August 2022:

On Friday, August 26, 2022, a final conference was held in Piran with a demonstration of prototype devices within the Green Hull development project, which is supported by the Interreg V-A Italy-Slovenia cooperation program and financed by the European Regional Development Fund. Project partners, who participated in the development project, which lasted 30 months are: Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School (lead partner), National Institute of Biology, Marine Biological Station Piran, Esotech, d.d., CORILA Venice, COMET Pordenone, associated partners: Luka Koper, Port of Trieste and ARPA FVG.

ESOTECH, d.d. has been involved in developing technology in the field of cleaning contaminated waters, which arise in the underwater cleaning of vegetation from ship hulls with the help of an innovative remotely operated vessel (ROV). Esotech, d.d. designed and manufactured modular purification plant for the emission of all undissolved impurities in contaminated seawater. The cleaning device operates in a closed circuit and in accordance with legal requirements.

The measurements carried out on 19.8.2022 showed the effective removal of dissolved metals (below the legal limit values) and ensuring the integrity of the sea water (with UV disinfection), which confirms that we were successful in the design, development, sizing and production of a modular treatment plant.

In addition to the development of prototype systems, which proved to be of great practical value during the implementation of the project, the project partners also prepared guidelines for the use of technology and developed solutions for the cross-border management of wastewater and generated waste during the initial process of cleaning the biological vegetation.

The entire development project was received very positively by the project partners, the public and the competent authorities, because in addition to the development aspect, it also took into account the environmental protection, biological and legal use of innovative ship hull cleaning technologies.

The development project opens up new possibilities for the further development of technological solutions (TRL 7-9) and applications for target stakeholders (shipping).

More information in the video about the development project is available at the links below:
Green technologies for ecological cleaning of the biological incrustation on hulls in the Northern Adriatic Sea
Underwater hull cleaning robot