Evidence shows air bubbles act as anti-fouling system

Drydocked vessels fitted with ALS are consistently showing little or no fouling on the flat bottom. Speaking at the opening of Silverstream’s new Global Operations Centre in Southampton, founder and CEO Noah Silberschmidt said that the company now had 79 vessels with the ALS fitted in service and another 200 ships on order.

According to Silberschmidt the company inspected the hulls of two ships that had been stationary, one for 20 days and the other for 30 days, in the Amazonian Delta and in Indonesian waters, “Both, geographical areas are very well known for all kinds of growth and whenever we did the inspections, and we have hours of video, there's no fouling,” he said.

Silverstream is claiming that coatings are not doing their job. “But I think we'll all agree that there's not a lot of fouling and slime growth on the flat bottom where we're locating the ALS,” said Silberschmidt.

In effect the micro bubbles created by the ALS are deterring microorganisms, “Feeling that this is a nice spot to be when micro bubbles come to disturb them all the time and the empirical proof is that whenever we take something into dry dock, there's no fouling.”

The company estimates that 25 vessels fitted with the ALS have been drydocked so the anti-fouling effect has been noted.

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However, Silberschmidt emphasised the company is not currently using that as a selling point because the actual beneficial effects have not been conclusively verified.

“So, the [anti-fouling is one of] the benefits that we mention when we talk to customers and evaluate the technology,” explained the CEO, but he said it is a benefit “we haven't quantified yet.”

“We're very happy about the effect we're having, but it's very difficult to calculate the exact effect, but it’s worth noting that there is a positive effect on the flat body and the propeller in the sense that none of our customers are cleaning those areas anymore,” he added.

Further evaluation in this respect is expected with the opening of the Global Operations Centre, which will monitor the vessels fitted with the Silverstream ALS and evaluate the performance.

The company is taking on additional staff to work in Southampton, adding to the 135 strong workforce that it already employs in its Shanghai and London offices.

The company expects to have more than 100 ships fitted with an ALS by the end of the year and Silberschmidt says more orders are being taken, which will see the number rise to the hundreds of ships rapidly.

The company said that the ALS works better for faster moving ships, and ships that are constantly in service, including container ships, cruise vessels, car carriers and gas tankers, with an average return on investment of two years, which will be improved with the introduction of carbon charges.

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