Fairplay International Shipping Weekly 3 Nov 2005
PAINTS & COATINGS: VOC emissions a concern for ship yards
New emissions regulations which entered into force on 31 October 2005 should focus the minds of newbuilding and repair yard managers in the months ahead
Under the EU's Solvent Emissions Directive (SED) and similar legislation in the US, companies will have to advise environmental regulators of their plans to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) between now and the end of October 2007 and meet a series of targets along the way.
Computer software from UK-based coatings consultancy Safinah should assist yards in managing this process and complying with the new regulations, although relatively few facilities appear to have addressed the issue yet.
However, the VOC Manager software is already in use at AP Møller's Odense Shipyard and Meyer Werft and has recently been bought by Nassco in t he US and two European-based paint companies, GT Freese and Mühlhan. Meanwhile, Safinah is working on a second-generation product which should be available within the next year or so.
Organic solvents are key components in most coatings but are now known to contribute to the accumulation of ozone in the lower atmosphere. They are also dangerous t o people and can harm wildlife and vegetation. As a result, the SED lays down t otal emissions limits for sect ors that use coatings as a matter of course. It will limit the solvent emissions by area of coated surface and/or of manufactured product.
For coating manufacturers, the challenge lies in developing new product formulations with reduced solvent content without making the application of such products more difficult. For shipyards, however, the difficulty comes in actually measuring emissions, particularly in circumstances where a broad range of coating products is in use across a number of parts of different ships all at one time.
According to Safinah MD Raouf Kattan, yards have a couple of options at present . They can collect the necessary data by hand and then feed it in to a spreadsheet. Or they can regularly request a breakdown of the total VOCs supplied from the coatings manufacturers. Both have disadvant ages, he says.
According to Safinah's US clients, the cost of collecting data manually is daunting whilst basing calculations on the tot al supply of coatings almost invariably overestimates emissions because there is always some product natural wastage.
The software, which is designed not only t o monit or existing emissions, but also to generate documents on compliance and future emissions targets, is based on a handheld scanning device. Bar code data is recorded, providing information on the type of coating, t he volume, the date, the project, its location and other relevant data. The collated information is then downloaded to the computer holding the software, whereupon data can be monit ored and processed.
The software already incorporates product information from the paint companies. Together wit h film thicknesses, therefore, emissions calculations can be made. Safinah claims t he software enables shipyards to monitor coatings consumpt ion and VOC emissions.
Kattan says t he new version will assist in stock control and “work package progress monitoring”. He will not discuss price, other than to say that the company's shipyard clients have all recouped the cost of their investment wit hin their first ship project.