PolyMarine, Smarter Coatings for a Cleaner Ocean: Ships need antifouling coatings to stop algae, barnacles, and other organisms from attaching to their hulls. Without these coatings, ships experience more drag, burn more fuel, and produce more greenhouse-gas emissions. Antifouling coatings are therefore essential for efficient and cleaner shipping.
However, today’s marine coatings also have an environmental downside. As conventional polymer materials wear down in seawater through sunlight, hydrolysis, oxidation, and abrasion, they can release microplastics, nanoplastics, and chemical by-products into the ocean. These emissions may affect marine life, alter microbial communities, and contribute to long-term pollution.
PolyMarine aims to change this by developing a new generation of marine coating materials that combine strong antifouling performance with lower environmental impact. The project is designing new polymer binders that work effectively during use but are safer and more sustainable if released into the environment.
By bringing together expertise in chemistry, environmental analysis, microbiology, and ecotoxicology, PolyMarine will study how new coatings degrade, what they release, and how those releases affect marine ecosystems. The most promising materials will then be tested in realistic coating formulations and under marine-relevant conditions.
In this way, PolyMarine will help pave the way for cleaner shipping, reduced marine pollution, and more sustainable innovation in the marine coatings sector.
