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 Project Number 259
Date of Summary October 01, 1999
Subject Laboratory Testing to Determine Operational Parameters for In Situ Burning of U.S. OCS Crude Oil Spills
Performing Activity SL Ross Environmental Research
Principal Investigator Ian A. Buist
Contracting Agency Mineral Management Service
Estimated Completion September 1998
Description The objective of this study was to quantify the ignition, in situ burning characteristics, and soot production of six U.S. OCS crudes and their emulsions. This was accomplished through a modest, laboratory scale test program.
Progress This project is complete. Six oil samples were selected by MMS regional personnel and subjected to a laboratory test program. Three oils were produced in the Gulf of Mexico and three from California. A sample of each oil was weathered for one week in a wind tunnel. Emulsion formation tendency and stability was tested for each oil using the standard rotating flask technique. Both weathered and fresh samples of each oil were tested. The effectiveness of three emulsion breaking chemicals was tested.
Baseline burn tests were conducted to determine the natural burning characteristics of water-free and emulsified slicks of fresh and weathered oils. Burn efficiency and burn rate were calculated from the data gathered in the burn tests. Results demonstrate that in situ burning is not a suitable response for all OCS crude oils. A final report is available. Six additional OCS crude oils are currently being burn tested and analyzed (in TAR Project 312) to the same testing protocol.

Reports
AA (1.3MB) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Laboratory Testing to Determine Operational Parameters for In Situ Burning of U.S. OCS Crude Oil Spills, SL Ross Environmental Research Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario, March 1998.
AB Fraser, J., Buist, I., and Mullin, J., A Review of the Literature, on Soot Production During In Situ Burning of Oil on Water, 1997. (Out of Print)
AC (243KB) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . McCourt, J., Buist, I., Mullin, J. Laboratory Testing to Determine Operational Parameters for In Situ Burning of Six U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OSC) Crude Oils. Proceedings of the Twenty-First Arctic and Marine Oil Spill Program (AMOP) Technical Seminar, Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON pp. 623-632, 1998.
AD (115KB) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . McCourt, J., Buist, I., Buffington, S., Results of Laboratory Tests on the Potential for Using In Situ Burning on Seventeen Crude Oils. Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Arctic and Marine Oil Spill Program (AMOP) Technical Seminar, Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON pp. 917-922, 2000.
AE (187KB) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . McCourt, J., Buist, I., Buffington, S., Results of Laboratory Tests on the Potential for Using In Situ Burning on Seventeen Crude Oils. Proceedings of the 2001 International Oil Spill Conference, American Petroleum Institute, Washington, D.C., pp. 529-532, 2001.

 

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