DNV GL Certifies BASF’s Offshore Grout MasterFlow 9500

BASF A/S, the Danish legal entity of BASF’s Construction Chemicals Division, is the first company to obtain the Type Approval Certificate (TAC) from certifying body DNV GL for the company’s offshore grout MasterFlow 9500 used in the grouted connections of offshore wind turbine foundations.

MasterFlow 9500 is an ultra-high strength, fatigue resistant grout which is specially designed for large scale pump applications with a successful proven track record.

The official Type Approval Certificate, the very first ever to be issued by DNV GL according to their guideline DNV-OS-C502, is a further step in guaranteeing secure foundation installations over the entire lifetime of the offshore windfarm. Since the publication of the DNV-OS-C502 guideline at the end of 2012, BASF and DNV experts have been working on the assessment of the materials’ properties, the manufacturing process, grout applications, and related installation guidelines and Quality Assurance documentation.

MasterFlow 9500 offers a significant step towards reducing overall installation costs since this grout material can be installed in colder conditions and much shorter weather windows as compared with typical grouts used in the offshore industry. Vessel cost, one of the major contributors to the overall foundation installation cost, can be strongly reduced by using MasterFlow 9500.

BASF’s MasterFlow 9500 has recently been used on the project West of Duddon Sands, where 108 monopile foundations were installed in a record breaking period of just 5 months. In 2013, the product has also been used on the Gwynt-Y-Môr project (160 monopiles – 576 MW windfarm) in the Irish Sea, and the Samsung 7MW, Alstom 6 MW, Gamesa 5MW, Siemens 6MW and Vestas 8 MW demonstrators.