Oil Spill Response: Captive Balloons Rise Up High!

摘要

When an oil spill occurs, time is critical: the oil slick must be identified as soon as possible, followed permanently and its drift must be anticipated as much as possible in order to take the right decision and put the recovery equipment in the right place. That’s the reason why Total decided to develop a captive balloon specifically dedicated to the follow up of drifting oil slicks. The balloon is held in position at 150 m (500 ft) above sea level, above the ship in intervention. Two digital cameras are suspended to it, one of them being an infrared/thermal one. This device leads to visualisation of the hydrocarbons during the day and night. That’s a real plus for the rescue team which until now faced serious difficulties to determine the position of the response boat with regards to the oil slick from the deck due to the acute angle of observation and reflection issues. The equipment is made of two parts: the balloon itself (8 m3, filled with Helium), and a stabilised turret, equipped with two cameras, which weighs less than 3 kg (6 pounds). Software installed on the ground station which can be positioned on the upper deck on the boat analyses the images from the cameras (transmitted by radio wave) and steers the cameras. Particular attention has been drawn to ease of use and rapidity of unfurling: within 10 minutes the balloon is filled with Helium, and overall the whole equipment is ready within 1 hour. The paper will present the balloon and provide details on the various steps from the reasons to develop such a piece of equipment, the difficulties met during its development, and the results obtained so far.