Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Biofouling, the colonization of organisms on surfaces submerged in the marine environment, is ubiquitous and reduces the performance and lifespan of those surfaces. The goal of our project is to find a cost-effective, non-toxic, and environmentally benign anti-fouling solution appropriate for Canadian coastal waters. The new technology will lower the costs of both Oil and Gas exploration and extraction, and will reduce the frequency of species invasions caused by fouling on ships and mobile structures. Our anti-fouling solutions will be applicable to the emerging tidal power industry in the Bay of Fundy. A multidisciplinary approach, using mathematical modeling and computer simulation, anti-microbial coatings and biomimetic surface designs, will be used. Some mollusc shells resist biofouling. We will replicate their microstructures and model the interaction between flow, surfaces and bacterial attachment. Natural anti-fouling adaptations also involve chemical deterrence of fouling organisms, and we will coat surfaces with various antimicrobial compounds. Optimized surface designs will be tested in both laboratory and field settings under a variety of flow conditions. Computer simulation will utilize software developed at StFX, and make use of the eastern Canada supercomputing facility, ACEnet. The advantage of this combined approach is that it implements natural antifouling strategies and thus may better succeed under variable flow conditions. The insights acquired will be used to develop innovative anti-fouling solutions for our industrial partners. One partner builds and deploys instrumentation that gathers critical marine environmental data for the Offshore Oil and Gas industries. Encana stands to benefit from our work, having many interests in the offshore Oil and Gas industry involving a variety of submerged structures.