Hull Cleaning Payback

Fuel and CO₂ recovered by an in-water hull-clean or propeller polish. Fouling increases hull roughness and wake, raising required power; cleaning restores a fraction of the loss.

DesignFouling

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This calculator requires JavaScript to compute its result. The formula, symbols, and regulatory sources are shown in the Formula section below.

Formula, assumptions, and limits

F_\text{saved} = \text{ME}_\text{rate} \cdot d \cdot (p_\text{hull} + p_\text{prop})

Symbol	Meaning	Unit
$F_\text{saved}$	Fuel saved over the inter-clean period	t
$\text{ME}_\text{rate}$	Main-engine fuel rate (fouled baseline)	t / day
$d$	Days between cleanings	d
$p_\text{hull}$	Hull-clean recovery fraction (typ. 3–8 %)	fraction
$p_\text{prop}$	Propeller-polish recovery fraction (typ. 1–3 %)	fraction
$Cost$	Total service cost	USD
$\text{Price}_\text{fuel}$	Bunker price for the period	USD / t
$Payback$	Days to recover the cost from fuel saved	d

Source: BIMCO - *Industry Standard on In-Water Cleaning*; IMO MEPC.378(80) - 2023 biofouling guidelines

In short

Fuel, CO₂ and payback from in-water hull cleaning and propeller polish.

Learn the theory Decarbonization Technologies for Ships