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floating on the water?s surface. The boom they selected was Elastec/American?s Hydro-Fire Boom. The test was a success and the Coast Guard then authorized con-trolled burning as a response tool. This is the first time that the technique of burning oil on water in a large scale incident has been proven ? reducing the impact on the shoreline and sensitive ecosystem of the Gulf coast. By the time the well was capped a record 411 burns were con- ducted with some lasting up to 12 hours.In addition to supporting the controlledburning Elastec/American Marine sup- plied approximately 180 skimmers and100 miles of containment boom to assistBP and other responders in their cleanupefforts. When it came time to devise a so- lution for the X-Prize Foundation Con- test, the challenge was daunting. ?I felt that to pick up 2,500 gallons per minute was not that difficult, but the thing that most technologies have to overcome is the ability to pump and handle that vol- ume.? said Brian Orr, Welding & Fabri- cation, Elastec/American.?I knew that they (the Elastec/American team) had the capacity and the mentalwherewithal, it was mainly the short amount of time we had to design andbuild it,? said Don Johnson, Team Leader. ?Picking up 2500 gpm is easy, actually, you can pick it up, it?s the separating it and picking it up cleanly that is the chal-lenge.? The resulting system was a derivation of the company?s barrel skimmer. Dubbed the Disc Groove Skimmer, it utilized a se- ries of special discs instead of a barrel,dramatically increasing the surface area for oil collection and allowing the team to increase the RPMs to meet (and as it turnsout, drastically exceed) the 2,500 gpm challenge. Donnie Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Elastec/American, summa-rized: ?This is the biggest oil skimmerwe?ve ever built,? ?When we started, it seemed like a re- ally big challenge; we?d started down one path that didn?t work, then we tried an- other path, and then we eventually came out with this Disc Groove Skimmer,? said Charlie Storey, Research & Development. ?Everyone like it, and it looked like a re- ally good concept, but until we actually got it out there in the oil and tested it wereally didn?t know. When we put it into the oil and tested it, and we saw how much oil it really did pick up, we were56Maritime Reporter & Engineering News FEATURE WORKBOAT ANNUAL PerformanceTesting BeginsatOhmsett PerformanceTesting BeginsatOhmsett OhmsettLeonardo,NewJersey 732-866-7183/732-866-7055 www.ohmsett.comOhmsett,theBureauofSafetyand EnvironmentalEnforcements(BSEE) NationalOilSpillResponseResearch andRenewableEnergyTestFacility AtOhmsett,testingandR&Dopportunitiesabound! Ouruniquecapabilitiesandrealisticmarine environmentplayanessentialroleindevelopingnew technologythatwillbecleaningtheworldswaterin thefuture. Features&Capabilities: Full-scaletesting,trainingandresearch Independentandobjectivetestingwithrealoil Measurableandrepeatabletestparameters Chemicaltreatingagentsanddispersanttesting Mechanicalcontainmentandrecoveryinice Evaluationofremotesensingsystems Testprotocoldevelopment MR Nov.11 # 7 (50-56):MR Template 11/8/2011 9:42 AM Page 56