Recent Advances in Oil Spill Response Technologies

Abstract

Abstract The use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has significantly increased for a variety of tasks over the past decade. ExxonMobil is currently evaluating two applications of these technologies to enhance industry’s oil spill response capabilities. One of these application is to adapt UAS for offshore spill detection. It is well known that oil slicks are challenging to detect by an observer on an offshore vessel even when the slick is only a few tens of meters away. Aerial observers in planes or helicopters are often used to direct response vessels to remote slicks because of this. During larger marine recovery operations, there is a limit to the number of manned aerial vehicles that can be deployed. In addition, remote observation techniques often cannot determine which part of a large oil slick contains the thickest oil. There is a rule-of-thumb that 90% of the oil is located in 10% of the slick area. Thus directing response vessels to the thickest parts of the slick is critical. One concept we are evaluating is the use of small UAS for deployment on oil spill response vessels to allow each vessel to detect not only the slick location but also determine the thickest part of the slick. The second application of UAS we are evaluating is for offshore in situ burning. Herders are a product that has been under development for several years to enable in situ burning without the need for fire-resistant booms. Herders are made of surfactants that cause an oil slick to rapidly contract and thicken when sprayed on the water surface around the slick perimeter. Only a small amount of herder is required to thicken even large oil slicks. UAS are commercially available to spray insecticide / herbicide on crops. We are looking at using this commercial technology as a platform to spray herders and then ignite the herded slick for offshore oil spills. This paper summarizes development activities for these technologies.