Determination of efficient recovery methods based on nature new....

DETERMINATION OF EFFICIENT
RECOVERY METHODS BASED ON
NATURE OF SPILLED OIL
PRESENTED BY: GOWTHAM RAJAGOPAL
RAHULNATH R
ASSO.PROF SAVIN VISWANATHAN
PROF SATHEESH BABU PK
Department of Naval Architecture & Ship Building
SNGCE

ABSTRACT
THIS RESEARCH PAPER FOCUSSES ON
 OCCURANCE OF MAJOR OIL SPILLS AND ITS EFFECTS ON
MARINE ECOSYSTEM
 PRESENT TECHNOLOGIES TO TACKLE OIL SPILLS
 THE MOST EFFICINT MEASURES TAKEN TO REMOVE
SPILLED OIL AT SEAS

OIL SPILLS ??
Oil Spill is accidental or intentional release of liquid petroleum
hydrocarbon into the ocean or coastal waters due to human
activity mainly.

CAUSES OF OIL SPILL
 Sinking or leakage of Oil carrying vessels or Oil pipelines
 Illegal dumping by industries
 Countries at war
 Terrorist activities
 Natural Disasters

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF OIL SPILL
EFFECTS ON MARINE LIFE
 FISH
Eye cataracts
Structural changes of fins
Loss of body weight

Birds
Plankton
 Plankton are small plants and animals that live in
the water
 Plankton are important because they are at the
bottom of the aquatic food chain.
 oil ingested or absorbed by plankton is passed higher
up the food chain, until it is finally ingested by fish
and mammals.

INTERTIDAL FAUNA
 Intertidal fauna include animals that live in the shoreline zone
between the high and low tides.
 Most vulnerable to oil spills because they and their habitat are
frequently coated during oil spills.
 Heavy oiling will generally kill most species

METHODS OF PRESENT CLEAN UP
 Surface dispersants
Advantage: The chemicals can be sprayed over a large area
within a short time thus enabling to reduce the toxic effects
of oil spill .
Disadvantage: The chemical dispersant itself getting toxic in
addition to the toxic fuels being spilled

 Underwater dispersants
Advantage: The oil can be decomposed to smaller droplets even before
they reach the surface.
Disadvantage: The underwater dispersant may give out toxic substance
during decomposition .Also the use of an underwater vessel at extreme
depth is not possible.
 Manual cleanup
Advantage: Little skill and training is required to clean up the shore and
with more machinery, the process can be done at a faster rate.
Disadvantage: The use of machinery in excess can lead to destruction of
biodiversity in the shores. Also, this technique doesn't prevent the oil
from spreading into the shore

 Controlled burns
 The spilled oil is contained using a fireproof boom and the oil is set to fire in a controlled
manner
Advantage: The oil is removed quickly from the surface of water.
Disadvantage: The toxic smoke coming out from the fire causes harmful air pollution

 Bioremediation
• It’s the action of bacteria which decomposes the oil
• By increasing the amount of bacteria, rate of decomposition can be increased
• For increasing the bacterial rate, sulfate or nitrate fertilizers are added
Advantage: This method doesn't affect the biodiversity much as it doesn't add
any chemicals to the environment and the whole thing works naturally. Cost
effective and safe.
Disadvantage: It is a slow process.

 Gelling agents
These are chemicals that solidify the oil into rubber like material which float
on water and can be removed using nets, skimmers etc.
Advantage: Easy to use after a spill with less time required for deployment.
Disadvantage: The amount needed is very high

Centrifugal oil water separator
Mode of Operation: A mix of oil and water is pumped constantly into a
cone shaped apparatus at an angle, which creates a spinning vortex.
Advantage: low cost of operation, versatility and efficiency .
Disadvantage: To cleanup sea water using this method takes time as it
has limited capacity to handle seawater

DETERMINATION OF OIL SPILL CLEANUP METHOD BASED ON SPILLED OIL
Factors affecting Oil spill Clean-up
• Quantity of spillage
• Type of oil spilled
• Weather conditions
• Time of response

Classification of Oil
Oil
Type
Intermediate
Fuel Oil
Bunker Fuel
Oil
Gasoline
Diesel fuel
Light Crude
Oil
Heavy Crude
Oil
Crude Oil
Emulsion

CHARACTERISTICS OF OIL THAT AFFECT SPILL
• Viscosity
• Density
• Solubility in water
• Interfacial Tension

WEATHERING
Change in characteristics of oil once it get spilled into water.
Characteristics of Weathering
1. Rate is maximum just after the occurrence of spill
and rate changes gradually
2. Temperature dependent
3. Depend on oil type
Important weathering process:
• Evaporation
• Emulsification
Important change after weathering
• Density change
• Viscosity change
• Flashpoint change

Evaporation
• Most important weathering process
• Depend on volatility of components in oil
• Less dependent on wind and surface area
Evaporation rate during a time period of 48 hours
after spill at 15O C
Highly depended upon the constituents making up
the oil.
Emulsification
Process by which one liquid is dispersed into
another one in the form of small droplets
The response time after an occurrence of oil spill is crucial in order to restrict weathering
process

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT METHODS OF CLEAN UP ON DIFFERENT OIL
Skimmer
• Mechanical removal of oil from the surface of water
• Most effective when the oil is contained with the help of boom
• Skimmers are classified according to the area of application such
as Offshore, Onshore ,shallow etc
Recovery rate in cubic meter per hour
• When different oils are compared ,Heavy crude
oil is most recovered ,followed by light crude oil
and Bunker C oil. Diesel comes at last.
• Recovery rate is also determined by weather
conditions present at the time of recovery.

Dispersants
These are chemical compounds that help to break the oil film
on water.
Effectiveness of dispersant are determined by
• Composition and weathering of oil
• Amount and type of dispersant applied
• Sea Energy
• Salinity
• Temperature
The effectiveness of dispersant during High energy and
Low Energy seas were studied and following were
found.
• Diesel is easily broken down by dispersant followed
by light crude oil and heavy crude oil. Bunker C oil
comes at last
• Effectiveness is high in High Energy conditions

Sorbents
• Materials which absorb oil either through adsorption or absorption
• They absorb both oil and water.
• High recovery rate is needed for effectiveness
• Care must be taken to prevent sinking of sorbents after use.
• Recovery rate depend mainly on oil type and surface type
Study was conducted on the recovery of oil using synthetic
sorbents
• Heavy Crude Oil is easily recovered followed by Light
Crude oil and Diesel. Bunker C oil comes last in recovery

FINDINGS ON THE BEST SUITED METHOD FOR EACH OIL
• The study was conducted mainly on the above given clean up methods
• Other methods are still inferior to these or cause environmental problems while clean-up and
hence avoided
• When diesel is spilled the best suited clean up method is the use of Surface Dispersant.
• For Heavy Crude Oil and Light Crude Oil the best suited clean up method is the skimmer.
• Bunker C Oil is found to be recovered most effectively by sorbents.
Oil Best Cleanup method
Diesel Surface Dispersant
Heavy Crude Oil Skimmer
Light Crude Oil Skimmer
Bunker C Oil Sorbents

FUTURE CLEAN UP METHODS
• The existing methods for clean-up are either outdated or do not meet the environmental
standards .
• Researches are conducted all over the globe for innovative clean-up methods for future needs
1) Grooved Disc Skimmer Technology
 This is an improvement made to existing skimmers with
grooved discs used for skimming
 Surface area increase result in manifold increase in recovery
rate
 Grooved skimmers manufactured by company named
ELASTEC have water to oil efficiency of over 89.5%
 This is one of the most promising innovation for clean up in
the future with wide application with different
configuration.
 No environmental harm

2) MAGNETIC SEPARATION USING NANOTECHNOLOGY
• Uses magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic field to
separate oil from water.
• The nanoparticles are coated with surfactants which
are hydrophobic and lyophilic
• Hence easy separation using magnetic field to
collect nanoparticles along with oil
3) BASALT FIBER TECHNOLOGY
• Obtained from basalt rocks
• Basalt rocks are melted and extruded through
small openings to produce Basalt fibre
• Fibre is lyophilic and hydrophobic
• Fibres absorb oil up to 75 times its own weight

4) MICROBES
• Microbes are genetically modified to eat up
spilled oil.
• Microbes are modified to die off after the oil
is eaten up.
• No environmental harm after clean-up
5)SWARM ROBOTIC SYSTEM
• Swarm robotics is a field of multi-robotics in which large
number of robots are coordinated in a distributed and
decentralised way.
• Large number of robots can be fitted with clean-up
technologies
• Clean a vast area with large number of robots coordinated
from a remote area
• Highly mobile and easily deployable

6) SPONGES
• Designed to absorb only oil and hydrophobic
• Working similar to that of a normal sponge
• Able to absorb oil up to 50 times its weight and still
float in water
• Boom arrangement coupled with sponge system to
ensure maximum absorption and effectiveness

CONCLUSION
Recovery of oil from seas is a mandatory process. Even though there are a lot of recovering
methods till date we should improve our methods in the path of an effective and efficient
scenario. As our history reveals us the fact that most of the oil spill situations were ended
with worse conditions just because of ineffective recovery methods. This may due to the
behavior of oil towards different recovery systems. This area should be focused and we have
to make use of the best recovery method which suits for the nature of the oil.

REFERENCES
• D.R. Visits, S. Nieto-Roman, A. Palanca, X. Ferrer,M. Vences, European Atlantic: the hottest oil spill hotspot worldwide,
Naturwissenschaften 91(2004) 535–538.
• GESAMP, Estimates of oil entering the marine environment from sea-based activities, in: GESAMP Reports and Studies
75th, International Maritime Organization, London, UK, 2006.
• ITOPF, Tanker Oil Spill Statistics: Report on the Activities of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds in 1999,
the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Ltd., 2000.
• Merv Fingas. (2000,May 10) Basics of oil spill cleanup. (2nded.)[Online]. Available: https://www.crcpress.com/The-
Basics-of-Oil-Spill-Cleanup-Second-Edition/Fingas-Fingas/9781566705370
•
• http://www.cnbc.com/2010/06/09/17-Ways-To-Clean-Up-The-Gulf-Oil-Spill.html
• Skimmer(machine)Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skimmer_(machine)
• Sorbents http://www2.epa.gov/emergency-response/sorbents
• 5 Innovative Solutions That Clean Up Oil Spills. http://inhabitat.com/top-5-green-ways-to-clean-up-oil-spills/
• Slick Solution: How Microbes Will Clean Up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-microbes-clean-up-oil-spills/
• Gelling Agents. http://www2.epa.gov/emergency-response/gelling-agents
• Centrifugal-water oil separator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_water%E2%80%93oil_separator
• How do you clean up oil spill? http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/cleaning-oil-spill1.html
• Grooved Disc Technology http://elastec.com/oilspill/oildrumskimmers/groovedisc/
• How to cleanup oil spills. http://news.mit.edu/2012/how-to-clean-up-oil-spills-0912
• Basalt Fiber. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber
• Basalt Fiber: Future of oil recovery? http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2013/06/clean-tech-gets-slick.cfm
• 3 Future Oil spill fighters. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100511-science-environment-gulf-oil-
spill-cleanup-future/
• Will robots cleanup oil spill? http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/will-robotss-clean-up-future-oil-spills/?_r=0
• Sponges would clean up oil spills http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/deepwater-horizon_sponge-could-clean-up-future-oil-
spills/41379404

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