Experimental Study of Two Different Mechanical Oil Spill Cleanup Systems

摘要

Increasing environmental problems highlight the need to reduce the damage to the marine environment caused by spills and discharge of oil and petroleum products. In the case of near-shore and offshore oil spills, a thin layer of oil has to be skimmed off the sea surface either by self-floating oil skimming equipment or by oil spill recovery ships. In this paper, a self-floating oil skimming arrangement and an oil spill recovery system appropriate for coastal waters are studied. First, an oil skimmer composed of oleophilic disks is investigated. This system, as is known from the various skimming applications around the world, operates by making use of the adhesive properties of oil. A prototype is constructed and then a series of experiments are carried out to determine the parameters that can be used in the design process. Secondly, a new oil recovery system, utilizing the principle of suction and density differences, is presented. The system differs from existing designs that use the same principle in that it speeds up the gravity separation in the settling tank into which the oil-water mixture is taken with high rates of flow. An experimental model is constructed and tested. The preliminary results reveal that a system with high rates of oil recovery is possible.