Oil-recovery performance of a sponge-covered drum skimmer

Abstract

Oil spill recovery by means of a rotating drum skimmer covered with a sponge layer was investigated experimentally for a wide range of operating conditions. Tests were conducted on two drums of diameters D = 300 mm and D = 200 mm and lengths L = 300 mm and L = 455 mm, respectively. The examined operating conditions encompassed oil viscosity, rotational speed, slick thickness and centre height above the oil/water interface. The results indicate the superiority of the sponge covered surface in oil recovery over the standard steel surface regardless of the viscosity of oil collected. The sponge-covered drum collected 24% more oil than the plain steel drum, when both were operated under the same conditions. The porous cover improves the skimmer performance due to its ability to absorb oil. The increase in oil slick thickness from 10 to 25 mm led to enhanced recovery rate by 59% in case of sponge-covered drum compared to17.5% with plain steel drum. The study paves the way to applying different types of porous sorbent materials to cover the oleophilic skimmers to achieve higher efficiency and oil recovery rate.