Mitigation of biofouling using coatings. Year 3 annual report. Final report

Technical Report · Wed Dec 21 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:5389532

Fornalik, M S; Baier, R E; Meyer, A E; King, R W

This final report of the results from a three-year project summarizes earlier findings in seawater and brackish water systems and presents detailed new data from field tests in fresh cooling water of the Niagara River. Overall, the results are remarkably similar for all systems tested in showing that deliberate modification of the initial material surface qualities - using thin-film coatings in short-term, proof-of-principle trials - can significantly reduce the retention of efficiency-degrading biofouling layers and mineral scales while retarding corrosion. The best coating evaluated was characterized as having a critical surface tension of 22 milliNewtons per meter, confirming previous results from biomedical device tests where this same surface quality correlated with minimal adhesive strengths of blood or tissue elements. Recognizing the serious environmental need to reduce dependence on toxic fouling-control techniques such as use of metallic poisons and/or chlorination in industrial heat exchange circuits, these results encourage both longer term testing of the purely nontoxic surface-energy-control coatings evaluated in this project and development of improved bulk engineering materials meeting the same surface quality criteria. 14 references, 20 figures, 4 tables.

• Research Organization: Arvin Calspan, Buffalo, NY (USA). Applied Technology Group
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-80ER10766
• OSTI ID: 5389532
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/10766-12; ON: DE84006112
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200101* -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Cooling & Heat Transfer Equipment & Systems
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360105 -- Metals & Alloys-- Corrosion & Erosion
ADSORPTION
ALLOYS
BIOLOGICAL FOULING
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BRASS
COOLING SYSTEMS
COPPER ALLOYS
COPPER BASE ALLOYS
DEPOSITION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SYSTEMS
FILMS
FOULING
FRESH WATER
GERMANIUM
GLASS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
METALS
MICROORGANISMS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROTEINS
RIVERS
SCALING
SEAWATER
SORPTION
STREAMS
SURFACE COATING
SURFACE PROPERTIES
SURFACE WATERS
SURFACES
TESTING
WATER
ZINC ALLOYS