Applications for Oil Spill Response Equipment

General Oil Spill Response Information:

In general an oil spill incident can be treated in three different ways:

-          The spill is observed and no clean up action is taken
-          The spill is cleaned chemically
-          The spill is cleaned mechanically

RO-CLEAN DESMI is specialised in design and sale of equipment for mechanical oil spill recovery. However, RO-CLEAN DESMI also supplies equipment for chemical cleaning of oil spills. 

Ro-Boom deployment	DESMI Tarantula in Boom formation

The mechanical recovery of oil spills can again be divided into the following areas:

-          Offshore operations
-          Near shore operations
-          River operations
-          Harbour/Jetty operations
-          Beach cleaning
-          Onshore operations

There is different equipment to de chosen depending on the environment the equipment is going to be used in. Very roughly the following characteristics are valid for the above mentioned clean up conditions:

-          Offshore operations involve vessels deploying booms and skimmers. The vessels can operate in Single Sweep Mode (V-configuration), Dual Sweep Mode (J-configuration) or when more vessels are involved the configuration mode could be U-configuration, where minimum 3 vessels are required. The main issues for the booms chosen are: strength and buoyancy ratio. The skimmer criteria are capacity and water content of recovered material.

-          Near shore operations will often involve smaller vessels as well as smaller booms and skimmers. The booms deployed may be used as deflection booms for guiding a drifting oil slick to a less sensitive coastline. The skimmers used will often have a rather low draft due to the low water level.

-          In river operations the velocity of the water is often very high and the spreading of the oil happens even quicker than in open water conditions. The advantage is that the water velocity is always in one direction. The equipment used is smaller booms with low draft and high buoyancy. The skimmers used are often lightweight skimmers as they may have to be manually carried to the river.

-          In harbour/jetty operations the deployment time is the main issue. Often the area will be relatively well protected from wind and current, so solid float booms are often used.  Skimmers will often also be smaller and may be specialised in viscosity range if the oil handled in the jetty has a limited viscosity range.

-          Beach cleaning operation is not an emergency situation as a “here-and-now” oil spill incident. Specialists in the specific environment should be contacted prior to any cleanup operation. In some cases the cleanup operation may do more harm than the oil itself. Low pressure cleaners, smaller booms and skimmers with low draft are often used for such operations. The special Beach Sealing boom is a must in such operations (Ro-Beach).

An onshore operation will often be more complicated than an oil spill incident on water. The soil will be contaminated and have to be removed and treated. The equipment used will often be sorbent booms, sorbent loose material for spreading over the oil, vacuum cleaners (Ro-Vac) and high pressure cleaners. The danger of hazardous vapours in an onshore spill should not be ignored.