THE USE OF FLOATING ABSORBENTS AND GELLING TECHNIQUES FOR COMBATING OIL SPILLS ON WATER

This paper considers criteria for the use of floating absorbents: supply, storage, transportation, application, harvesting and disposal. Reported experience with individual absorbents is reviewed. A summary table rates absorbents from this information, including the problematical cost aspect. Straw, a branded perlite (Ekoperl), and polyurethane foam chips emerge as having proved successful in practice, though for circumscribed applications. Improved techniques and machinery are unlikely ever to be more than a peripheral answer for spills at sea. Procedures for gelling oil in tanks and on the water have been tested on a small scale, but operating difficulties and cost present insuperable obstacles to full-scale use, as far as can be seen at present. /Author/

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Petroleum

  61 New Cavendish Street
  London W1M 8AR,   England 
• Authors:
  • Fuller, H I
• Publication Date: 1971-1

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 25-43
• Serial:
  • Institute of Petroleum, Journal of
  • Volume: 57
  • Issue Number: 553

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Gels; Oil sorbents; Oil spill cleanup; Oil spills; Polyurethane foams
• Old TRIS Terms: Oil gelling agents; Oil removal systems
• Subject Areas: Environment; Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00072643
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Texas A&M University, College Station
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 9 1975 12:00AM