New pathways for developing and testing oil spill response equipment in real world conditions

New oil skimming technology is traditionally developed through a cycle of testing undertaken at a small number of tank testing facilities. These facilities strive to emulate a variety of sea conditions, yet lack the wide range of variables encountered in the real world. In lieu of tank testing, an Alaskan company conducted a series of real world tests on an ongoing spill in the Gulf of Mexico known as MC20 or the Taylor Energy oil spill. The spill has been categorized as unrecoverable, but provided oil sheens and periodic collections of heavier surface oil that proved ideal for on-site testing of innovative oil recovery technology. This paper describes this new approach for research and development of spill response technology.