(MOL; President: Koichi Muto) today announced the adoption of the low-friction ship bottom paint named “LF-Sea” developed by Nippon Paint Marine Coatings Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Kobe City, Hyogo; President: Nobuhiro Sasaki) on a new building PCTC(Pure Car and Truck Carrier. In sea trial of the vessel using the new paint, tests confirmed that it improved fuel efficiency, which in turn reduces CO2 emissions from the vessel.

Vessel hull’s friction drag is the greater part of resistance in the sea water. Reducing the friction drag is a very effective way to reduce CO2 emissions during vessel operation. MOL has taken a proactive stance in developing and adopting a low-friction ship bottom paint as part of its environmental initiatives.

[New building vessel adopting the new paint] Car carrier Neptune Ace (capacity: 6,400 units of standard passenger cars) built by Minaminippon Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and completed on October 27, 2010

[Low-friction ship bottom paint “LF-Sea”] LF-Sea, developed by Nippon Paint Marine Coatings, uses a component called hydrogel, which is a naturally derived material. The hydrogel allows water to fill in small indentations on the hull to minimize friction drag. LF-Sea can realize about 4% reduction in fuel consumption compared to an identical vessel using conventional bottom paint. Reducing the consumption of heavy fuel oil by 4% ensures a decrease in CO2 emissions at the same rate.

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MOL continues joint research and development on an ultra-high fuel efficient ship bottom paint with the aim of further CO2 reduction with Nippon Paint Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Osaka; President: Kenji Sakai) and Nippon Paint Marine Coatings Co., Ltd. The companies will strive to further improve LF-Sea paint with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 8% to 12% compared to conventional anti-fouling paints. MOL believes the performance assessment on the new building PCTC will serve as a benchmark for the development on an ultra-high efficient ship bottom paint.
This R&D initiative is one of several subsidized through the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s “Support for Technology Development from Marine Vessels for Curtailing CO2” project.

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