Evac’s MGPS installed on new Polish Navy tugs

A new series of Polish Navy tugs have been equipped with Evac´s marine growth prevention systems (MGPS) to ensure engine cooling system efficiency and reduce maintenance costs.

The six tugs are built for the Polish Navy by Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdansk. They are part of the Polish Navy’s B860 program and are designed for towing ships, and activities related to technical evacuation, support of rescue operations, and the neutralisation of pollution along the Polish coast.

As ice-class vessels, the tugs will be able to operate in severe ice conditions together with icebreakers.

The MGPS were supplied to protect Blokland box coolers installed on the tugs.

The fifth tug, H-3 Leszko, was delivered in February, and the final vessel, H -13 Przemko, was undergoing harbor acceptance tests in April.

Evac has supplied seachest mounted Cathelco MGPS systems which protect box coolers made by Blokland Non Ferro against the formation of marine growth. Engineers from Marine Center, Evac’s agent in Gdansk, commissioned the latest systems.

The MGPS system consists of pairs and copper and aluminum anodes which are mounted in the seachests and fed with an electrical current. In operation, the copper anodes produce ions which are carried by the flow of seawater and create an environment where the larvae of barnacles and mussels do not settle or grow.

The concentrations of copper are around two parts per billion and have no effect on the wider marine environment after discharge.

Garry Churm, lead project engineer from Cathelco, an Evac Group company, said: “Marine growth in box coolers and seawater pipework can be costly and time-consuming to remove, but through the protection provided by the MGPS systems these maintenance costs are eliminated whilst ensuring that the box coolers operate with optimum effectiveness”.

Evac worked in partnership with Blokland Non-Ferro, the Dutch manufacturers of box coolers to develop systems that overcome the problem of bio-fouling. This has encompassed the design of integral MGPS systems for box coolers as well as those served by seachest anode installations.