Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Bio- and Tribo-Corrosion (2019) 5:22 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40735-018-0213-5 Evaluation of Anti-biofouling Progresses in Marine Application O. P. Abioye 1  · C. A. Loto 1,2  · O. S. I. Fayomi 1,2 Received: 16 October 2018 / Revised: 21 November 2018 / Accepted: 19 December 2018 / Published online: 7 January 2019 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 Abstract Biofouling is detrimental and has been a major concern in the marine industry for several decades. This phenomenon is the accumulation, colonization and attack of organisms—which are both micro and macro, to assemblies, parts and/or structures that are submerged in freshwater and other marine environments. Even despite all the exceptional indispensable and indis- putable characteristics of alloys such as steel, biofouling continues to be a major source of failures of these alloys, thereby limiting their use in service. This study presents a review of the existing means of protection against biofouling which are basically the use of paints and electrolytic deposition of anti-biofouling agents such as some nano-composite coatings. The diferent types of systems from the frst-generational coatings such as tributyltin self-polishing copolymer paints to the novel nano-composite coatings were discussed. Ultimately, the use of nano-materials and composites consisting some anti- biofouling natural products has identifed to be a promising way of combating biofouling issues in the maritime. Keywords Biofouling · Corrosion · Electrodeposition · Marine application · Coatings · Nano-composite 1 Introduction Globally, biofouling is an unfavourable condition being faced in the marine environment. This issue negatively afects the erected underwater structures as well as mobile watercrafts such as ships [1]. Specifcally, biofouling causes severe problems like corrosion, distortion and alteration of the surfaces of structures submerged in the water, increased weight, increased drag leading to the reduction in water- crafts’ speed and up to 40% fuel additional consumption [2]. The incremental fuel consumption leads to an aggravation of CO 2 emission and more water transportation cost [3]. There- fore, biofouling has posed as a huge economic stress factor. Biofouling is a phenomenon whereby microorganisms and macroorganisms rapidly colonize the natural and syn- thetic structures which are submerged in an aquatic envi- ronment [4]. There are two major groups of several foul- ing organisms based on their size, these groups are the microorganisms and macroorganisms [4]. Microorganisms can also be regarded as slimes, bioflms or microfoulings [5]. Fouling organisms go through fve major stages of pro- gression, which are: adsorption, immobilization, consolida- tion, microfouling, and macrofouling. Microorganisms in the marine environment are fond of accumulating and attach- ing on surfaces that are not protected. They then form bio- flms on the surfaces; these bioflms are quite difcult to be removed from the attached surfaces even when a high shear fow is applied [6]. Biofouling happens sequentially from initialization whereby microbes attach to a water body’s surface by generating some substances which are extracel- lular polymeric in nature. This consequentially promotes the growth of a bioflm matrix. These growths are dependent on an interaction between the cells of the bacterial, attachment of the surface, and the content of the medium. An illustration of parts attacked with biofouling is shown in Fig. 1. Biofouling in maritime causes environmental disasters and billions of dollars are being consumed annually in the shipping industry. Drag and surface smoothness decreases when organisms attach to the hulls of the vessel; this results to an increase in the hydrodynamic weight and subsequently lead to a reduction in top speed and loss of manoeuvrabil- ity [7]. Therefore, biofouling causes fuel consumption and stimulates harmful compound emission. Examples of such toxic compounds are SO x and NO x , which is the source of * O. P. Abioye oluwabunmi.abioye@covenantuniversity.edu.ng 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Covenant University, P.M.B 1023, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria 2 Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, P.M.B. X680, Pretoria, South Africa