A New Technology to Combat Oil Spills on Water Surface Using a Ribbed-Grooved Disc Skimmer.

Document Type : Research Studies

Author

Assistant Professor., Mechanical Power Engineering Department., Suez Canal University.

Abstract

In offshore oil spills a thin oil layer has to be skimmed off from the sea surface. A mechanism for cleanup of oil spill from water surface was developed using a ribbed grooved rotating disc. The effect of various compound surface configurations of the two opposite walls of the considered ribbed-grooved disc on the oil recovery performance was investigated for various disc rotational speed. Tests have been carried out for recovering fresh oil spill as well as weathered oil spill. Generally this clean up operation has to be carried out in sea water with different conditions, so the oil recovery performance of the considered rotating ribbed-grooved discs was studied for calm water surface and also in the presence of various wind speeds and water surface waves. The results show that the oil recovery performance of the ribbed-grooved disc is the highest in comparson to the other considered rotating discs. The ribs and grooves on the opposite walls of the rotating disc enhances the oil recovery rate by 2-2.5 times of the original flat rotating disc. The results also emphasized that a good oil recovery rate can be achieved even in tough meteorological conditions. 
 

Main Subjects