HERDING AGENTS THICKEN OIL SPILLS IN DRIFT ICE TO FACILITATE IN SITU BURNING: A NEW TRICK FOR AN OLD DOG1

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 673-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Buist ◽  
Tim Nedwed ◽  
Joe Mullin
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spills ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Us Army ◽  
Ice Coverage ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Ice Conditions

ABSTRACT In situ burning is an oil spill response option particularly suited to remote ice-covered waters. The key to effective in situ burning is thick oil slicks. In loose drift ice conditions oil spills can rapidly spread to become too thin to ignite. Fire booms can collect and keep slicks thick in open water; however, even light ice conditions make using booms challenging. A multi-year joint industry project was initiated to study oil-herding agents as an alternative to booms for thickening slicks in light ice conditions for in situ burning. Small-scale laboratory experiments were completed in 2004 and 2005 to examine the concept of using herding agents to thicken oil slicks among loose pack ice for the purpose of in situ burning. Encouraging results prompted further mid-scale testing at the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), the Ohmsett facility, and the Fire Training Grounds in Prudhoe Bay, AK. The non-proprietary cold-water herder formulation used in these experiments proved effective in significantly contracting oil slicks in brash and slush ice concentrations of up to 70% ice coverage. Slicks in excess of 3 mm thick, the minimum required for ignition of weathered crude oil on water, were routinely achieved. Herded slicks were ignited, and burned equally well in both brash and slush ice conditions at air temperatures as low as −17°C. The burn efficiencies measured for the herded slicks were only slightly less than the theoretical maximums achievable for equivalent-sized, mechanically contained slicks on open water.

RESULTS FROM OIL SPILL RESPONSE RESEARCH—AN UPDATE

1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 541-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J. Tennyson
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Yield Information ◽  
Broken Ice ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Spilled Oil

ABSTRACT Recent large oil spills from tankers have reaffirmed the need for continuing technology assessment and research to improve oil spill response capabilities. This paper discusses Minerals Management Service concerns, as reinforced by the acceleration of its research program in 1990. It briefly assesses current state-of-the-art technology for major aspects of spill response, including remote sensing, open-ocean containment and recovery, in-situ burning, use of chemical treating agents, beachline cleanup, and oil behavior. Specific research projects have begun to yield information that will improve detection and at-sea equipment performance; current projects, include the development of an airborne laser-fluorosensor to determine whether apparent slicks contain oil. Additional projects involve the development of improved strategies for responding to oil in broken-ice conditions, for gaining an improved understanding of the fate and behavior of spilled oil as it affects response strategies, and for defining the capabilities of available dispersants and development of improved formulations. Recently progress has been made on the development of safe and environmentally acceptable strategies to burn spilled oil in situ. The Ohmsett facility has been reopened and will be used to test prospective improvements in chemical treating agents and to develop standard procedures for testing and evaluating response equipment. Results of research published since the last Oil Spill Conference are discussed.

In Situ Burning

1999 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Buist ◽  
James McCourt ◽  
Steve Potter ◽  
Sy Ross ◽  
Ken Trudel
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spills ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Open Water ◽  
American Petroleum Institute ◽  
Operational Capabilities ◽  
Water Conditions ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Available Technology ◽  
Treatment And Disposal

Introduction: The use of in situ burning as a spill response technique is not new, having been researched and used for a variety of oil spills since the late 1960s. In general, the technique has proved effective for oil spills in ice conditions and has been used successfully to remove oil spills in ice-covered waters resulting from storage tank and ship accidents in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia.Although there have been numerous incidents of vessel oil spills that inadvertently caught fire, the intentional ignition of oil slicks on open water has only been seriously considered since the development of fire-resistant oil containment boom beginning in the early 1980s. The development of these booms offered the possibility of conducting controlled burns in open water conditions. In situ burning operations using these booms have been conducted at three spills in the last decade: a major offshore tanker spill, a burning blowout in an inshore environment, and a pipeline spill into a river. In situ burning of thick, fresh slicks can be initiated very quickly by igniting the oil with devices as simple as an oil-soaked sorbent pad. In situ burning can remove oil from the water surface very efficiently and at very high rates. Removal efficiencies for thick slicks can easily exceed 90%. Removal rates of 2000 m3/hr can be achieved with a fire area of only about 10,000 m2 or a circle of about 100 m in diameter. The use of towed fire containment boom to capture, thicken and isolate a portion of a spill, followed by ignition, is far less complex than the operations involved in mechanical recovery, transfer, storage, treatment and disposal. If the small quantities of residue from an efficient burn require collection, the viscous, taffy-like material can be collected and stored for further treatment and disposal. There is a limited window of opportunity for using in situ burning with the presently available technology. This window is defined by the time it takes the oil slick to emulsify; once water contents of stable emulsions exceed about 25%, most slicks are unignitable. Research is ongoing to overcome this limitation. Despite the strong incentives for considering in situ burning as a primary countermeasure method, there remains some resistance to the approach. There are two major concerns: first, the fear of causing secondary fires that threaten human life, property and natural resources; and, second, the potential environmental and human-health effects of the by-products of burning, primarily the smoke. The objective of this chapter is to review the science, technology, operational capabilities and limitations and ecological consequences of in situ burning as a countermeasure for oil spills on water. The main focus of this section is on marine oil spills in open water conditions. The use of in situ burning for spills in ice conditions is dealt with in another chapter. Much of the content of this chapter is updated from an in-depth review of in situ burning produced for the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) in 1994 (ref. 1). Interested readers are encouraged to refer to the original report for fully-referenced details of the summary presented here. The MSRC report is available from the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, DC.

Recent Results from Oil Spill Response Research

1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 (1) ◽  
pp. 673-676
Author(s):  
Edward Tennyson
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Yield Information ◽  
Environmental Test ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Spilled Oil

ABSTRACT Recent large oil spills from tankers have reaffirmed the need for continuing technology assessment and research to improve oil-spill response capabilities. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) remains a lead agency in conducting these studies. This paper discusses MMS concerns, as reinforced by the acceleration of its research program in 1990. It briefly assesses the current state-of-the-art technology for major aspects of spill response, including remote sensing, open-ocean containment, recovery, in-situ burning, chemical treating agents, beach-line cleanup, and oil behavior. The paper reports on specific research projects that have begun to yield information that will improve detection and at-sea equipment performance. The first detection project, for which MMS has patent pending, involves the use of shipboard navigational radar to track slicks at relatively long range. The second project involves the use of conventional containment and cleanup in a downwind mode, which is contrary to the traditional procedures. The paper also discusses current research projects, including the development of an airborne, laser-assisted fluorosensor that can determine whether apparent slicks contain oil. Additional projects involve the development of improved strategies for responding to oil in broken-ice conditions, for gaining an improved understanding of the fate and behavior of spilled oil as it affects response strategies, and for reopening and operating the oil and hazardous materials simulated environmental test tank (OHMSETT) facility in Leonardo, New Jersey. Recent progress on the development of safe and environmentally acceptable strategies to burn spilled oil in-situ is also discussed. The OHMSETT facility is necessary for testing prospective improvements in chemical treating agents and to develop standard procedures for testing and evaluating response equipment.

Response Plans for Arctic Oil and Ice Encounters

1999 ◽  
Vol 1999 (1) ◽  
pp. 639-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick W. Glover ◽  
David F. Dickins
Keyword(s):  
Open Water ◽  
North Slope ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Arctic Conditions ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Ground Truthing ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Alaskan North Slope

ABSTRACT Ice conditions, in dynamic stages of development and degradation, are present for over 280 days out of every calendar year in the Beaufort Sea adjacent to the operating oilfields on the Alaskan North Slope. Additionally, wind driven ice invasions during the open water season, July through September typically, may also occur for short periods throughout the season. This presence combined with extreme arctic conditions routinely presents a challenge to mounting a safe and effective oil spill response action. In order to overcome this challenge responders must develop response action plans not only with an understanding of the physical environment but also with a basic understanding of the effect this environment will have on the fate and behavior of the spilled oil. Arctic spill response strategies, worldwide, have been developed through years of experience with both offshore and onshore drilling and production operations in all types of sea and ice conditions. North Slope response action plans are based on this experience, intense field training, and ground truthing of related research and development projects.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BURNING SPILLED OIL

1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 765-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan A. Allen ◽  
Ronald J. Ferek
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spills ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Direct And Indirect Impacts ◽  
World Information ◽  
Indirect Impacts ◽  
Spill Control ◽  
Offshore Oil

ABSTRACT The full potential for in situ burning as a controlled oil spill response technique is a subject of growing interest throughout the world. Information now available from burning oil during accidental fires, war-related fires in Kuwait, spillage from the Exxon Valdez, and controlled test burns, permits an objective and comprehensive assessment of both the positive and negative aspects of in situ burning. A thorough analysis has been made of direct and indirect impacts and concerns typically associated with the decision, to burn or not to burn. These factors, together with the comparative costs of various response techniques, have been identified and described to provide spill control planners and response organizations with a means of assessing the potential use of burning to clean up offshore oil spills.

NEW IMO/EPPR GUIDES TO ARCTIC OIL SPILL RESPONSE – STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 1182-1193
Author(s):  
E. H. Owens ◽  
D. F. Dickins ◽  
L. B. Solsberg ◽  
O-K. Bjerkemo
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Field Guide ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Snow And Ice

ABSTRACT In 2015 and 2016, two complementary projects produced both a new strategic guide (in two versions) and an updated operationally oriented guide to assist managers, regulators and responders in responding effectively to oil spills in snow and ice conditions. The objective of the first initiative, which began as a Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) project, a “Guide to Oil Spill Response in Snow and Ice Conditions”, was to identify and describe the strategic aspects of planning and operations. This program gained a separate phase through the Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) working group of the Arctic Council to adapt the Guide specifically for Arctic waters. The second initiative by EPPR was to update the 1998 “Field Guide for Oil Spill Response in Arctic Waters” while retaining the original operational focus. The 2016 version of the Field Guide incorporates major revisions and updates to sections on strategies and countermeasures, for example the use of herders and burning, dispersants in ice and specialized brush skimmers as well as advances in remote sensing and tracking. In addition, new sections address important topics such as Health and Human Safety, Logistics and Wildlife Response. The overall goal was to produce two complementary documents that provide a broad base of essential information to key decision-makers and responders at both the strategic planning level and at the field tactics and operations level. These two projects bring together a wide range of new knowledge generated over the past two decades that make many previous manuals and documents out of date. With such a vast amount of recent literature, the new strategic guide and the operational field guide update can only provide a brief summary of the new material but are valuable tools to indicate where the more detailed documents can be found.

Morice – New Technology for Effective Oil Recovery in Ice

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 821-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph V. Mullin ◽  
Hans V. Jensen ◽  
Walter Cox
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Broken Ice ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
National Effort ◽  
Meso Scale ◽  
Mechanical Recovery

ABSTRACT The overall objective of the Mechanical Oil Recovery in Ice Infested Waters (MORICE) program is to improve the effectiveness of equipment and techniques for the mechanical recovery of oil spills in ice-infested waters. MORICE is a multi-national effort that has involved Norwegian, Canadian, American and German researchers. Results from previous laboratory, meso-scale phases have been summarized (Johannessen et al, 1996, 1998), (Jensen et al., 1999), (Jensen & Solsberg, 2000, 2001). In January 2002, the full-scale proof of concepts with two different internal recovery units were successfully tested and evaluated at Ohmsett – The National Oil Spill Response Test Facility located in Leonardo, New Jersey (Jensen & Mullin, 2002). Results of the Ohmsett tests are presented along with recommendations for developing a commercialized skimmer that will effectively operate in broken ice conditions.

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