Oil Spill Cleanup: Industry proactive in pushing technology and procedures forward.

AuthorSimonelli, Isaac Stone
PositionOil & Gas

The harsh conditions and remote nature of Alaska present formidable obstacles to those protecting the environment from oil spills. Companies, agencies, and academics throughout the state continue to find the necessary funds to develop better, more efficient technology to prevent and clean up spills.

This technology ranges from infrared and satellite imaging techniques and advances in oleophilic skimmers to the use of bomb-sniffing dogs and Alyeska's new fleet of purpose-built ships.

Skimmers and PPR Otter Systems

The primary line of response to water-based oil spills is using mechanical methods, which have seen numerous enhancements over the years as companies attempt to improve their efficiency, lowering the need for temporary storage units and improving their response in remote areas.

"An OSRO [oil spill removal organization] like Chadux is at a disadvantage; we can't get temporary storage out to some of the places we need to go just because of the remoteness of it," Alaska Chadux Corporation General Manager Matt Melton explains. "So, we definitely need higher efficiency in our skimmers, and that kind of goes with any OSRO nowadays because a lot of things are tied up with temporary storage."

One of the more advanced and efficient skimmers in Melton's member-funded, nonprofit OSRO is the Lamor 50 Skimmer--an oil-attracting (oleophilic) brush skimmer.

The Lamor 50, which is capable of picking up persistent oils when the brushes are run one way and non-persistent oils when run the other, was developed after Chadux team members pitched the idea to engineers at Lamor, says Melton.

However, Melton isn't convinced the limitations of efficiency are entirely with the equipment. He explains that an operator's understanding of water conditions and the skimmer being operated plays a significant role in efficiency.

"I think there is still that combo," he says. "I know back East they are working on autonomous vessels that can go and skim oil, and that will never work up here because you don't always have satellites that will be in range all the time to run them."

That said, there is one skimmer project being developed in Alaska that Melton does consider groundbreaking: the PPR Otter Pup. Alaskan Kevin Kennedy, founder of Pacific Petroleum Recovery Alaska (PPR), is working tirelessly to bring his PPR Otter Series skimmer systems to the market.

"They've probably got the newest thing in the world when it comes to cleaning up oil spills," Melton says. "I'm just hoping he can produce a lot of them because right now the price point is too high for me to jump in."

Kennedy began dabbling with oil cleanup after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, though he didn't fully dedicate himself to designing his system until the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge, which was inspired by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

Despite feeling that regulations like the Oil Spill Act of 1990 (a response to the Exxon Valdez spill) stifle innovation, Kennedy has persevered. The self-taught engineer with a background in commercial fishing applied his understanding of dragging nets to catch fish to the problem of oil spills as he developed PPR Otter systems.

His patented net design creates a high-pressure system on one side of the net and low-pressure system on the other, allowing the equipment to round up oil while moving at a rate of 2 to 3 knots. However, once the net stops moving, the oil all comes out, which leads to the second phase of the project: oil removal.

"Why are we trying to lift it out of the water? Why don't we put in a vacuum and suck it out of the water?" Kennedy asked himself, noticing that the oil in the net started spinning in a circle--similar to how water moves after flushing a toilet. It was an ideal situation for vacuuming oil out of the water.

Though this system was efficient, Kennedy was convinced he could do better--and he was right. By emptying the oil-water mixture into a vacuum chamber at a pressure of 26 mercury or higher--the point that water boils, but not oil--he was able to vaporize the water, separating it from the oil.

Last year, the PPR Otter Pup went through an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) testing process, through which the US Coast Guard (USCG) essentially approved the system to be used for oil spill cleanup. The skimmer scored a rating within the margin of error of 100 percent efficiency...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT