CA2068407A1 - Method and system for cleaning up large oil spills - Google Patents

Abstract

A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CLEANING UP LARGE OIL SPILLS
ABSTRACT

This invention presents a method and system which cleans up and recovers up all from large oil spills. The method is based on a principle of separation of two liquids, the densities of which are not equal, by accelerating the mixture of the mentioned liquids. The system uses, as means for the mentioned acceleration, dynamics of a sudden and rapid change of the oily water's flow. The system sucks the mentioned oily water from the ocean and pumps it through an array of sections, being pipe coils. An oil is collected from the inner part of these coils and water from the outer part.
This allows to separate the oil from water in a continuous manner and that assures needed efficiency to clean up a large spills of oil - up to hundreds of thousands of tons of crude sucks water together with the mentioned oil gathered from the ocean.

Description

~o~a7 A METHOD AND_SYSI`EM ~OR Cl,EANING UP A LARGE SCALE OIL SPILLS

Stateln_nt of Riq~lts to the Inventlon Inventor : Kaæimierz S. Holubowicz;
Owner of the invention: Ka~imierz S. Holubowicz;

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to the field of environment protecting apparatuses and more particularly to machines which separate oil or other non soluble liquids from water by means of the specific gravlty differences between water and the liquid in question, based on the acceleration of the contaminated water.

2. Description of the Prior Art The prior art methods are not yet ready to deal with a large scale spill of oil or petroleum products or the like.
They are mainly based on:
- chemical treatment of the spilled oil to decompose it, - which causes environmental problems;
- bacterlal treatment of the spllled oll to remove lt from from the envlronment, which is useless in cold waters because bacterla do not reproduce below certaln temperature;
- soaking some solld materials with oil, which ls not realistic when hundreds of thousands of tons of crude is spilled;

20~8~07 There is yet a preventive method used, which is calling for a double hull construction of tankers. The last one has recently become a law for tankers approaching Alaska.

The prior art methods are generally not readily subject to recover the spilled oil. It would be useful for the economical purposes to develop such a method which would clean up the spill and recover completely or partially the spilled oil. This invention provide a method and a system to clean up a large spills of crude oil as well as recovery of the spilled cargo.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention provides an effective method of gathering a spilled oil from the ocean which comprises the following steps: restricting a sucking of water, together with oil, by providing a large plate under the layer of oil; restrictlng the air sucking, together with oil, by providing a bell like cover, much smaller in diameter than the mentioned plate, which touches the oil layer on its top; sucking the oil thorough the clearance between the mentioned bell and the plate.

The inventlon also provides a method of oil/water separation comprising steps:
- pumping the mentioned oily water;

~0~8~07 -- rapidly and continuousl~ charlging the direction of flow o~ the mentioned olly water so two distinguished layers of oil and water resulted;
- directing the mentioned distinguished layers to separate outlets;

There is yet another method provided by this invention.
It is a method of cleaning up and recovery of large spills of a crude oil or petroleum products resulted from a super-tanker collision or sinking or punching its cargo tanks comprising: gathering of an oily water from the ocean;
pumping tlle gathered oily water through a water/oil separator; dumping the purified water resulted from the previous step back into the ocean; collecting the oil resulted from the previous steps;

Thls invention also provides an intake of the spilled oil mounted on top of a floater containing: a pipe shaped as "U"; a bell like cover of the pipe; a circle like plate having a clrcular opening ln its center; a floater; and a sucklng pump; whereby the mentioned "U" shaped pipe ls ended, on the intake side of the pipe, with the mentioned circular plate; the mentloned bell like cover is mounted on top of the mentloned plate in a way that a clearance between the mentioned plate and the bell is created and the mentioned clearance is ad~ustable; the mentioned pump is mounted to the other part of the mentloned "U" pipe with pump's sucking side; wherein the pump is mounted on the mentioned floater in 2~68~Q7 such a way -that the mentiorled sucking end of the "U" pipe, with the rnentLoned plate and bell like cover, i~ immerged in the spilled oil so the oil is sucked into the pipe, and not the water because the mentioned clearance was ad~usted to the thickness of -the layer of the spilled oil - the mentioned circular plate minimizes amounts of sucked water together with oil.

The invention also provides an intake, which uses low pressure chamber to "vacuum" the spilled oil, which is mounted on a floater and additionally equipped in a pump to direct the recovered oily water to an oil/water separator.

The invention is further directed towards a separator, which uses a chan~e~ of the direction of the flow of an olly water as means for separation of the oil from water, comprising: an inlet of the mentioned oily water; and outlet of the recovered oll from the water; an outlet of the separated water; and a pipe winded as a coll; whereby the said oily water is pumped through the mentioned pipe and changes the dlrection of its flow and thls causes lnertial forces whlch act on the components of the mixture, meaning oil and water, in proportion to their density and that separates oll from water and creates two layers that are directed to separate outlets, meaning the oll outlet and the water outlet; wherein the oil outlet is on the inner part of the coll and the water outlet is on the outer part of the coil;

~ ~ ~ 8 ~ Q r7 The lnventior, ls further directed towards a system for cleaning up and recovery of an oil when a large spill of a crude oil or petroleum products resulted from an accident of a super-tanker collision or sinking or puncher of the cargo tanks or the like, which comprises an intake, or an array of intakes, which sucks a spill.ed oil from the ocean; a separator or an array of separators which separates the mentioned oil from water; a collecting tank, or a tanker, to gather the recovered oil; whereby the mentioned intake sucks the mentioned spilled oil and delivers it into the separator which separates the oil from water and directs the separated oil to the mentioned collecting tank or the tanker and dumps the mentioned water resulted from oil/water separatlon back into the ocean;

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiments of the invention:
Figure 1 is a sketch of a prior art separator which uses buoyant force as means for separation of oil from water;

Figure 2 illustrates a first embodlment of the invention being a principle of separation of oil from water that is based on a change of the direction flow of the oily water;

2a6~0~
Figure 2a illust:rates a next embodiment of the invention and thls is a separator, which continuously separates an oil from an oily water, ~sing the principle of figure 2;

Figure 3 illustrates a second embodiment of the invention which is an intake of oily water from the surface of the ocean;

Flgure 4 illustrates yet another embodiment of the invention which is another intake of oily water from the surface of the ocean;

Figure 5 illustrates a next embodlment of the invention and thls is a system for cleanlng up a large spill of a crude oil or petroleum products whlch recovers the spilled oil;

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
With reference to figure 1 an oily water is delivered through an on/off type of valve 1003 controlled manually or by an automatic control (not shown in the figure to keep the drawing simple). When tank 1002 is full a waiting time is applled and the length of that time depends on the capacity of the tank, kind of oil, temperature etc. It is the waiting time which prevents from using the method to clean large spills. The visual inspection glass 1004 is used to see if the separation process is satisfactory and then a valve 1005 is opened and a water resulted from separation discharged.
When water is completely drain out of the tank 1002 then the ~2 ~
valve lOOS is closed and a valve 1006 is opened so an oil separated from water is dralned out frorn the tank and collected. When tank is empty the new cycle starts up.

With reference to figure 2 a principle of separation based on a change of the direction of the flow is illustrated as a nex-t embodiment of the inventlon. Let's consider an elbow of a pipe through which a mixture of oil and water flow (see fig. 2). soth masses 201 and 202 of water and oil causes pressure differences between 206 inner wall and 205 outer wall of the elbow. According to the Newton's first law the fluid has tendency to move along a straight line.
Conservation of momentum of both 201 and 202 masses of water and oil flowing through pipe causes an additional pressure on the elbow wall 205, having larger radius 203, independently from the static pressure in the liquid 207 in the elbow and that pressure depends from the flow velocity and densities of the mixture. It is so because the horizontal velocity 208 of the mlxture completely vanlshes when mixture reaches the end of the elbow. The pumping pressure, causing flow, ls responslble for the change of flow dlrection so the vertical velocity 209 gradually appears along the wall of the elbow and it is equal to the flow velocity 209 at the outlet from the elbow. The drop of horizontal velocity along the elbow wall is gradual and can be used to estimate acceleration which resulted from the flow change - from horizontal to vertlcal. The resulted acceleration is easy to predict for a given radius 203 of an elbow.

2~ 107 s = 1~/2 * R (1) where s - the max. length of the path at which the acceleration appears;
R - the larger radius of the elbow;
The duration of acceleration resulted from the change of direction of the flow depend~ on -the velocity of flow and can be written as T = s/v = ~: 2) * (R : v) (2) . ~!' where T - duration of acceleratlon;
v - velocity of the flow through the elbow;
s - length of the outer wall of the elbow;

The acceleration can then be wrltten as ~3) a = v/T = 2v2/~r~ * R) ~3) where a - acceleratlon resulted;
A force which ls re~ponsible for the separatlon can now be introduced as a force difference between a force caused by accelerated water and a force caused by an accelerated oil.

2 ~
It is obvious that equal volumes of both should be considered because of the Archlmedes law. This force can be written as the following:

S(v) = F(w) - F(o) (~) where S(v) - separation force;
F(w) - force resulted from separation of water;
F(o) - force resulted from separation of oil;

It is easy to find out these forces, using basics of physics in the following:

Force = volume * density * acceleration substitutlng (~) as acceleration in the above expression we can find out the needed separation force.

The separation force acts continuously on the lighter compound of the mixture towards the wall -of the smaller radlus 206 (see fig. 2) and it is an analog to the buoyant force, the force which was introduced by Archimedes. In contrary to the buoyant force, this force results from the dynamic~ of the flow of the mentioned mixture of oil/water through an elbow and depends from:
- density difference of the compounds of the mixture;
- speed of pumping;
- radius of the elbow;

2 0 6 8 ~ Q r~
in the following way:
s = (YW -~o) * [2v2/(~ * R)] * v (4) where s - separation force between oil and water;
~w - density of water;
~o - density of oil;
V - volume of oil in the water;
It is worth adding that the expression 9 is correct for low speeds of flow and need to be corrected for fast turbulent flows in an experimental way.

With reference to fig. 2a a one section of a separator which separates an oil from water is presented as yet another embodiment of the lnvention. An oily water 2002 is delivered into an inlet 2001 of the separator. A coiled pipe 2003, which uses princlple presented in fig. 2, separates oil and water onto two layers. An outlet of oil 2004 located on the inner part of the coil 2003 drains the oil layer out through an automatically controlled valve 2006. A transparent insertlon in the pipe 2009 is used to detect the light absorption of the dlscharged water wlth a laser beam 2008 and a photosensltlve element of a controller 2007 that controls the dlscharge valve 2006. A water 2010 resulted from the separation process ls drained out through an outlet 2005.

Wlth reference to flgure 3 an intake sucking an oil 3001 floating on the surface of the ocean, or river or lake, is illustrated as a next embodlment of the lnvention. A pump 2 ~ 0 ~
d L~ f3~ t'; ~ .'' pi~,e ~1 lat~e L O t f :'` () 0 ~ .1 t~ n l~ r !-1 e r t~ lit; imoullts of water ~U(~td t.i:)l~et~ f W~h O i~ Jon~!. Th-~le ~ "- is an ad~uc:table c~)ver 3002 wl~ h prevents su(-ki~ all air together with the ntic,rlel~ "i-l. Ther~ i, a clearance, brtween the cover 300~
tnd th. plato 80n2, th~ollgh which the mentioned oil is sucked by tl-,e pl~l-np ~,on7. T~ ad justnlent of t:he c leararlce is clone with p;~-iitiorleL~ no4. To pY~v~nt mL-ty the pipe ~06 when the pump is r,ot: work;rlg a kackstop valve ~nQ8 is installed.

With referellce to the Eiyure 4 another inta~e of an oil ~loating on the ;llrface of the ocean is illustra-ted as a next embodiment of this inventioll. A low pressure chamber 4Q05 mounted or, a Eloat:er (not shown) has its own pump 4004 which lischarges oil collected by the low pressure. The low pressure is l-nac~e by a la~tge Ean 4no7 mounted on top of the chamber 4QQS. A pipe 40nh inserted into the low pressure chamber 4QQ5 is "vacuuming" an oil from the surface of the ocean. Positioners 4QQ~ position a large plate 4Q02 so a clearance 9008 is as thick as the mentioned layer of oil. The plate 4QQ2 prevents water from "vacuumlny" in. A pump 40Q4 controlled by the level in the low pressure chamber pumps the load of the chamber to a separator. It would be obvious to those skilled in the art that segments of the separator could be mounted in series or in parallel or both and that depends on the actual need and -the magnitude of the spill as well as the type of oil and surroundiny temperature.

2~5~

With reference to figure 5 a system which cleans a large spills of a crude oil and recovers the oil from the splll is pre~ented as another embodirnel-t of this inventlon. A
tanker 50n5 on the deck of which an array of separators 5006 Is mounted. A pipe line huild from a flexible segments 5003 mounted on floaters 5002 connected with quick connectors 5004 delivers oily water pumped by an intake 5001 to the separator 5006. The separator separates an oil 5008, which is recovered and collected, from the oily water. A purified water 5007 resulted from the separation process is dumped back into the ocean. The tanker should be equipped in up to 50 intakes and separators.

As wlll be apparent to those skllled in the art varlou~
modification and adaptations of the structure described may be made without departlng from the spirit of this lnventlon, the scope of which is to be construed in accordance with the accompanying claims.

Claims (13)

1. An intake which sucks a spilled oil from the ocean comprising:
a) a pipe shaped as "U";
b) a bell like cover of the pipe;
c) a circle like plate having a circular opening in its center;
d) a floater;
e) a sucking pump;
whereby the mentioned "U" shaped pipe is ended, on the intake side of the pipe, in the mentioned circular opening in the mentioned circle like plate; the mentioned bell like cover is mounted on the top of the mentioned plate in such a way that a clearance between the mentioned plate and the bell is created and the mentioned clearance is adjustable; the mentioned pipe is mounted to the other part of the mentioned "U" shaped pipe with its intake side; wherein the pump and the "U" shaped are located on the mentioned float in such a way that the circular plate covered with the mentioned bell is immerged into the spilled oil and the mentioned clearance between the mentioned plate and the bell is adjusted to the layer of the spilled oil floating on the surface of contaminated ocean so the pump sucks only the spilled oil and not the oceanic water;

2. An intake which sucks a spilled oil, floating on the surface of the ocean, comprising:

a) a LOW pressur chamber, meaning such a chamber the pressure in which is lessen the atmospheric pressure;
b) a pipe ended with a bell like end;
c) a circular plate;
d) means for creating the low pressure in the mentioned chamber;
e) a floater;
f) a pump;
whereby the mentioned pipe is mounted into the mentioned chamber on the straight end and not the mentioned bell like end; the mentioned plate create a clearance between the bell like end of the pipe which is adjustable; the mentioned pump is connected with the bottom part of the mentioned chamber;
the mentioned chamber is located on the mentioned floater in such a way the the mentioned pipe is immersed into the mentioned spilled oil after adjustment of the mentioned clearance is done so it is comparable to the thickness of the layer of the spilled oil; wherein the low pressure causes "vacuuming" of the mentioned oil into the mentioned chamber and the mentioned pump delivers the collected mixture to an oil water separator being subject of the next claim;

3. A separator, which uses a rapid change of the direction flow of the oily water as means for oil/water separation when the oil density is lessen the density of water, comprising:
a) an inlet of the mentioned oily water;
b) an outlet of the recovered oil;

c) an outlet of the purified water;
d) a pipe bent as a coil, so the mentioned oily water changes continuously direction of its flow when pumped through the coiled pipe and that causes acceleration of both components of the oily water and separates the oil from water;
whereby the mentioned oily water is pumped through the mentioned pipe and changes direction of the flow, which causes inertial force acting on both components of the mixture, meaning oil and water, in proportion to their densities and that separates oil from the water and creates two distinguished layers of oil and water, which are directed to separate outlets meaning the oil outlet and the water outlet; wherein the oil outlet is on the inner part of the mentioned coil and the water outlet is on the outer part of the coil.

4. A separator, which uses a rapid change of the direction of the flow of the oily water as means for oil/water separation when the oil density is larger the density of water, comprising:
- an inlet of the mentioned oily water;
- an outlet of the recovered oil;
- an outlet of the purified water;
- a pipe bent as a coil, so the mentioned oily water changes continuously direction of its flow when pumped through the coiled pipe and that causes acceleration of both components of the oily water and separates the oil from water;
whereby the mentioned oily water is pumped through the mentioned pipe and changes direction of flow, which causes inertial force acting on both components of the mixture, meaning oil and water, in proportion to their density and that separates oil from the water and creates two distinguished layers of oil and water, which are directed to separate outlets meaning the oil outlet and the water outlet; wherein the oil outlet is on the outer part of the mentioned coil and the water outlet is on the inner part of the coil.

5. A system for cleaning up and recovery of an oil, when a large spill of crude oil or petroleum products resulted from an accident of a super-tanker collision or sinking or punching of the cargo tanks occurred or the like, which comprises:
- an intake, or an array of intakes, which sucks a spilled oil floating on the surface of the ocean or sinking or sunk;
- a separator, or a set of separators, which separates water from the oil;
- a recovery tank or a tanker to gather the recovered oil;
whereby the mentioned intake sucks the mentioned spilled oil and delivers it into the separator which separates oil from water and directs the separated oil to the mentioned recovery tank or tanker and dumps the mentioned separated water back to the ocean.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the intake is the intake of claim 1 or of claim 2;

7. The system of claim 4 wherein the mentioned separator is the separator of claim 3 or of claim 4.

8. A method of oil/water separation comprising steps:
a) pumping the mentioned oily water;
b) rapidly and continuously changing the direction the flow of the oily water so two distinguished layers of oil and water resulted;
c) directing the mentioned distinguished layers to separate outlets;

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the mentioned rapid and continuous changing of the direction of the oily water flow is achieved by pumping the oily water through the separator of claim 3.

10. A method of gathering oil floating on the surface of the ocean comprising steps:
a) restricting sucking of water, together with oil, by providing a large flat plate just under the oil layer;

b) restricting air sucking, together with oil, by providing a bell like cover which touches the oil layer on its top;
c) sucking the oil through a clearance between the mentioned plate and the bell;

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the mentioned sucking of oil is done by providing the intake of claim 1 or of claim 2.

12. A method of cleaning up and recovery of a crude oil or a petroleum products, the spill of which resulted from an accident of a super-tanker or an accidental discharge or a sinking or a punching cargo tanks or the like, comprising steps:
a) sucking oily water from the ocean;
b) separating oil from water;
c) dumping the separated water resulted from the step b) back into the ocean;
d) collecting an oil resulted from the step b);

13) The method of claim 12 wherein the oil water separation of the step b) is done with the separator of claim 3 or of claim 4.