- West Marine (Nasdaq: WMAR), the country's largest retailer of boating supplies and accessories, announced today that two products were selected as "Green Product of the Year" Winners. The Attwood Fuel Demand Valve and West Marine CFA Eco Antifouling Bottom Paint shared top honors. These products address two dramatically different problems and both are capable of making a big difference in air and water pollution. (Photo:...

The number of leisure boats along the Swedish West Coast has risen dramatically over the last 20 years, resulting in a risk that the inner archipelago might be destroyed. These are the findings of new research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In Sannäs Fjord, a silled fjord to the north of Grebbestad in Bohuslän, researchers from the University of Gothenburg have studied the marine environment in the inner archipelago and built a treatment plant for flushing water from the...

Bodkin Design & Engineering (BD&E) has been awarded a Phase I SBIR contract from the Navy to develop a prototype wave harvesting system capable of generating power from ocean energy found in coastal waters. The fully submerged, robust, self-contained design is anti-fouling and ideally suited for surf zone operation where extreme environmental conditions could damage systems that rely on deployed arms, floats or fragile mechanics. Newton, MA (PRWEB) October 19, 2012 Bodkin Design...

The colonization of hulls by algae, barnacles, mussels and other organisms is a major problem for both pleasure boats and merchant tonnage. In a joint project, researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed new environmentally-friendly and effective bottom paints to prevent this. Fouling is a major problem, leading to higher fuel consumption and so increased air pollution. It can also cause the spread of alien species that do not...

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products (NYSE:APD) today has introduced two new superwetting surfactants and one new pigment dispersant for use in the coatings industry. These new alkylphenol ethoxylate (APE) free surfactants are designed to deliver improved value and superior performance versus competing products. Both Dynol(TM) 800 and 810 surfactants were engineered to eliminate defects on difficult-to-coat substrates. They can offer superior performance...

Two years ago this week, oil began streaming from the seafloor into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform. All told, the disaster cost 11 lives, released 4.9 million barrels of crude oil, and caused still unspecified impacts to marine life and the Gulf economy. Now, a pair of researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is using a 1-year, $350,000 contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior to test whether sound waves can be used to...

Non-fouling materials that resist cell adhesion are very important in fundamental research on cell–biomaterial interactions and for practical applications. Thus, they have been extensively investigated during the last decade. Natural biomacromolecules such as bovine serum albumin (BSA) have conventionally been used to block cell adhesion. Zhao and Ding (Fudan University, Shanghai, China) recently reported that the purple membrane (PM) containing a natural photoresponsive protein,...

Peak concentrations of biocides from house paint prove prevalent in urban river basins Anti-fungal and anti-bacterial additives in house paint are present in dangerous quantities in the Vauchère river basin in the city of Lausanne, says a study to be presented the 9th of December, at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco. Chemicals engineered to kill microorganisms, called biocides, are added to exterior paints in order to prevent molding and plant growth....

  Bio-inspired coating resists liquids and could lead to a broad range of advances in fuel transport, anti-bacterial surfaces and more After a rain, the cupped leaf of a pitcher plant becomes a virtually frictionless surface. Sweet-smelling and elegant, the carnivore attracts ants, spiders, and even little frogs. One by one, they slide to their doom. Adopting the plant's slick strategy, a group of applied scientists at Harvard have created a material that repels just about any type...

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Sept. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Nalco (NYSE: NLC), providing essential expertise for water, energy and air, has helped the 583-room Marriott Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre and Marriott Executive Apartments drastically reduce water use in its cooling systems which also resulted in less energy use and wastewater discharge from the facility. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101231/NALCOLOGO) Nalco 3D TRASAR® Technology for Cooling Water combines innovative...