Highly Innovative Hull Coatings Underline Maritime Decarbonisation

By Kazuaki Masuda
Technical Division Director, Nippon Paint Marine

In 2023, the global maritime industry, guided by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) – the UN’s intergovernmental authority for the sector – agreed to targets to achieve net-zero by around 2050. In 2025, the IMO is expected to introduce their Net Zero Framework, which establishes a regulated process for achieving this goal, which will require all deep-sea vessels to reduce the carbon content of their fuel from 2027 onwards, or face financial penalties. In response to the regulation of carbon emissions, shipowners and operators are looking to innovation in alternative fuels and energy efficiency technology to help them deliver commercially sustainable decarbonization. 

To achieve the goals of the industry and the IMO, what is needed is investment in infrastructure, rather than any great leaps of innovation. The technologies to deliver net-zero by 2050 already exists and are well understood but need to be urgently scaled. Many of the technologies – particularly alternative fuels and energy saving technologies – are costly, due to limited availability. Scaling these technologies will require the industry to collaborate. OEMs and fuel suppliers need to work with their customers to build confidence and create the demand signals that can encourage greater production, lower costs and wider adoption across the industry. 

Access to cheaper decarbonization technologies is critical for shipowners, as the industry faces increased regulation at regional and global levels on fuel carbon intensity and overall emissions. Crucially, regulations such as the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), which regulates emissions, and FuelEU Maritime, which regulates fuel’s carbon intensity, will tighten over time, pushing operators to emit fewer emissions and shift towards zero and near-zero carbon fuels. While these fuels remain under development, limited in their availability and vastly more expensive than traditional marine fuels, shipowners are eager to explore every route to reduce their energy consumption, and therefore their emissions.

Nippon Paint Marine has always been committed to delivering products that address the needs of our customers, making it the driving force of our research and development activity. As shipowners have sought out commercially sustainable approaches to delivering lower emissions, Nippon Paint Marine has responded by developing technologies and products that can support those goals. 

Our highly efficient anti-fouling hull coatings are designed to deliver energy efficiency for vessels across the many months between dry docking projects, and our teams of experts provide consistent support to our customers to advise them on the specific hull coating that will optimize performance based on a vessel’s operating profile, providing an immediate and cost competitive compliance solution for the burgeoning regulatory landscape that is steering the sector towards its 2050 net-zero goal. 

Hull coatings are often overlooked as a highly effective solution for improving vessel efficiency. Hull drag caused by the build-up of organisms on the surface of the vessel’s hull reduces overall efficiency and significantly increases fuel consumption. The turbulence created by fouled hulls disrupts the smooth flow of water around its surface, increasing friction between the water and the vessel hull, which then forces vessel operators to increase their energy consumption to maintain the same speeds. By burning more fuel just to achieve the same operational effectiveness, operators are producing more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a result, not only are shipowners increasing their fuel costs, they are also exposing themselves to higher compliance costs. 

Increased Efficiency to Lower Emissions

Shipping is a highly efficient mode of transport, emitting roughly 3% of the world’s GHGs while transporting more than 80% of the world’s physical goods. Not only is shipping a leading facilitator of world trade, goods that are shipped around the world on ocean-going vessels ultimately have very low embedded CO₂ as a result. However, as trade patterns around the world shift and the global economy continues to expand, demand for shipping services will continue to grow, and with it the overall volume of CO₂ emissions by the sector. In response, the maritime sector needs to optimise its energy consumption to manage its emissions today and to prepare for the higher cost of energy as the use of alternative fuels increases tomorrow. 

Deep sea vessels already face energy and carbon efficiency regulations. The Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII), introduced by IMO in 2023, sets limits on the permissible emissions for a vessel on a per work basis, rating vessels annually on a five point scale from A-E. Vessels with low ratings, D-E, are required to implement a remedial plan or cease operations, while commercial imperatives and cargo owner preference for higher rated vessels that lower energy- and emissions-related costs incentivizes shipowners to develop and commission higher rating vessels. Over time, the thresholds for the rating become more stringent, requiring greater effort from shipowners to drive down their emissions in order to meet them. 

Similarly, the maritime sector has recently been added to the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), which is a market-based system that limits the overall level of GHG emissions that ships calling at EU ports can produce and requires vessel owners to then buy permits to cover their CO₂ emissions above defined thresholds. Over time, the cap will decrease, reducing available emissions permits and driving ship owners to either invest in reducing their vessel emissions or face fines for non-compliance. 

Alongside the EU ETS emissions regulation, the EU introduced FuelEU Maritime, a carbon fuel intensity system in, January 2025, which mandates the carbon intensity of the fuel used by vessels visiting the European Union. As the allowable carbon content of fuels reduces, shipowners will need to purchase more and more low-carbon fuels, which currently trade at a significant premium to traditional fuel oils. 

Regulation of the shipping industry is not only pushing up the cost of carbon for shipowners, it is changing the way they think about the energy they use. Fuel bills are now the largest part of a shipowner’s costs and are set to increase as alternative, zero-carbon fuels are adopted. Reducing energy consumption can reduce costs, while also helping to deliver decarbonization objectives. 

Simple Hull Efficiency

Beyond simply the fuel they will burn, the shipping industry is looking at a wide range of technologies to improve efficiency. Wind propulsion, though not as we may imagine it from the 19th century, is gaining serious support, with shipowners adopting advanced sail technologies that mean they can burn less fuel. 

Furthermore, devices that improve the efficiency with which vessels move through the water are being tested and installed to reduce fuel consumption. Yet one of the quickest, most widely available methods for reducing energy consumption remains effective hull protection against bio-adhesion. 

At Nippon Paint Marine, we produce coatings that deliver significant reductions in energy consumption for our customers, that are developed with their particular operational needs in mind. Our R&D team focuses on delivering coatings to help our customers reduce their energy consumption, developing technologies that enhance the performance of our hull coatings in resisting bio-adhesion whilst limiting speed loss over time, that result from fouling build-up. 

Nippon Paint Marine’s FASTAR is an antifouling coating that incorporates a hydrophilic and hydrophobic nanodomain technology, which manages biocide elution to maintain effective performance. FASTAR can reduce elution by up to 50%, compared with conventional antifouling coatings, while still improving energy efficiency. The FASTAR product line has also been enhanced with the introduction of Nippon Paint Marine’s hydrogel technology, HydrosmoothXT™, within FASTAR XI and XII, which smooths the flow of water around the hull to further reduce drag and improve energy efficiency. Our FASTAR coatings can reduce fuel consumption by up to 14.1% for vessel owners to deliver significant cost savings in the face of higher fuel costs and the rising cost of carbon emissions. 

Going beyond biocides, Nippon Paint Marine has developed AQUATERRAS, a hull coating that delivers industry-leading levels of fouling prevention and reduced drag to effectively cut fuel consumption by up to 14.7%, all while eliminating harm to marine life by representing the world’s first biocide-free self-polishing coating (SPC). The environmental performance of AQUATERRAS was reinforced following a recent report by PML Applications, which assessed the impact of five different types of marine coating particles, including AQUATERRAS, on selected marine life. The study concluded that AQUATERRAS produced no negative effects on key marine organisms following simulated in-water hull cleaning.

Research and development to deliver products that meet the needs of shipowners is vital if the maritime industry is to succeed in delivering net-zero carbon emissions by around 2050. Nippon Paint Marine continues to invest in research and development to pioneer market leading coatings solutions for the sector. Building on its deep maritime knowledge, real understanding of our customers and commitment to innovation, our team has brought new technologies to market to address the challenges that our customers face. 

Nippon Paint Marine is advising clients on coating choices that are tailored to the different profiles and conditions in which their vessels must operate. As well as helping owners to make their coatings choices with a clear understanding of their effect on energy consumption and emissions, our consultants provide support to monitor and analyze the ongoing performance of hull coatings during vessel operations. This information helps shipowners understand the full impact hull coatings have on their energy efficiency, fuel consumption and emissions during operations, and to understand how compliant they are with expanding regulations that, increasingly, are piloting the sector towards its net-zero targets. 

With a clear commitment from the maritime industry to achieving net-zero, hull coatings today are an essential technology for delivering a clean, sustainable and more efficient sector. In order to operate successfully in a net-zero environment, shipowners will need technology that can quickly deliver commercially sustainable energy efficiency and decarbonization. As a clean technology, advanced hull coatings are leading the effort to meet these needs.