Pros and Cons of Oil Spill Dispersants

Oil spills cause a lot of harm to the underwater communities affected by the oil. The utilization of oil spill dispersants is sometimes controversial because of misunderstanding about the principle of dispersing oil and the lack of knowledge of the limitations of alternatives response techniques. These dispersants are the chemical products especially designed for marine clean up. They are exclusively developed to deal with problems associated with marine related oil spills and the professional clean-up operations that follow the spill. The advanced marine technology has made it easy to tackle the marine oil spill problems with the help of advanced oil spill dispersants.

The main purpose of oil spill dispersants is to remove the spilled oil from the surface of the sea and transfer it into the water column where it is rapidly diluted to below harmful concentrations and is then degraded. The dispersants reduces the damage caused by floating oil to some resources like the sea birds, and minimizes the damage that could be done to susceptible coastline by spraying the dispersants on the oil before it reaches the shore. However, the use of the dispersants has the potential to present a small risk of temporary and local exposure to dispersed oil for some marine organisms.

The oil spill dispersants do not function to remove oil from the water. Instead, they break down great oil areas into much lesser pieces that make it simpler for all the sea creatures to deal with it. The down side is that dispersants also facilitates the spreading of the spilled oil more extensively into the atmosphere. While the center of everyone's attention is to do everything possible to prevent the oil from reaching the shoreline, often it is often overlooked that there is a large effect on sea floor organisms caused by the oil. These days, robots are being used undersea to spray the oil-spill dispersants directly on the oil since it spreads on the ocean floor.

Using oil-spill dispersants is a controversial topic, as many people feel that they add to the harms caused by the pollution. However, there are other groups of people who support its use because it is the most quick and effectual means of reducing the harm that is likely to be caused by the spill. All the evidence that has been gathered during thirty years of research indicates that there is only small risk to marine life when the dispersants are used, when compared to the direct effects of the spill. It has been scientifically proven that the utilization of dispersants can be an effective oil-spill response method and there is little likelihood of oil-spill dispersants causing negative effects unless they are used in shallow water or very close to particularly sensitive species.

Even in cases when oil spill dispersants might cause negative effects, the positive benefit obtained by their use might outweigh this to produce a Net Environmental Benefit. Nevertheless, any use of dispersants must be carefully planned and explained to all those who might be affected by an oil spill.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ruth_Caldon

Application of petroleum hydrocarbon chemical fingerprinting and allocation techniques after the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Paul D. Boehm^*, Gregory S. Douglas^*, William A. Burns^†, Paul J. Mankiewicz^†, David S. Page^‡ and A. Edward Bence^†

^* Arthur D. Little, Inc., Acorn Park, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA

^† Exxon Production Research Company, Houston, TX 77252, USA

^‡ Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, USA

Available online 8 June 1998. 

Abstract

Advances in environmental chemistry laboratory and data interpretation techniques (i.e. chemical fingerprinting) contributed to a better understanding of the biological impact of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the fate of the spilled oil. A review of the evolution of petroleum chemical fingerprinting techniques is presented followed by a summarization of how new approaches were used to characterize and differentiate among different petroleum sources in the Prince William Sound region after the spill. An assessment of the initial data suggested that multiple sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were present. These findings were further substantiated, even in samples of low part-per-billion PAH concentrations, by using refined and extended laboratory techniques including the analysis of saturate biomarkers. To interpret these mixtures of sources, fingerprint-analysis flow charts and source allocation techniques were developed and applied to the data, leading to the quantification of the spilled oil as a small increment on the natural hydrocarbon background in subtidal sediments.

Article Outline

• References

Cleaning Up Oil Spills and Other Other Hydrocarbon Liquid Spills With Eco-Friendly Absorbent Pads

For years, the options were limited to clay-based adsorbents that do little more than pool the liquids but don't really absorb the spill. These products are heavy, non-renewable, and pose certain health risks. In recent years, oil and other liquid absorbent pads have entered the market making it easier to clean up spills, but with varying degrees of effectiveness and cost-efficiency. There are numerous products out there but to make a fair comparison, you should look carefully at the following factors:

1. Price to Absorbency Ratio
2. Durability of Product
3. Material Size Flexibility

Simply put, you're better off spending a bit more for a highly absorbent roll or set of oil spill pads that you can keep around for a while and have on hand in case a spill occurs. Also, if the pads don't absorb much relative to their size, then you'll have to use a lot of material even for the most minor spill and that will end up costing you more. Finding the right balance of price, absorbency and flexible pad sizes should be key factors in your decision making.

But there's one more very important factor that should enter your decision making: How environmentally friendly are the oil absorbent pads and products that you are using. In this day and age of greater environmental controls, regulations and restrictions, the more eco-friendly you can make your operation, the better off you'll be. Using eco-friendly oil absorbent pads is an "easy" and "cost-effective" way to get more value for your buck.

Eco-friendly oil-only and universal absorbent pads are becoming easier to find. A growing number of environmentally friendly oil absorbent and other hydrocarbon liquid absorbent pads are available with various ranges of price and absorbency. These eco-friendly oil products should be made from renewable sources and/or waste products. Some of these products are also recyclable which gives them added value. We tend to equate, environmentally friendly with less effective or cost-efficient, however, when it comes to cleaning up oil spills with eco-friendly pads this is no longer the case. Oftentimes, the environmentally friendly oil absorbent product options have much higher price/absorbency ratios than competing non-renewable versions and are available in various options that can absorb different types of liquids such as oil, gasoline, paint, hydraulic fluid and the like. Look for products that have been proven in the market and that clearly demonstrate their effectiveness and commitment to environmental responsibility.

To learn more search the web for eco-friendly oil absorbent pad options or talk to your oil and gas products distributor or oil spill cleanup professional about eco-friendly oil spill options to get better oil spill and general spill clean up results with an environmentally-friendly checkmark on top.

Thomas Bourne, CEO, Terrenew LLC. Terrenew, in affiliation with Cornell University, manufactures and sells OilMaster Eco-Friendly Oil Absorbent Products are available in Granular Oil Absorbent and Oil Absorbent Pad versions. To learn more, please visit http://www.terrenew.com

Oil Absorbing Mats - The Solution for Preventing Oil Spills From Creating a Big Mess

Do you handle oil at your facility? If so, you're probably familiar with the ramifications of having oil spill and create a safety hazard -- and making the facility unsightly.

Oil slicks can make the floor unsafe for walking -- so they can cause accidents. And accidents can cause liability issues.

But even just splotches all over the floor can cause problems. They're unsightly to say the least. Meanwhile, spilled oil can spread and cause other hazards as well.

So how can you prevent problems that are caused by spilled oil? There's one solution that helps with smallish spills that can happen just as your employees go about their business: Oil absorbing mats.

These mats, along with similar products, such as pads and rolls, help to take care of the oil right when it's spilled so it can't become a big problem. It absorbs any leaked oil-based fluid so that it won't form oil slicks and it won't be able to escape onto the shop floor.

Depending on the amount of oil, you might want to have some extra absorbents at hand, of course. Absorbent pads and rolls can fit the bill if the mats are not enough.

Still, you'll be surprised when you find out just how much oil your average oil absorbing mats can actually handle. It's pretty astonishing.

And once they have absorbed the oil, they can be cleaned and reused.

Of course you can't have those mats everywhere, and to supplement them, you should have absorbent pads and maybe rolls as well. Those are handy for spills anywhere. Because they're small and portable, you can have small stashes in lots of places, and you can even ask your employees to keep them handy wherever they go.

So if there's a spill, it can be wiped up right away, and there won't be any harm done at all.

Now why do you need absorbent pads and rolls -- and oil absorbing mats? Because you want to make sure they absorb oil only. That's the cool thing about the pads especially -- you can use them to skim oil off the surface of a body of water.

And if you need to use your oil absorbing mats outdoors, they won't be saturated by water if it should happen to rain -- they will repel water and retain their absorbency power for any oil that should leak or drip on them -- thus doing the job for which you bought them.

Want to know more about oil absorbing mats? Get valuable tips and the latest news about absorbents and other environmental safety products on Travis Zdrazil's Safety Maintenance News blog and get his free newsletter too. Travis is an expert on environmental safety products and has supplied businesses with products to aid in meeting EPA and OSHA requirements for more than 10 years. You may publish this article, but must keep the resource box ©2009 PCI Products Company. All rights reserved.

Trouble on oiled waters: lessons from the Exxon Valdez oil spill

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Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics © 1996 Annual Reviews

Abstract

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest in US maritime history. We review post-spill research and set it in its legal context. The Exxon Corporation, obviously responsible for the spill, focused on restoration, whereas the Trustees, a coalition of state and federal entities, focused on damage and its assessment. Despite billions of dollars expended, little new understanding was gained about the recovery dynamics of a high latitude marine ecosystem subject to an anthropogenic pulse perturbation. We discuss a variety of case studies that highlight the limitations to and shortcomings of the research effort. Given that more spills are inevitable, we recommend that future studies address spatial patterns in the intertidal, and focus on the abundances of long-lived species and on organisms that preserve a chronological record of growth. Oil spills, while tragic, represent opportunities to gain insight into the dynamics of marine ecosystems and