Recovery of Oil under Solid Ice

This project will develop a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) mounted tooling skid to detect, inspect, and recover pockets of oil under solid ice, and to scrape and remove oil-laden ice crystals formed on the underside of the ice. The tooling skid will consist of a pumping system, a manipulator arm with a collection nozzle and scraping tool, navigation, and lighting to allow differentiation of oil, water, and ice. It will have a standardized “plug and play” power and data protocol such that it can be used with any qualified ROV. This approach will allow the tooling skid to be used in a wide variety of conditions including water depth and current.

This project will use a phased approach to mitigate risk. In Phase I the contractor will complete the tooling skid design and develop a set of technical requirements to drive selection of the host ROV. Upon BSEE’s review of the design and approval to move forward, the contractor will conduct Phase II work to fabricate and test the prototype system.