Cleaning to be greener

With a strong position in tank cleaning, Marine Care has developed a new product line of environmentally safe ship cleaning products. The company anticipates tightening regulations, but already finds customers in ship owners that embrace a sustainable policy.

”Product demonstrations of our Green Care cleaners aboard ships of our prospective clients I always perform without gloves or protective clothing”, says account manager Angela van Akkeren of Marine Care. ”In most cases, crew members quickly hand me a pair of gloves but at that point I can tell that that is really not necessary. It is actually part of the presentation to do it without gloves. I get the chance to demonstrate that our Green Care products are really not irritating or toxic, the products have a triple-zero score according to the HMIS (Hazardous Material Identification System, ed.). We created a formula for a natural cleaner that is not harmful to humans or nature, but does do the job. Other cleaning products that claim to be friendly to nature, with names starting with ‘eco-‘ or ‘enviro-‘ are often the same synthetic products, with a lot of water added in order to lower the concentrations of harmful chemicals. The fact is demonstrated by the obligatory orange label on the bottles, warning of hazardous content. In the end, a lot more of the product is needed to get the cleaning job done. Our Green Care products do not need any warning labels. I cannot reveal the components of our Green Care product line, but the fact that we have obtained approval by the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency, ed.) allows our products to be used even on board U.S. flag ships.”

Awards

With their in-house developed line of environmentally friendly professional cleaning products for use aboard ships, Marine Care aims to secure an increasing share of the market in ship cleaning. ”Maritime regulations will evolve towards prohibiting harmful chemicals being washed into the oceans”, Van Akkeren foresees. ”We were hoping that existing regulations could favour our products already, but up to now we find customers for Green Care in shipping companies that embrace a sustainability policy. We hope that the use of non-polluting cleaning

We are somewhat puzzled with our own success

products will also become one of the aspects that is taken into consideration for the Green Awards. Vessels that have achieved prescribed reductions in emissions, can receive the Green Award and save on Rotterdam harbour dues considerably.

As of today, the use of tank cleaning products is not yet part of the vessel review, but this may change in the near future. At the Green Awards office, the matter is in review at the moment. This recognition of cleaning products as part of a green policy would be another step in the overall reduction of maritime industry pollution.”

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Based in the Port of Rotterdam agglomeration, Marine Care was established in 1995. As ships navigate the world, their business has been operating at a worldwide level directly from the start. Delivery of the cleaning products goes through regional Marine Care offices and distribution agents, within the main hubs all over the world. Even while servicing a global market, sales are done from the Dutch Maassluis head office. ”We contact ship owners to see if they are interested in our products”, Van Akkeren describes her approach. ”We think we can offer them a benefit because of our expertise in cleaning and with our Green Care line.” Ten people currently work at the headquarters, with specialised people for product development and water treatment. ”We approach all types of ships with our Green Care products”, Van Akkeren reveals. ”Strict regulations in some sectors, for example passenger vessels, and also public awareness may urge specific ship owners to do everything they can to enhance safety and reduce the environmental impact. Our treatment products for drinking and waste water systems provide that safety and add to the company’s sustainable development.” Apart from the cleaning products, Marine Care is now researching non-toxic and non-polluting solutions for cooling water treatment and antiTank cleaning operations fouling at the cooling water inlet aboard ships. Conventional treatment water inlets and cooling water systems is with the use of nitrite, a toxic chemical element.

Growth

”The economic recession and its consequences for shipping have been surprisingly favourable for our company’s development”, manager product development RenĂ© van de Meeberg smiles. ”Chemical tankers had ongoing contracts with clients that need transport for the same kind of fluids. With slowing economic development, these contracts stopped. That means chemical tankers have ever changing cargo and need to be cleaned between passages. The demand for cleaning products is thus increasing.” The quantity of required chemicals is substantial, because tanks can easily measure a thousand cubic metres or more. Van de Meeberg explains: ”To clean them, from one up to five per cent of the tank capacity is the volume of the cleaning product. Along with the ready-made cleaning product or – if the client chooses so – the components for the cleaning product, we also provide test kits. There are kits to determine if the tank is really clean and no invisible residue from the last load is left inside. We also deliver Oxilysers, passivation metres that measure the thickness of tank wall after cleaning and polishing. A passivation test kit and ferroxyl test kit are also in our portfolio. These instruments are essential to meet regulations and assure safe transport of chemicals over the oceans.”

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A curiosity manifests. ”We are somewhat puzzled with our own success”, Van de Meeberg grins. ”The Green Care tank cleaning products we provide, have proven effective and are approved by CEFAS, the British authority for fisheries and environment, the U.S. EPA and IMO, so we could start promoting our Green Care tank cleaning products. Given the volumes of cleaning product needed, this is a quite price-sensitive market segment. The good part is: we are totally ready to meet stricter regulations. Rules prohibiting maritime pollution will increase, there is no doubt about that. Another good aspect of the Green Care cleaning products is the fact it is not as aggressive as most conventional cleaners, but yet have so far clearly shown their effectiveness.”

Hans Buitelaar