Fleet Cleaner Completes Its First Job

Dutch company Fleet Cleaner said it has completed its first hull cleaning trial in December 2016 in the Dutch port of Den Helder, using a robot to clean the hull of HNLMS Karel Doorman, the largest vessel of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

Fleet Cleaner deployed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to remove fouling on the vessel’s hull – both under- and above-water. Due to loading and unloading, up to 20 percent of the fouled surface can be above the waterline in port.

Aiming to offer a complete ship hull cleaning service to reduce fuel costs for shipping companies, Fleet Cleaner has developed a solution that is able to clean a vessel during loading and unloading in ports. Due to the use of controllable high pressure waterjets, the coating is not damaged during the cleaning process. This is also confirmed by coating experts during the Karel Doorman cleaning with several coating measurements. All removed fouling is captured by the ROV and filtered by the support system, resulting in an environmental friendly hull cleaning solution. 

Fleet Cleaner is set to launch its ship cleaning technology in March this year in the Port of Rotterdam. The ship cleaning services are offered by OH Ship Cleaning.