An Onboard Air Conveyer Oil Skimmer
A high power air conveyer oil skimming system and implementation on a real oil recovery vessel are presented. Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI) has succeeded in development of a new type of onboard oil recovery system. Development of the project has been in cooperation with the Shikoku Regional Bureau, Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport Japan (MLIT). The system employs a high-power vacuum blower for sucking liquid in gas-liquid multiphase form. Its applicability to an onboard oil recovery system has been experimentally investigated. The experiments have shown that the method can respond to the wide range of viscosity of the spilled oil and works well even in wavy sea condition. These results have been applied to the oil skimming system mounted on ISHIZUCH - an oil recovery vessel owned and operated by MLIT recently refitted by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., LTD
Robotization of Operations in the Petroleum Industry
As the petroleum industry ventures into deep and ultra-deep waters in pursuit for increased oil production to meet the global energy demand, challenges of personnel health and safety and environmental pollution have gained a considerable amount of attention. One notable accident that has sparked this attention is the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore petroleum platform that led to the spillage of oil into the water bodies. In tackling these challenges and preventing the reoccurrence of such accidents, the application of robotic automation in these environments, adjudged to be hostile and prone to high level of risk, provides the only option for safe and cost-effective operations. With the success of robotic automation in the manufacturing and aerospace industries, the oil and gas industry aim to take the advantages of increased reliability, accuracy and efficiency provided by robotics and automation technologies in improving operations and production both onshore and offshore and limiting the exposure of human workers to explosive and harsh onshore and offshore environments. In recent times, robotic technologies such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), underwater welding robots and teleoperated unmanned production platforms have been deployed to facilitate smooth operation and production in ultra-deep waters. Thus, this paper investigates some of the various onshore and offshore operations such as exploration, tank and pipe inspection that require automation, the application of robotics and automation technologies to these operations, and the challenges and issues (such as human-robot interaction) involved in deploying robots in a dynamic environment.
Recovery Devices and Pumping Techniques for High Viscosity Oil Spills
Numerous spills over the years have demonstrated that mechanical response to high viscosity oil spills at sea is less than successful. After the 10,000 m 3 ERIKA Spill in France, less than 5% was recovered before the oil reached the coast. The weather played an important role, but the selection of equipment and apparent response strategy did as well. Mainly weir skimmers were used. Weir skimmers are due to their simplicity and reliability widely used in spills at sea. Probably because some of the well known brands are equipped with heavy oil transfer pumps, they are even commonly attempted used in heavy oil spills. But also high capacity units with light oil centrifugal transfer pumps are being used on heavy oil (ERIKA). However, weir skimmers start losing their efficiency when the viscosity of the oil exceeds certain limits. It gets too difficult for the oil to pass the weir lip and flow into the hopper, so that the pump can transfer it. For very heavy oils, which barely can float, the inlet weir becomes an even larger obstruction. A mechanical feeder skimmer lifts or drags the oil out of the water to a position above the water surface, and feeds or drops it into a collection tank or a transfer pump. The mechanical feeder principle may result in significantly increased performance regarding high viscosity, debris, and - in most cases - low water content. Tank tests at SAIC/Environment Canada’s test facility in Ottawa, Canada, sponsored by the Canadian Coast Guard, and tank tests since 1999 carried out by flemingCo, under contract with PDVSA/Bitor, have demonstrated that floating bitumen in the viscosity range of 2 to 3 million cSt could be recovered by several mechanical feeder skimmers, while a “high viscosity” weir skimmer had no effect. This puts the ERIKA Spill’s viscosity of 200,000 cSt, the Baltic Carrier’s 500,000 cSt, and the Prestige Spill’s 320,000 cSt into perspective, and strongly point at mechanical feeder skimmers in the preparedness for heavy oil spills. However, the same tests clearly demonstrated that the transfer pumps in the skimmers had difficulties transferring the extremely viscous product from pump inlet to pump discharge; meaning that feeding the product into the pump inlet showed difficult and/or the pressure/friction losses inside the pump itself could barely be overcome. It was therefore deemed necessary to test existing and newly developed techniques, which might improve these pumps’ ability to transfer high to extreme viscosity oil. This presentation will document that there as of today are skimming and pumping equipment and techniques available, which can be efficiently used in response to spills of even very viscous oil.