Development Of Innovative Coatings For Marine Renewable Energy

Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) devices are subject to very aggressive environmental conditions able to decrease material properties. ECOMAR project aimed to develop, test and analyse the behaviour of improved coatings applicable to MRE devices, focusing on corrosion and biofouling. The methodology used to achieve the objectives of the project was to develop new types of protections adding nanomaterials to commercial coatings and later on, expose them to real environmental conditions, as well as accelerated aging tests to evaluate the corrosion phenomena and marine degradation, as well as to evaluate the improvement of some properties. The result of the tests concluded with some improvement in some characteristics of the coatings (as adherence). Regarding corrosion and biofouling growth, good results were obtained.