Performance of a rotating drum skimmer in oil spill recovery

Abstract

Oil spill recovery by means of a rotating drum skimmer was investigated experimentally for a wide range of design and operating conditions. The effect of drum diameter, drum length, rotating speed, oil film thickness, oil properties, and drum centre height above the oil/water interface surface were analyzed with respect to oil recovery rate of the drum skimmer. Crude, diesel, SAE 10W and SAE 140W oils were used during this investigation. It was found that oil recovery rate increases with increasing drum diameter, drum length, drum centre height above the oil/water interface, and oil slick thickness oil viscosity, and increases as oil density and surface tension decreases. The results revealed that the drum skimmer is an effective device for recovering spills of low viscosity oil, such as light crude oil, which is the type of oil involved in most serious spills and pollutions of the sea. Furthermore, an empirical equation is proposed for predicting the oil recovery rate of the device. The equation can be applied to different oils, and gives good agreement with observed data.