TOKYO — Following many years of extensive prototype trials in field tests, Chugoku Marine Paints Ltd. is ready to launch a new solvent-free epoxy coating that can be applied to water ballast tanks (WBT) with standard application equipment that meets new Korean regulations under the Atmospheric Environment Conservation Act for the management of VOCs.

Chugoku Marine Paints has provided solvent-free epoxy coatings for the drinking water tanks of commercial ships for over 20 years as a standard product for most of the shipyards worldwide. However, solvent-free products require special equipment and the warming of the paints due to high viscosity in a cold temperature. Therefore, their use has been limited to specific areas due to difficulties of treatment.

To overcome existing limitations in the application of solvent-free coatings in WBTs, due to the severe application conditions and limited revision margin in performance standard for protective coatings (PSPC) regulations, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Chugoku Marine Paints have found the best solution to coat WBTs with a solvent-free epoxy coating that has matched quality control and best performance after delivery without failure.

Chugoku Marine Paints’s new solvent-free epoxy coating BANNOH 5000 will be applied to the WBTs of three MR tankers to be built in Hyundai Mipo Dockyard from April 2020. This will be the first application of a solvent-free coating to a WBT in the world.

Through the use of this new product, the shipyard could reduce solvent emissions by up to 90 percent for ship ballast water tanks. This makes BANNOH 5000 indispensable for Korean shipyards for reducing total VOC emissions while maintaining current working processes. Additionally, BANNOH 5000 will be the first protective coating for ships that is applicable for all areas as a solvent-free multi-purpose primer.

CMP R&D Director Hideyuki Tanaka said, “This new generation coating will catalyze a paradigm shift, changing the conventional approaches of protective coatings in the marine new-building market. Throughout this success, CMP’s solvent-free epoxy will be standardized for ballast water tanks as well as for the general areas of ships to protect the global environment in the future.”