Discover AkzoNobel's latest sustainability innovations at this year's Sea Japan

AkzoNobel’s marine coatings business will demonstrate how its continued commitment to innovation is helping the maritime industry power ahead on its carbon-neutral journey at the upcoming Sea Japan expo.

Its team of local industry experts will be on hand to offer customers technical advice, project and product quotes for their asset and its operation, while also highlighting how its range of cutting-edge coatings and solutions are setting new standards in sustainability in the sector.

Among the other recent innovations, it will be showcasing will be the Intertrac® HullCare hull management system.

It combines high-performance hull coating technology from its International® range, cutting edge ROV and big data performance monitoring, with proven hull cleaning techniques aligned with the BIMCO standard – and in doing so, provides the industry with the most environmentally sustainable hull management package to date.

Over an extended 10-year docking cycle, Intertrac HullCare can help achieve step-change reductions in CO2 emissions of up to 34,000 tonnes and fuel savings of €4.6M in comparison to a typical five-year fouling control system, by ensuring smooth, clean hulls are maintained for longer.

It will be showcased alongside further stand-out innovations from the International® brand that are engineered to ensure operators remain compliant with any impending legislation around EEDI, EEXI and CII, while offering unrivalled operating efficiencies.

These include the latest additions to its renowned Intersmooth® range of anti-fouling hull coatings. Best-in-class, high solids Intersmooth 7200Si SPC and ultra-performing Intersmooth 7476Si SPC provide operators with stand-out fuel savings and emissions reductions as a result of their next-generation self-polishing Silyl Methacrylate technology.

AkzoNobel’s Marine Senior Sales Manager in Japan, Kotaro Ishizaki, says: "We are delighted to be at Sea Japan in April to demonstrate how we are pioneering new products and solutions for the marine industry which offer operators stand-out improvements to vessel efficiency, while driving down emissions.

"The future of the shipping sector depends on the choices taken today on its journey towards a carbon-neutral future.

"Our experts continually strive to set new standards in performance for the entire industry and will be on hand to provide technical advice on our range of solutions from Intertrac Hullcare – the industry’s most environmentally sustainable hull management package – to the latest advances in our renowned Intersmooth range and beyond.”

And as the International Maritime Organisation has committed to reducing the current 1bn tonnes of CO₂ emitted by ships by 2050, AkzoNobel Marine Coatings will also be demonstrating its newest service the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) calculator at Sea Japan.

The CII is an operational measure to calculate and adjust the carbon intensity performance of in-service vessels, taking into account the ship’s capacity and distance travelled, as well as its CO₂ emissions.

AkzoNobel’s dedicated experts will use this to show decision-makers how to improve and maximise their fleet’s fuel efficiency, get better CII ratings and maintain proper CII ratings continuously – through choosing the right products and services, such as Intertrac HullCare, to ensure their ship is optimised with the right coatings and clean hull to minimise drag and fouling and therefore improve performance.

"Those within the industry only have 12 months to comply with the IMO’s CII regulations, so it is really important that they start taking action to ensure their ships are fully optimised to reduce their CO2 emissions,” continues Ishizaki.

"Our new offering of the CII calculator is specifically designed to support customers on this journey and we are excited to demonstrate this at Sea Japan and hope interested attendees will come to chat to our local team to hear about the initiatives in more detail.”

Sea Japan takes place between April 20-22 at Tokyo Big Sight.

Come and meet Ishizaki and the local AkzoNobel Marine Coatings team at 5B-39.