Mechanical Containment and Recovery

Alion investigated a new approach for removing oil from ice-infested waters. They leveraged their submersible, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technology to develop a system to deploy and maneuver a skimmer underwater to the location of the oil where it would then surface and begin recovery operations. This technology could advance industry's ability to remove oil from otherwise inaccessible locations. During this effort Alion developed a proof of concept prototype which was tested at the Ohmsett facility.

The objective of this project was to develop a continuous oil/seawater separation process that could be deployed in arctic conditions aboard oil skimming vessels to recover a majority of skimmed oil while producing an oil-free water stream that could be safely discharged. This separation technique relies on the coupling of electrically conducting ultrafiltration membranes with ferromagnetic nanoparticle-stabilized oil droplets allowing for efficient collection and separation of spilled oil without the need for storing vast volumes of contaminated water.

The goal of this project was to develop a strap-on navigation, sensor, and computer control system that could be used to direct a variety of commercial off the shelf (COTS) skimmers and vessels to autonomously maneuver and skim the oil from a given area with automatic tracking and reporting of progress and performance. This autonomous oil skimmer (AOS) system consisted of a commercial of the shelf (COTS) skimmer and vessel, a COTS autopilot system, a high precision navigation package, oil thickness and recovery efficiency sensors, and a custom computer algorithm.

The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) developed i-Petrogel, a superabsorbent polymer that exhibits high absorption capacity of 30 to 40 times its weight, and that has the potential for being effectively refined as a regular crude oil. The objective of this project was to advance this polymer with a focus on the practical development and evaluation for oil spill containment and recovery under Alaskan Arctic Sea conditions using Alaskan North Slope (ANS) crude oil.

The objective of this project was to develop technologies to mitigate oil in the water column. Two technologies were selected for development and prototype fabrication. Prototypes were tested at the Ohmsett facility in December, 2016 and January, 2017. 

Nuka Research continued the approach that they successfully applied to the first phase of the Oil Spill Simulants Workgroup, facilitated a national workgroup that included past participants and other key individuals or organizations. They used the workgroup membership to foster consensus and consolidate existing knowledge, developed a decision-making tool to inform simulant selection for different purposes, and presented the work to the National Response Team (NRT) to initiate a dialogue about the need for a national policy on oil simulants.

This project's objective was to assess performance of standard skimmer hoses and hose couplings used during oil recovery operations when subjected to low temperatures found in the Arctic. Performance and life cycle testing were conducted under two tasks.

Task 1: Moving recovered oil/water/ice product through a hose using a diaphragm pump.

Objective:
To assess the ability of mechanical devices to recover oil in broken ice environments.

Scope of Work:
Four weeks of full-scale skimmer testing took place at Ohmsett. Skimmers used or being evaluated for use by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard were tested in the tank under various simulated Arctic conditions using synthetic oil. The skimmer systems were evaluated using 1 inch thick Hydrocal 300 oil, in 30% and 70% ice conditions. The following skimmer systems were evaluated.

Slickbar DIP 400 Skimmer

Desmi Sea Mop 3060 Skimmer

The objective of the research was to demonstrate the feasibility of a Thermal Hydrate Preventer (THP) system that will provide spill response teams with a tool that can be used to quickly mitigate subsea oil spills.

EDRC is the calculated capacity of oil recovery devices as determined by using a formula defined in 30 CFR 254.44, 33 CFR 154, Appendix C and 33 CFR 155 Appendix B that accounts for limiting factors such as daylight, weather, sea state, and emulsified oil in the recovered material. The regulatory EDRC calculation provides a mathematical calculation for estimating the capabilities of a skimmer based on the de-rating of its pump's nameplate capacity.