Selektope® receives Tanker Shipping & Trade award

Selektope®, the antifouling agent pioneered by Gothenburg-based I-Tech, has ended the 2016 maritime awards season where it started, by securing one of the industry’s most sought-after environmental accolades.

The coating ingredient, whose pharmacological action is unique in marine antifouling, has been named winner of the Tanker Shipping & Trade Environmental Award 2016. Organized by Riviera Maritime Media, the Tanker Shipping & Trade Awards recognize excellence, innovation, and environmental performance across the tanker industry.

Karen Purnell, Managing Director of Award sponsor International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Ltd presented the trophy to I-Tech Chief Executive Philip Chaabane after the gala dinner of the Tanker Shipping & Trade Conference, London on November 15th.

“This has been a breakthrough year for Selektope, following the many years spent in researching, certifying, commercializing and industrializing the product,” said Mr. Chaabane. It is particularly pleasing that the environmental performance of Selektope has been recognized by specialists in the tanker sector, which has been one of the earliest adopters of Selektope.”

Selektope repels barnacle settlement on ships’ hulls by temporarily stimulating the barnacle larvae’s swimming behavior. It is distinguished by extremely low biocidal loading and has been approved by Japanese, Korean, Chinese and European regulatory bodies.

Tests have shown that antifouling products containing Selektope significantly reduce barnacle fouling, lowering water resistance and potentially reducing drag up to 40%, and thereby cutting ship air emissions. It repels barnacles even when ships are at rest, allowing fuel saving claims made by coatings suppliers to cover the ship’s entire operational cycle.

Award judges were made aware of the first publicly-disclosed coating application to include Selektope, with Sembcorp applying a Chugoku Marine Paints (CMP) antifouling to the side walls of the 2010-built, Laurin Maritime chemical carrier Calypso in late 2015. In August 2016, CMP launched the first two ‘SEAFLO’-branded marine coatings to feature Selektope.

Earlier this year, Selektope also secured one of the prestigious European Marine Engineering Awards 2016, in recognition of the breakthrough marine coating ingredient’s Environmental Performance.