Cohort 2023: Hullbot
Hullbot is revolutionizing marine hull cleaning with its cost-effective, eco-friendly, fully autonomous underwater drones which can remove biofouling before it becomes an issue for the environment or the vessel’s fuel efficiency.
The Problem
Biofouling on ship hulls is responsible for a surge in fuel consumption that contributes to approximately 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Contemporary antifouling methods, while addressing the issue, have an adverse environmental impact as they release toxic biocides and stand as the most significant direct contributor to oceanic microplastic pollution. Moreover, this persistent challenge of biofouling is implicated in the alarming rate of marine species invasion, accounting for nearly 80% of such transfers.
The Solution
Hullbot designs and deploys autonomous underwater robots that clean and inspect vessel hulls. Hullbot provides frequent, controlled, cleaning of early-stage biofouling on both the hull and niche areas. Hullbot’s unique technology allows fleet operators to save fuel through regular robotic hull cleaning, resulting in lower costs and emissions from day one.
Hullbot’s Impact
“Hullbot is making a real impact on decarbonising marine transport. Through our innovative fleet of robots, we’ve effectively reduced fuel consumption for a significant commercial vessel operator by 12% and we expect that will go past 20% soon, which is really exciting.”
– Tom Loefler, Co-founder and CEO
Why we invested
Hull biofouling on marine vessels causes significant reductions in transport efficiency as well as contributing to the import of invasive species. Hullbot’s solution enables frequent cleaning of vessel hulls at low cost and with lower biomass emission than conventional solutions. Hulls are just the market entry point for this platform and we are excited about the market and impact opportunity in offshore renewable infrastructure service.
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