Slippery coating gets traction

Dartmouth entrepreneur develops unique marine techology

A Nova Scotia entrepreneur has figured out a new way for ships to reduce fuel consumption and cut CO2 emissions while protecting underwater species. It's paint.

But not just any paint. Marciel Gaier, 29, and his business partner, Mo Algermozi, have started a company to produce a patented technology that uses nanoparticles of graphite, called graphene, to create a high-performance, sustainable marine coating applied to the hulls of ships.

Their company, Graphite Innovation and Technologies, is a Dartmouth startup with a “first-of-its-kind smart coating” developed by Gaier, also GIT'S chief technology officer.

A ship with a heavy coating of slime can require up to 38 per cent more energy to maintain the same speed as a vessel with a clean hull, and the Dartmouth company's coating creates a slippery surface so any buildup is simply washed away as a ship moves through water, leading to less drag.

If a vessel is not moving, the surface can be easily cleaned by water pressure or mechanical brushes, Gaier said.

To keep barnacles and slime from attaching to the hull, the practice has been to use a copper-based material that leaches out of the paint and settles on the ocean floor. Gaier said that toxic substance could be consumed by fish and passed down the food chain.

MITACS PRIZE

His invention has earned Gaier an environmental entrepreneur award from Mitacs, a national innovation organization that aims to solve business challenges with Canadian academic research.

The not-for-profit Mitacs is funded by the federal government and the governments of Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Innovation P.E.I. and Research Manitoba.

Gaier is originally from Brazil but came to Canada in 2013 to finish his engineering degree at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. He came to Halifax on a Mitacs fellowship to do doctoral research in advanced materials science at Dalhousie University.

Now, after eight years in Canada, Gaier said he considers himself to be “a Canadian already, from Halifax” and he appreciates the accepting and supportive aspects of building a business in Nova Scotia.

He and Algermozi founded GIT in 2017 and after he graduated from Dal with his PHD in 2018, they started building production capabilities at the Bays at Innovacorp, the provincially owned business incubator in Dartmouth's Woodside Industrial Park.

“We are lucky to have a good environment here; we have traction for our product. We grow from two of us, now we are 12 people. And we have some nice projects going on and good customers that are looking to change the product that they are using, which has a large impact on the environment, to our more sustainable way,” Gaier said in an interview Thursday.

GREEN PRODUCT

The coating system is not only good for the environment, he said, but there are other savings. It comes at a time when international legislation has been introduced banning the use of toxic compounds in ship coatings.

“We develop paint using the (graphene) particle product over the hull of the ship, for the underwater part of the ship itself. We have a propeller coating, which reduces underwater noise and makes the ship more efficient. We have anticorrosive primer that protects the ship from rust. We have paint that reduces underwater noise emissions from the ship and reduces fuel consumption,” said Gaier.

“So, we develop these core products from 2017 up until now and we have two products that we are already commercially applying to boats, on a project by project basis.”

XGIT-FUEL reduces fuel consumption and mitigates the damaging buildup of barnacles and algae on ship hulls. XGITURN minimizes underwater radiated noise pollution, a threat to whales and other marine species.

What sets both products apart in the industry is the use of nanoparticles, which have a larger surface area and yet a fraction of the weight of traditional versions of raw materials, meaning it takes a small amount to achieve an effective coating, Gaier said.

Currently, most customers are local, such as marine services company Horizon Maritime. Last year, GIT was awarded a $2.4-million Transport Canada contract to pilot its prototype coating system on fishing boats, with a focus on reducing underwater noise and greenhouse gas emissions.

The company is also leading a $4.6-million Ocean Supercluster project aimed at further developing its smart protective coatings, and recently launched a pilot program to engage 10 boat owners to experience the benefits of the technology firsthand.

“We are getting a lot of traction for our product. We just expanded our production line,” said Gaier.

“We started last year producing small batches, five gallons a day, and now we have the capacity to produce 55 gallons, so we scaled up by a factor of 10 in less than a year or so.”

GIT has enough production to supply all its current projects, Gaier said, and if additional work comes along they can add a little bit more. He is anticipating the business to grow so the company will soon double its space at Innovacorp and build a more automated production facility.