The value of offshore field experiments in oil spill technology development for Norwegian waters

ABSTRACT Oil spill research and development has involved a large number of experiments to evaluate the effectiveness and the effects of marine shoreline protection and cleanup techniques. Considerable knowledge has accumulated from laboratory and wave tank studies, and there have also been a number of field experiments, in which oil was intentionally spilled on shorelines under controlled conditions. This review summarizes those field experiments, which are grouped in five major habitat types: rocky intertidal, cobble/pebble/gravel, sand/mud, saltmarshes, and mangroves/seagrasses. Tables included in the paper itemize the oil type and volume, location and substrate character, number and size of plots, response techniques tested, and referenced publications. This information is then used to combine understanding of the effectiveness of cleanup with understanding of the ecological effects of cleanup methods, compared with those of untreated oil. It is very difficult to achieve this type of information and understanding from toxicity testing or from spills of opportunity.

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Recent field experiments with commercial satellite imagery direct downlink

Journal of Emergency Management ◽

10.5055/jem.2017.0313 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 62 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anthony R. Gonzalez, BSc ◽

Samuel H. Amber, PhD

Keyword(s):

Satellite Imagery ◽

Common Ground ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Situational Awareness ◽

Technology Development ◽

Asia Pacific ◽

United States Government ◽

Ground Station ◽

Disaster Relief Operations ◽

Commercial Imagery

US Pacific Command's strategy includes assistance to United States government relief agencies and nongovernment organizations during humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations in the Asia-Pacific region. Situational awareness during these operations is enhanced by broad interagency access to unclassified commercial satellite imagery. The Remote Ground Terminal—a mobile satellite downlink ground station—has undergone several technology demonstrations and participated in an overseas deployment exercise focused on a natural disaster scenario. This ground station has received new commercial imagery within 20 minutes, hastening a normally days-long process. The Army Geospatial Center continues to manage technology development and product improvement for the Remote Ground Terminal. Furthermore, this ground station is now on a technology transition path into the Distributed Common Ground System-Army program of record.

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Examination of Current BSEE Oil Spill Response Research Efforts

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2021.1.1141265 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Karen N. Stone ◽

Jay J. Cho ◽

Kristi J. McKinney

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Information Science ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Technology Development ◽

Science Research ◽

Naval Research ◽

Development Effort ◽

Outer Continental Shelf ◽

Oil Spill Response ◽

The U.S

Abstract No.:1141265 In the decade following the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, considerable research and development has been accomplished to address known research gaps to respond to offshore oil spills; however, opportunities to enhance spill response capabilities remain. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is the lead agency in the U.S. regulating energy production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. BSEE's Oil Spill Response Research (OSRR) program is the principal federal source of oil spill response research to improve the detection, containment, treatment/cleanup of oil spills and strives to provide the best available information, science, research, and technology development to key decision makers, industry, and the oil spill response community. The paper will highlight several key collaborative projects with federal and industry stakeholders including System and Algorithm Development to Estimate Oil Thickness and Emulsification through an UAS Platform and Methods to Enhance Mechanical Recovery in Arctic Environments. Additionally, the paper will provide an update on the Development of a Low-emission Spray Combustion Burner to Cleanly Burn Emulsions where we partnered the Naval Research Laboratory and met with industry representatives to incorporate their needs in the final phases of the development effort.

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OIL SPILL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-1975-1-329 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 1975 (1) ◽

pp. 329-335

Author(s):

S.L. Ross

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Technology Development ◽

Research Effort ◽

The Arctic ◽

The North ◽

Sensing Systems ◽

Remote Sensing Systems ◽

Technology Group ◽

St Lawrence River

ABSTRACT In mid-1972, the Environmental Emergency Branch was formed within the Canadian Department of the Environment. This organization, which is part of the Environmental Protection Service, is responsible for protective and preventative activities related to pollution emergencies, including oil spills. The technology development work carried out by the branch can be divided into two main programs. One is the testing, evaluation, and development of oil spill countermeasures equipment, materials, and techniques. The program for oil spill equipment including skimmers, booms, pumps, and remote sensing systems is being carried out in Hamilton Harbour and Lake Ontario. Much work is also underway on the testing, evaluation, and development of various oil spill treating agents, including dispersants, absorbents, sinking agents, biodegradation agents, combustion agents, and chemical oil herders. The other main responsibility of the spill technology group is to design and develop various countermeasures systems for specific high risk and sensitive areas in Canada. This program involves putting together the various countermeasures equipment and materials described above into integrated systems that can be used to fight spills in specific locations. Four areas which are being thoroughly investigated at this time are Vancouver Harbour, the Beaufort Sea, the St. Clair River, and the St. Lawrence River. These areas are quite different environmentally, and the “custom-designed” countermeasures systems needed for each area are similarly different. Much of the technology development and research effort in Canada has been directed toward cold environment problems. This includes studies related to drilling blowouts in the Arctic, to pipeline spills under winter conditions, to dyking of storage facilities in the north, and to spills in ice-infested water.

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Tropical Oil Pollution Investigations in Coastal Systems [TROPICS]: A 32-year Review of Response and Recovery

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2021.1.688277 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

Author(s):

D. Abigail Renegar ◽

Paul Schuler ◽

Nicholas Turner ◽

Richard Dodge ◽

Anthony Knap ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Crude Oil ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Oil Pollution ◽

Environmental Benefit ◽

Coastal Systems ◽

Dispersed Oil ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Nearshore Environments ◽

Comparative Risk

ABSTRACT In 1984, the Tropical Oil Pollution Investigations in Coastal Systems (TROPICS) experiment began in Bahia Almirante on the Caribbean coast of Panama. This study sought to compare the impacts of a severe, but realistic spill of untreated crude oil versus chemically treated (dispersed) crude oil on tropical marine reef, sea-grass, and mangrove ecosystems. The aim of the study was to identify and evaluate the environmental trade-offs of dispersant use in tropical marine and subtidal systems. As a result of continuing research at the site, the study became one of the most comprehensive field experiments examining the long-term impacts of oil and dispersed oil exposures in nearshore tropical communities. Consequently, TROPICS has been the foundational and seminal field study which served as the historical antecedent for Net Environmental Benefit Analysis (NEBA), as well as the basis for follow-on Spill Impact Mitigation Analysis (SIMA) and Comparative Risk Analysis (CRA) for oil spill planning, preparation, and response. From the initial experiment in 1984, through three decades of study and data collection visits, the coral reef, seagrass, and mangrove communities have exhibited significantly different damage and recovery regimes, depending on whether the sites were exposed to non-treated crude oil or dispersed crude oil. While this study does not definitively determine whether or not dispersants should be applied in tropical nearshore environments, it is illustrative of the environmental and ecosystem trade-offs between surface oil impacts to the shoreline, compared to water column exposure from chemically dispersed oil. This paper provides an overview of the results and observations reported in numerous previous TROPICS publications, as a progression of damage and recovery over time. With this perspective, planners and responders can use this study to predict what damages/recoveries may be expected from an oil spill incident in this environment. The results of the TROPICS experiment are examined within the context of this recent parallel research from the perspective of ongoing implications for oil spill preparedness and response.

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Assessing Progress and Benefits of Oil Spill Response Technology Development Since Exxon Valdez

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2003-1-843 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 2003 (1) ◽

pp. 843-850 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dagmar Schmidt Etkin ◽

Peter Tebeau

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Recovery ◽

Technology Development ◽

Cost Savings ◽

Oil Removal ◽

Exxon Valdez ◽

Removal Technology ◽

Oil Spill Response ◽

Removal Technologies

ABSTRACT This paper describes a simple approach to quantifying progress and benefits associated with improvements in oil spill removal technology over the past decade, focusing on the most significant oil removal technologies: mechanical recovery, dispersant application and in-situ burning. All three technologies have been the focus of research and development (R&D) efforts since the Exxon Valdez spill. Notable progress has been made in refining the technologies and defining circumstances under which each option will be successful. These accomplishments have been qualitatively described in recent strategic technology assessments. The difficulty that arises in quantitatively predicting future benefits of these advances, is that expected increases in oil removal and associated cost savings are as much a function of specific circumstances of future spills as of advances in spill removal technologies. The specifics of future spills, particularly the larger more troublesome ones, are difficult to predict. In order to obtain representative quantitative estimates of these benefits, a hind-cast technique is demonstrated whereby the advanced technologies are applied to past spill scenarios to determine oil recovery and cost savings that would be realized if these spills were to occur in the future.

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Oil Spill Response Technology Development through Industry Commitments - The Norwegian Way

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2011-1-344 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 2011 (1) ◽

pp. abs344 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hans V. Jensen ◽

Jørn Harald S. Andersen ◽

Steinar Lodve Gyltnes

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Technology Development ◽

Oil Spill Response

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Application of Heterogeneous Robotic System for Underwater Oil Spill Scenario

Journal of Maritime & Transportation Science ◽

10.18048/2016-00.169 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol Special edition (1) ◽

pp. 169-178

Author(s):

Antonio Vasiljević ◽

Đula Nađ ◽

Nikola Stilinović ◽

Nikola Mišković ◽

Zoran Vukić

Keyword(s):

Decision Support ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ◽

Unmanned Vehicles ◽

Robotic System ◽

Counter Measures ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

Rhodamine Wt

The tragic Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 as well as the increase in deepwater offshore activity have increased public interest in counter-measures available for subsurface releases of hydrocarbons. To arrive at proper contingency planning, response managers urge for a system for instant detection and characterization of accidental releases. Along these lines, this paper describes the application of a heterogeneous robotic system of unmanned vehicles: autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) extended with the oil spill numerical modeling, visualisation and decision support capabilities. A first set of field experiments simulating oil spill scenarios with Rhodamine WT was held in Croatia during the early autumn 2014. and the second set of experiments were held in Spain during the summer 2015. The objectives of this experiment were to test: effectiveness of the system for underwater detection of hydrocarbons, heterogeneous multi-vehicle collaborative navigation and communication as well as decision support system, visualisation of the system components and detected spill.

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Aerial Application of Herding Agents can Enhance In-Situ Burning in Partial Ice Cover

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2017.1.2955 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 (1) ◽

pp. 2955-2975

Author(s):

Stephen Potter ◽

Ian Buist ◽

David Cooper ◽

Srijan Aggarwal ◽

William Schnabel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Field Tests ◽

Unmanned Aircraft ◽

The Arctic ◽

Aerial Application ◽

Promising Tool ◽

Oil Spill Response ◽

Time Required

ABSTRACT In situ burning (ISB) aided by herding agents is a promising tool for oil spill response in Arctic waters. An advantageous aspect of the herder mediated ISB approach is that the application of herders as well as the subsequent ignition of the slick could potentially be carried out from aerial platforms. This could obviate the need for personnel to conduct operations on the surface near the burn, as well as reduce the response time required to mobilize the spill response equipment, especially in challenging Arctic conditions. In the last decade, several laboratory and field-scale tests have been conducted to prove the efficacy of herder-assisted ISB operations, sometimes achieving burn efficiencies greater than 90 %. However, there have been no field tests of aerial herder application followed by ignition. This paper presents results from a series of field experiments performed in a custom-built test basin 50 km northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, in April 2015. A helicopter was employed to first apply herding agents (Siltech OP-40 or ThickSlick 6535) to Alaska North Slope crude oil slicks in simulated drift ice conditions, and then ignite the herded slicks using a Heli-torch. Two of five test burns yielded measurable outcomes, resulting in 70% - 85% removal of the test oil as it was drifting freely. Three of five test burns did not yield reliably measurable results, as wind action at the site prevented an accurate measurement of free-drifting burn efficiency. An unmanned aircraft, carrying prototypical payloads for herder spraying and in situ burn ignition was also tested. This is the first time successful aerial application of herders for ISB in the Arctic or elsewhere has been accomplished, and furthers the development of better tools for oil spill response in Arctic waters and beyond.

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Spilled Oil Autonomous Tracking Using Autonomous Sea Surface Vehicle

Marine Technology Society Journal ◽

10.4031/mtsj.49.3.15 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 102-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Swarn Singh Rathour ◽

Naomi Kato ◽

Naoto Tanabe ◽

Hidetaka Senga ◽

Yukino Hirai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Time History ◽

Open Water ◽

Sea Surface ◽

Uncertain Environments ◽

Autonomous Surface Vehicle ◽

Using Data ◽

And Control ◽

Spilled Oil

Abstract Over the past several decades, a concerted scientific effort has been made to estimate the drift and spread of spilled oil on the ocean surface. However, tracking spilled oil in open water remains challenging. This research focuses on the problem of autonomous oil spill tracking in oceanic marine environments. We describe a sensor-based guidance, navigation, and control system (GNCS) for oil spill tracking by an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) in unsteady and uncertain environments. First, we describe the design and development of a yacht-shaped ASV that can track spilled oil on the sea surface using data supplied by onboard sensors to control rudder angle and sail area for navigation. Second, we evaluate the performance of a Ultraviolet/fluorometry-based optical sensor for use as an oil detection sensor. Third, we describe an autonomous ASV decision-making algorithm for target speed and direction based on a complete time history of the scanned area around the ASV by the oil detection sensor. Finally, we describe field experiments conducted at the Osaka University pond to validate the performance of the ASV with regard to autonomous oil spill tracking using GNCS based on onboard sensors data for tracking artificial oil targets. This technology has profound implications for oil spill disaster recovery operations.

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