Ohmsett

This project will determine the viscosity limit for the effective application of chemical dispersants to realistic emulsions.

Small wave tank experiments will be used to confirm that the oil selected for use in this project will form stable emulsions. The preliminary effectiveness tests will provide information for determining the testing order of the emulsions. Tests where effectiveness is expected to be poor will be conducted first to prevent tank fouling for subsequent tests.

Existing oleophilic skimmers collect oil at a relatively slow rate, in large part because the selection of materials used for the adhesion surfaces of the oil recovery units has not been based on their adhesion properties, but rather on historical practice or availability. Significant progress in material and polymer science in the past ten years now allows us to test materials with a large range of physical properties and tailor them on order to increase their affinity for oil.

Experiments were conducted in 2002 and 2003 at Ohmsett The National Oil Spill Response Test Facility to assess the dispersibility of fresh and weathered Alaskan and Canadian crude oils in very cold water. Results from these experiments indicate that the crude oils tested were dispersible at near freezing water temperatures. However, there has been criticism of the findings related to the heating of the viscous oils prior to discharge onto the waters surface and subsequent dispersant application.

A small number of dispersant effectiveness tests will be conducted at Ohmsett The National Oil Spill Response Test Facility that will complete two important sections of the dispersant effectiveness test matrix not completed during the October 2003 experimental test series. Testing will be conducted on IFO-180 fuel oil treated with Corexit 9500 dispersant at a DOR of 1:25. In replicated tests at sea this combination yielded consistently high levels of dispersant performance.

The objective of the proposed work is to develop a methodology and equipment to enable researchers to produce large quantities of realistic water-in-oil emulsions. These emulsions will be used in test programs at Ohmsett and elsewhere.

This project substantially increased the efficiency of mechanical oil spill recovery equipment by replacing traditional recovery unit materials with polymetric materials that have the highest affinity for oil and are specifically tailored to collect oil from water surfaces. The specific objectives of this research proposal were to determine; The magnitude of the physical processes that govern adhesion of oil to polymetric materials;
The material(s) that have the greatest affinity for different types of oils at various weathering degrees;

The goal of this project was to coordinate the publications of results of the 2003 MMS-sponsored Correlating Results of Ohmsett Dispersant Tests with Identical At-Sea Trials study by SL Ross and A. Lewis 2004. The results of the other spin-off projects were aimed at correlating results of other dispersant effectiveness testing procedures with results of the June 2003 UK at-sea trials, and identify, plan and coordinate follow-up dispersant effectiveness experiments at Ohmsett.

The purpose of the study was to determine the partitioning of different chemical emulsions breakers between oil and water phases when they are used to enhance decanting of recovered water from offshore skimming operations. This proposed effort built upon a previous projects entitled Testing at Ohmsett to Determine Optimum Times to Decant to Temporary Storage Devices (Project 298) and Extending Temporary Storage Capacity Offshore With Emulsion Breakers (Project 395) where S.L.

The objective of the work was to develop a standard method for measuring the buoyancy-to-weight ratio of oil spill containment booms. The following tasks were accomplished: Existing methods of estimating a boom's buoyancy-to-weight ratio were reviewed.
A direct measurement methodology, applicable to a range of boom types, was developed for use at the Ohmsett facility.
The methodology was validated through testing at Ohmsett.

The objectives of this research project are twofold. The first is to determine if the results of dispersant effectiveness tests conducted at Ohmsett are consistent with those gathered in the laboratory and under actual at-sea conditions. The project will conduct a series of dispersant effectiveness tests at Ohmsett under identical conditions to those conducted in the at-sea trials done in the UK in 2003. The research will compare the threshold limiting conditions for dispersibility as measured at Ohmsett with those measured in the laboratory and at-sea, under identical conditions.