Oil Spill Cleanup and Recovery Tips You Can’t Afford To Read
As an industry owner, oil spillages can be one of your biggest headaches. We get it. That’s why we’re here to help. Oil spillages at sea raise many questions, like:
- What is the best way to clean up an oil leak?
- How long does it take for an ecosystem to recover from an oil spillage?
- Why is oil spillage so dangerous?
- How much oil gets spilled at sea each year?
As a facility owner, if these questions are your biggest headache, we’ve got your back. We have discussed oil spill cleaning methods that will certainly help you deal with the problem. Have a look.
Contents
Oil Slicks and Spill Recovery Time
Oil slicks are oil traces that have been spilled into the ocean. This is because the wave action causes emulsion. It is resistant and hazardous to the marine environment. The oil spillage can quickly reach beaches and coastlines if it is not addressed immediately.
Depending on the size of oil spillage, an ecosystem may take considerable time to recover. A small oil spillage can be completely eliminated in 15 years, but a large one may take much longer. An oil spillage can often cause the immediate death or collapse of many marine species. It can also lead to water pollution that can persist for years, preventing the reproduction of these species and affecting the ecosystem’s health.
How Can You Clean Up Oily Seawater?
It is crucial to act quickly if you notice oil spilling into the seawater from your facility. No wonder why many companies along the coast, including oil companies, ports authorities, marinas, and industries, prefer to prevent an accident than wait for it to happen. And it is the right strategy to adopt.
So, what’s the way out? You may ask.
Many options are available, depending on where the spillage occurred, what type of spillage it is, and how large. Every response to a spillage will include at least one of these phases, if not all:
- Spill containment: How to choose an oil containment boom
- Mechanical spillage recovery using skimmers
- Temporary storage using either towable bladders or port-based storage tanks
- Final storage/elimination of the oil recovered.
- Complete cleaning of the affected areas using various manual and/or chemical methods, some of which may not be allowed by local legislation.
Best Practices To Clean Oil Spillages At Sea or In Industries
Although oil spillages at sea are the most prominent and headline-grabbing, spillages in industry and other similar facilities can also grab headlines due to the damage they can cause. Let’s see some effective oil spillage recovery methods.
Offshore oil recovery methods
Oil spillages offshore are usually recovered by mechanical recovery, containment, and transporting the recovered oil to the port. Here is how the equipment is utilized for the same:
- Inflatable containment booms and large self-inflatable booms can be used. Both can be deployed and retrieved using hydraulic reels.
- Skimmers are used to recover oil from water. The oil is then pumped into floating tanks, which are then towed to the port.
- Markleen’s most recent technological innovation is the MOS Sweeper dynamic recovery system. This system is a multi-boom herringbone design that can be deployed from one vessel. The MOS Sweeper has the advantage of simultaneously storing and recovering oil.
- Marine oil sorbents can be used to recover small-scale oil spillages at sea. Any ADsorb-it® product is equally effective in getting rid of oil spills inside the industry. It removes oil sheen with the least hassles and is highly effective.
Cleaning Techniques For Port Construction and Work Dredging
These techniques may not be directly related to oil spillage recovery at sea, but we felt it was important to include them in this article. It is important to prevent sediments from spreading and limit the amount of seawater disturbed during port construction or dredging.
These operations use turbidity barriers or silt curtains. They contain sediments using a made-to-measure solution. It consists of two parts: a buoyancy element and a skirt. The depth of the skirt will depend on how deep the water is at the site where it is being used.
Oil Spill Cleanup: Final Word
Oil spillage in the sea can hurt the marine environment. Moreover, if found guilty, your facility’s operating license may get suspended by the government. So, take cues from this article and make sure oil spillage incidents are reduced as much as possible!
