Page 42: of Marine News Magazine (October 2017)

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SPILL RESPONSE

Philanthropist Wendy Schmidt and the X Prize Founda- three discs, respectively, for bow and side skimming opera- tion also saw the need for an improvement in mechanical oil tions. The X30 con? guration was recently tested at Ohmsett spill recovery in the aftermath of the disaster and developed in light oil in advancing mode, up to two knots with impres- the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE with a sive results. The Grooved Disc Cassettes are more effective one million dollar ? rst place prize. The Challenge was “de- than brush skimmers in picking up light oils such as Bakken.

signed to inspire a new generation of innovative solutions that An evolution in skimmer technology, Elastec’s grooved will speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil result- discs complement its grooved drum skimmers as they both ing from spillage from ocean platforms, tankers, and other have their advantages. Additional performance tests were sources.” Elastec saw the prize as an incentive to recoup R&D conducted at Ohmsett recently on Elastec’s Magnum 200 expense and developed a prototype skimmer with 64-grooved grooved drum skimmer. The 4-drum device can recover a discs. The effort paid off as Elastec won ? rst place by recover- wide range of oil types. Even with its larger design for in- ing 4,670 gallons of oil per minute with an 89.9% ef? ciency. land, harbor, open water and offshore recovery, it is light- weight and easy to deploy, as are all Elastec skimmers.

Scalable Grooved Disc Skimming Technology

Elastec’s award-winning and patented Grooved Disc Veri? cation of Nameplate Claims & System Performance

Skimming technology was scaled to develop several com- Although simulated testing (such as at Ohmsett) to ver- mercial skimmer models to accommodate a range of real- ify skimmer nameplate oil recovery rate is important, the istic spill scenarios. Its workhorse, the X150 Grooved Disc overall skimmer “system” performance should be evaluated

Skimmer, has ten discs offering a high oil encounter and as well. Oil encounter rate, throughput ef? ciency, pump recovery rate in advancing or stationery modes. Tested at capacity, water volume collected, storage capability and

Ohmsett, the X150 has an oil recovery rate (ORR) of 660 even how much oil was not recovered are critical to the gallons per minute (150 cu m per hour) and an oil recov- complete mechanical oil recovery process. The Bureau of ery ef? ciency (ORE) of 87.6%. Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) provides

For offshore and open water spills, the X150 Launch- an Estimated Recovery System Potential (ESRP) calculator ing System is a turning point in mechanical oil spill recov- for evaluating mechanical skimming systems.

ery technology with its fully integrated remote controlled

X150 skimmer launcher, complete with boom and reel,

Linda L. Henning is Elastec’s Marketing

BoomVane (for one vessel towing), power unit and hy-

Director. She can be reached at draulics – a turnkey operation to quickly load onto service [email protected] vessels for rapid high volume spill response.

The X30 and X45 Grooved Disc Cassettes have two and

October 2017 42 MN