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Market maturation of the first on-board autonomous biofouling cleaning system to keep ship’s hull clean at all times

Project description

New robot to keep ships clean

Shipping is one of the world’s most polluting industries. It is responsible for over 3 % of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Current hull cleaning solutions are based on dry-dock and call-on-demand underwater services to clean ships in port. In search of better cleaning solutions, the EU-funded HCR project will introduce a novel on-board automatic hull cleaning robot. This robot will be permanently installed on the ship and available at any time, making it possible to carry out continuous cleaning with minimum crew involvement. Continuous cleaning will also prevent early formation of fouling and transportation of invasive species. Importantly, the robot will allow savings in fuel consumption and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Objective

The world fleet spends €74 billion/ year in fuel, corresponding to 325 million tonnes of fuel and the emission of 1,099 million
tonnes of CO2. If nothing is done shipping emissions will increase between 50% and 250% by 2050. It has been estimated
that 10% of the vessels energy cost and emissions are due to fouling on the hull. Thus, if the entire world fleet were kept
clean of fouling, the savings would be of 32.5 million tonnes of fuel/ year. So far, this is not possible because cleaning
solutions are based on expensive dry-dock and call-on-demand underwater services contracted to clean the ship in ports.
These solutions have often poor quality, are expensive, unsafe for the divers and/ or maritime traffic and only provide a
transient increase in the hull performance.
Cliin has developed the first on-board automatic cleaning robot – HCR – that enables a completely new procedure for
ship-owners, operators and charterers’ management of the hull. HCR will be permanently installed on the ship and
available at any given time and location, allowing a continuous cleaning, thus preventing early formation of fouling. HCR
will allow savings in fuel consumption of up to 10%/ year over 5 years when compared to call on-demand solutions.
Moreover, the use of HCR improves sustainability of maritime sector by reducing GHG emissions, minimizing the
transport of invasive species associated with the fouling and improving the health and safety at the workplace, as there is
minimum crew involvement in the cleaning operation and the marine traffic in ports is not disturbed.
Through the successful development and implementation of HCR technology, Cliin will be in a strong position to exploit a
market projected to value US$ 4 Billion by 2020 and enhance its profitability by the stream of the sales, with an expected
cumulated revenue of €107 million, 5 years after project completion.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017

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Coordinator

CLIIN APS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 460 620,00
Address
ROSENKAERET 11C 1 TV
2860 Soborg
Denmark

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Københavns omegn
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 086 600,00
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