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Gothenburg, Sweden – January 2020

Working for COMPLETE project partner Chalmers University of Technology, doctoral candidate Dinis Reis Oliveira will defend his PhD thesis entitled “Roughest hour – approaches to ship hull fouling management”. The event will take place in Gothenburg on Friday January 24th 2020 (10.00 AM), and will count with field expert Dr. Kelli Hunsucker (Florida Tech – USA) as opponent.

Presented research ultimately aims at reducing fuel consumption onboard ships per transport work, through improved hull maintenance practices, thus reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from shipping. Other aims include reducing the release of active substances / biocides from ship hull paints, which are used for protecting the hull against marine growth, and at the same time minimize the risk of spread of non-indigenous invasive species that may be transported on ship hulls. Results support frequent and gentle cleaning on slime developed on ship hulls, with optimum cleaning frequency being case dependent. Also, there is a need for accurate onboard monitoring and adequate processing of vessel data, to detect early changes in vessel performance and act timely based on these changes.

More details and full version of the thesis can be found under Chalmers Library repository.

Honouring the tradition, a printed version of the thesis is nailed by the doctoral candidate to a mock-up of navigation pole at Chalmers University of Technology. Photo by Lena Granhag (Gothenburg, December 2019).