Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Oil & Gas Journal

Cleaning oil, sand & water



The Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is pushing US skimming resources to their limits, and the spill provides a test venue for new cleanup technology. BP PLC, operator of the runaway well, received thousands of ideas from entrepreneurs describing ways to clean up oily water and stained beaches.
This Journally Speaking describes just a few types of technologies that BP is field-testing for separating oil from sand and for separating oil from water.


Oil and sand


Clean Beach Technologies LLC of Houston adapted technology it originally developed for the Alberta oil sands. Its Beach Restoration System (BRS) machine separates oil from sand using water and a biodegradable chemical. BRS machines were used on Pensacola Beach, Fla., and Orange Beach, Ala.
Steven Sommers, CBT principal, has told reporters that it's not surprising tar sands technology can be used to clean oiled beaches. "You have the same problem," Sommers said. "You need to separate a hydrocarbon from the sand."


The process includes lifting oiled sand with a front-end loader, placing it into hoppers on a trailer-mounted BRS, and shearing the oil from sand particles with biodegradable solution. Water is sent under the hoppers through eductors or jet pumps. The CBT system can clean 700 cu yards of sand in 10 hr.


Oil and water


BP also is field-testing technologies to separate oil from water using centrifuge machines installed on vessels. Enviro Voraxial Technologies Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., offers a continuous flow centrifuge.
The Voraxial recovery method allows the operator to separate oil from water in the ocean. By conducting the separation in the ocean vs. holding tanks, skimming vessels can stay out longer, the company said.
Separately, Ocean Therapy Solutions provided BP with centrifuge units being used in deep water on a vessel equipped with a skimmer. Based on the different densities of water and oil, the units spin an oily-water mixture to separate the two. Ocean Therapy said its machine can process 200,000 gpm of oily water. Ocean Therapy receives financial backing from actor Kevin Costner.


Cleanup ideas in languages from Arabic to Russian continue to pour into BP offices. To process them promptly, BP gets help from the federal Interagency Alternative Technology Assessment Program working group, which includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Agriculture, and the Maritime Administration.


Anyone with an idea for BP's Alternative Response Technology team is encouraged to submit it using an online form:  www.horizonedocs.com.



Macondo oil spill cleanup efforts involve old-fashioned methods and high-tech operations. Workers clean a beach in Pascagoula, Miss., using traditional methods on June 30. Photo from BP PLC.
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Friday, June 25, 2010

WLOX 13--Silt Fence



New fabric fence may protect the Bay of St. Louis

Posted: Jun 25, 2010 6:44 AM CDTUpdated: Jun 25, 2010 7:05 AM CDT
By WLOX Staff
BAY ST. LOUIS, MS (WLOX) -  BP contract work crews are in the process of adding a third layer of protection against oil in the Bay Of St. Louis.  Crews are building a large fence in the Bay designed to keep oil from reaching the delicate marshes.   The metal and fabric fence going up in the Bay will span nearly a mile when finished.  
Its job will be to keep oil away from the bay's pristine marches, according to Randy O'Boyle, and environmental consultant for BP.  "It's a  fence boundary. There is some boom on the outside of the bay, there is some boom on the inside of the bay. On the chance that the booms fail and the oil gets through then we have this as a final barrier to make sure oil doesn't get into this marsh or the larger marsh back behind."   
Right now crews are building the frame work but eventually a thick fabric will be attached to the fence, O'Boyle said.  "It's going to run in a continuous line around the corner and then up by Pogo Street it's going to form a large hook and if some oil does get through here it will be deflected into that large hook so it can be easily collected."
He says the barrier is environmentally friendly too.  "We're putting it a foot off the bottom to make sure if there are any animals that crawl on the bottom anything like that it can get through.  And there will be plenty of the material above the water line to make sure if there is wave action and the oil does come in it want splash over the fence." 
Similar fencing is being used in other parts of the Coast, but it's the first time this type of none absorbent fabric has been used by BP. "It's a stronger fabric with the ability to withstand the marine environment a little bit longer."  remarked O'Boyle. 
It should take the work crew about three days to construct the fence.
©2009 WLOX. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The fabric will probably make someone a lot of money. I doubt it will do much to stop the oil.
Sunday, June 27, 2010, 13:50:48
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

al.com

Forecast: Oil spill to return to Alabama coast today; 17,000 claims filed

Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 5:00 AM
Josh Bean Josh Bean 
Gulf oil spill: June 21, 2010View full size(AP Photo/Dave Martin)Richard and Amanda Scott of Eight-Mile, Ala., look for tar balls as they walk along the beach in Dauphin Island, Ala., Monday, June 21, 2010. Hay bales line the beach to defend against oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
The number of Alabamians filing claims with oil giant BP LLC is growing exponentially, from 3,000 a week ago to more than 17,000 on Monday, according to the state Emergency Management Agency. 

BP, which owns the Deepwater Horizon well spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico, says no Alabama claims have been denied. The company has paid out more than $15.5 million in damages, mostly for lost wages, according to the state EMA. 

But a Baldwin County commissioner said Monday that the oil giant isn't doing enough. 

Commissioner Wayne Gruenloh, who faces a challenge from Tucker Dorsey in the July 13 Republican runoff, said Monday that he wants to force BP to reimburse Baldwin County for lost tax revenue. 

His plan has yet to gain commission approval. 
      
"Time is critical," he said Monday, "and we continue to see a lack of action from BP." 

Alabama's beaches remained largely unsoiled Monday, although the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls for oil to return to the coastline today in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and areas along the Florida Panhandle. 
   
In Gulf Shores, a dozen vendors showed up at Gulf State Park to demonstrate their oil spill cleanup products for media and elected officials, but no tarballs, oil or sheen came ashore. 

"I certainly don't want to say we were disappointed that there was no oil on the beach this morning," said Ed Wieliczkiewicz, who heads BP PLC's High Interest Technologies Test Team. The team is in charge of finding viable technologies for cleanup in the Gulf oil spill, he said. 

Each vendor was supposed to clean a 50-yard section of beach on Monday. Instead, they set up in the nearby parking lot and demonstrated their products in wash basins, Wieliczkiewicz said. Another demonstration event will be scheduled in the coming weeks. 

One of the Monday vendors was Boyd Eifling of Nature's Broom, a company based in Hollandale, Miss. Boyd said his product, which resembles dirt or sawdust, is made from recycled agriculture and forestry products. It can be poured into contaminated water where it will bind to the oil. The resulting goop can be scooped out and disposed of, he said. 

Wieliczkiewicz said the vendors he met Monday seemed to be open and honest about their products' limitations. 

"Some of them said, 'This is not for the open ocean. It will only work in tidal inlets.' It was refreshing to talk with professionals," Wieliczkiewicz said. 

He said BP is trying to "assemble a toolbox" of many proven technologies, and that requires learning the uses and limitations of each tool.  

Interested vendors should see the website www.horizonedocs.com. 


EnlargePress-Register staffWorkers walk along a line of barges anchored in Pass Abel on the coast of Louisiana near Grand Isle, La., Monday, June 21, 2010. When completed, the barges, which will be lined up end-to-end, are expected to serve as a barrier against oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from entering Barataria Bay. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)Gulf oil spill: June 21, 2010 gallery (6 photos)
The NOAA Fisheries Service expanded the federal waters closed to fishing by more than 6,000 square miles on Monday. One-third of the Gulf's federal waters are now closed, officials said. 

With the modification, 86,985 square miles is off limits to all fishing, including catch and release. Vessels can pass through the closed area to get to waters that remain open to fishing. 

Federal waters off Mississippi and Alabama remain closed, as do portions of their respective territorial waters. State closure areas did not change Monday. 

The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources has ordered a reduction of maximum trawling times for shrimping vessels using skimmer trawls to 30 minutes. Officials say the tow time reduction from 55 minutes to 30 minutes was ordered because of reports of high numbers of endangered sea turtles in the Mississippi Sound. 

All other shrimping regulations will remain in full force and effect, and waters east of the Biloxi Ship Channel remain closed to shrimping, officials said. 

A "tropical wave" in the eastern Caribbean sparked online chatter that conditions could be favorable for a hurricane to develop in the Gulf as early as the weekend. Some bloggers note a storm track model that points toward Mobile Bay. 

A spokesman with the National Weather Service said there is a 30 percent chance that the feature will develop further, but that there's no indication or forecast that it would move into the Gulf. 

University of South Alabama meteorology professor Sytske Kimball also cautioned that computer models are often unreliable if making predictions about what might happen in a week. 

Locally: 


  • Bayou La Batre and Coden: No oil was spotted as of 4 p.m. Monday, according to Sgt. Jason Edwards of the Bayou La Batre Police Department.
  • Dauphin Island: No oil or tarballs were spotted as of 5 p.m. Monday, a public works official said.
  • Gulf Shores and Orange Beach: The first sand bar off the coastline was "clearly seen and water was clear," according to the daily afternoon flyover report.
  • Fort Morgan peninsula: Nearly 3 miles offshore, rafts of dull, floating oil the size of cars and houses were observed drifting eastward during Monday's flyover. And a very light sheen about 100 yards long was spotted northeast of the fort.
  • Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge: No reports of new oil impacts except sporadic tarballs.
  • Magnolia Springs, Fish River, Weeks Bay, Fairhope, Daphne and Spanish Fort: There were no new reports of oil by Monday afternoon.
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