Assesment of biofouling control method - new publication

A new article assessing a chemical free, ecologically friendly method for antibiofouling has been published in Letters in Applied Microbiology. The work was partly supported by the SenseOCEAN project as part of the biofouling protection work in the project. Without a suitable antibiofouling method, the long term reliable deployment of marine sensors will always be limited despite other advances (e.g. in power consumption) increasing the potential length of time of operation

The method uses ultrasonic acoustic vibration to disrupt the attachment of micro-organisms on submerged surfaces. Many other antibiofouling mechanisms employ biocidal chemicals whereas this method is chemical free. The paper titled ‘Buzz off! An evaluation of ultrasonic acoustic vibration for the disruption of marine micro-organisms on sensor-housing materials’ assesses the potential of the method over a month on several different marine sensor housing materials.

The full article is available here