About the Project
The environmental impact of greenhouse gases emitted by ships and their reduction by use of antifouling coatings has been well understood for many years. However, the total environmental impact of the shipbuilding process (from a coating viewpoint) from delivery of steel to delivery of ship to the end of life when the ship is scrapped is not as well understood. Coatings are applied to the bare steel (shop primer), to the shop-primed steel at the new build stage. Through the lifetime of the ship the coatings are repaired (on board maintenance) and at intervals, the coatings may be entirely removed and new paint applied (major refurbishment). Developments in paint technology, for example to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by increasing volume solids, are not necessarily without impact on the remainder of the coating process. For example increasing volume solids to reduce VOC requires more powerful pumps that need more energy to run. The aim of this research would therefore be to assess the overall environmental impact of changes in the paint formulation and the coating process on the whole process chain throughout the 25 year life of a ship from new build to scrapping.
Enquiries regarding this studentship should be made to: Dr Noel Perera, [Email Address Removed]
For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
Please ensure you quote the advert reference above on your application form.
Funding Notes
The full-time studentship provides full support for tuition fees, and an annual tax-free stipend at RCUK rates (for 2015/16 this is £14,057 p.a.)
References
Oriaifo, Emmanuel, Perera, Noel, Guy, Alan, Leung, Pak Sing and Tan, K T (2014) A review of test protocols for assessing coating performance of water ballast tank coatings. In: The ICMNE 2014: XII International Conference on Marine and Naval Engineering, 29th - 30th September 2014, Istanbul, Turkey.
Ozoemena, Matthew, Cheung, Wai Ming, Hasan, Reaz and Hackney, Philip (2014) A hybrid Data Quality Indicator and statistical method for improving uncertainty analysis in LCA of a small off-grid wind turbine. In: ARCOM Doctoral Workshop on Sustainable Urban Retrofit and Technologies, 19 June 2014, London South Bank University.
Ozoemena, Matthew, Cheung, Wai Ming, Hasan, Reaz and Hackney, Philip (2013) A Review of Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Systems. In: 11th International Conference on Manufacturing Research, 19 - 20 September 2013, Cranfield University.