SoniHull Installations

NRG SoniHull ultrasonic anti-foul system – Raw Water Inlets (Sea Chests) and Water Maker installation onboard 51m Yacht located in Dubai U.A.E.

• Vessel: Trinity Hull 054
• Make: Trinity 51m
• Location: Dubai international Marine Club (D.I.M.C)
• Captain: Geoff Clarke.
• Chief Eng: Blake Holloway.
• Installation by: E-Tech Group FZE

The Vessel: 51m 2009 Trinity yacht Hull T 054 berthed in DIMC marina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Problem: Two raw water inlets (sea strainers) supplying all systems (engines, generators, air conditioning, fire pump and load bank). The two inlets have a conical shaped nylon mesh filter providing very fine filtration of the water entering the cooling system. Due to the fertile nature of the Dubai waters the filters were plagued with rapid algae, vegetation and barnacle growth, to such an extent that the filters required extensive cleaning every week in order to maintain the necessary flow of water. This cleaning process was time consuming, involving a lot of scraping and scrubbing to remove the growth that had managed to weave its roots into the fine filtration mesh.

The Solution: Engineers from E-Tech Group’s Dubai facility were asked to survey the problem and proposed the installation of the NRG marine SoniHull ultrasonic anti-foul system to the Sea Chests and Water Maker inlet. This already proven hull protection system had yet to be applied to aforementioned problem.

The Installation: Given the layout of the engine room, the installation involved using 1x SoniHull duo and 1x SoniHull mono system. The IP67 Transducers were mounted on each of the sea chests below the water line and in this case were conveniently located below the floor plates. A third Transducer was mounted onto the side of the isolation valve for the water supply to the water maker, this was to provide protection not only to the valve from the build up of growth that could stop the valve from operating correctly, but also for the pipe work leading to the water making plant equipment. The IP65 Control boxes were mounted above the floor plates, allowing the crew to observe the indicator LEDs. The supply came directly from the 220VAC Distribution board at the aft of the engine room and all cabling was suitably dressed and secured on existing cable trays beneath the floor plates.

The Results: Following commissioning, the system was monitored over a four-week period, after which an inspection of the Strainers within the Raw Water Inlets (sea strainers) was carried out. The strainers were found to have very little growth and were still functional. The strainers did have a minor level of blockage due to the sand and silt, but this has to be expected and cannot be controlled by the SoniHull system.

Comments from the Crew: Captain Geoff Clarke stated, “It is fantastic to find an innovative marine product on the market that does the job that it’s designed to do, and as in our case, could be adapted to deal with other problems that arise from unwanted growth. I think NRG Marine along with ETech’s experience within the marine industry have a big future together”

Chief Engineer Blake Holloway Commented, “I am delighted to see how effective NRG Marine’s ‘SoniHull’ product has performed during our trials. Previously when we removed the Strainers before having SoniHull I found up to 40 mm of growth per week. Now we find that we have very little around 5mm, and is mainly sand and silt. The sea strainers are cleaned on a fortnightly basis now and the system has had a great impact on the growth and minimised the time taken to clean.”

Summary: Since the success of the trails, the solution has been widely accepted by many of Owners, Captains and Engineers. The recommendations and endorsements have resulted in a number of Super Yachts in the region having the system fitted. E-Tech Group is now offering the SoniHull solution throughout their branches in the UK and the Mediterranean.