GB2368815A - Surface pollution containment device - Google Patents

Abstract

An inflatable surface pollution containment device comprises an inflatable tubular framework supporting a continuous vertical containment wall formed from a rigid sectional outer skin and having an inner lightweight chemical and water resistant cover. Once the containment device has been deployed it floats on the surface of the water holding a volume of surface pollution within said containment wall. During deployment the containment device may be inflated automatically by high pressure air tanks provided within the device. The device may be deployed from the air, by ship or from an offshore platform and may be used on any body of water where pollution may occur.

Description

SUFACE POLLUTION CONTAINMENT PODS This invention relates to surface pollution containment pods and application In the event of any surface water pollution whether chemical, sewerage, oil or natural contamination like algae a pollution pod can be used. To control, detect pollution flow, reduce water surface spread protect the wildlife ecology and coastline, and to also restrict the transfer of pollution being carried by wind from the water to the land.

The pods can also provide a means to recover a large percentage of a pollution intact, a very cost effective system when applied to a pollutant like oil. With regards to oil pollution at present two methods are used (1) detergents (2) booms both systems are expensive and unsatisfactory, if we look at the use of detergents these break down the surface tension of the oil allowing it to sink onto the seabed, it can also form globules that can eventually end up polluting the coastline. This method does nothing to reduce or contain the spread indeed the method only compounds the problem by adding the detergent pollution to the oil pollution. In the case of booms these are generally used to try and prevent the spread of pollution onto areas of coastline or to contain it for detergent spraying, nevertheless wind and wave motion generally allows the pollution to easily breach this form of containment.

The most dramatic examples over recent years of oil pollution have been attributed to oil tanker disasters like the Tory Canyon, the French Brittany and the Brea off the coast of Scotland the expense and devastation caused by these accidents will be felt over many generations. Because of this I will refer to the application of the pods to this type of situation as it encompasses every adverse effect attributed to water surface pollution.

According to the present invention there is provided a Surface Pollution Containment Pod that comprises of extremely light weight water and chemical resistant materials, that can be allowed to fold in such a manner as to allow it to be easily handled for storage, carriage, and deployment by air, ship, boat or hand, that can encompass pneumatic or mechanical activated systems that can open the said pod automatically either prior or during the deployment. In addition to aid deployment the pods can facilitate and incorporate the use of drogues, proximatory switches, tubes, cranes, continuous multiple deployment systems, pressure activators etc.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference To the accompanying drawings in which Fig 1-Shows a sectional view of the Pod fully open Fig 2-Top view of the Pod fully open Fig 3-Pod folded for deployment mode Fig 4-Shows how the Pod will contain its maximum capacity when deployed at the epicenter of a pollution discharge Fig 5-How the system can be deployed by air, for example a helicopter.

Fig 6-A continuous deployment system by a ship showing Pods tied together Fig 7-Oil rig deploying multiple Pods

Fig 8-An example of a recovery system that could be applied for oil Fig 9-A diagrammatic view of a recovery scenario /1 \ Referring to the drawings the Pollution Containment Pods comprises of a lightweight chemical, and water resistant inner cover (1) attached to a rigid sectional lightweight negative buoyancy, outer rim (2) this is formed in such a way as to allow the hard outer side walls to be folded. The inner material is molded over small pneumatic tubes, an inner circular tube (3) an outer circular tube (5) and straight tubes (4) these are constructed to allow high pressure air to pass through the tubes from one inlet point at the center inner tube and evacuate through one control valve situated on the outer tube in such a manner as to maintain a pre determined pressure. This pressure will keep the system open as well as provide buoyancy. This is all that would be required for the system to work effectively. This design also allows the Pods to flex in wave motion and provide complete containment of the pollutant. A simple float trap will be situated within the inner cover to allow for fast air evacuation and closure. The inner cover continues over the outer pneumatic ring (6) and is attached to the outer wall in the midway position, this is essential to allow the system to operate either way up. Positioned on top and bottom of the rigid side wall is an inverted flap made from the same material as the inner section to act as a sea anchor and reduce vertical motion from wave effect, and in turn help to contain the pollution within the confines of the system.

On deployment various methods can be used to activate the Pods the one shown (9) is rope activated and can be used for deployment by ship (Fig 6) oil rig (Fig 7) or air as in (Fig 5) the example illustrated is by a helicopter, and shows a compacted Pod with its retention strap (10) being dropped. Both the strop and the activated pressure release operate in situe once they reach the end of the predetermined rope length, this length is immaterial but should be long enough not to allow downdraft from the rotors to effect the sea surface, as this will have a tendency to disperse the surface pollution before the Pods are activated. It would also be useful if the length was such as to allow the Pod to activate as near to the surface as possible to obtain maximum effect. In the event of this criteria not being obtained the system has a built in fail safe aspect this being the function of being able to operate either way up. On deployment (14) the Pod is allowed

to free fall until it reaches the end of the cord (15) the force then triggers the high pressure release pin which activates the Pod to open automatically (16) and be fully inflated before reaching the surface (17).

The Pods can also be launched from fixed wing aircraft with the use of drogues, and using trigger mechanisms like proximity switches, altimatory switches or any other automatic device as opposed to a cord. The use of air deployment would only be necessary when speed or convenience is of critical priority to limit pollution in advance of a ship born system.

Any type of vessel can be used for deploying the Pods at sea by the use of a simple lightweight boom or tube that can be easily fixed to any part of the superstructure (Fig 6) shows a ship with a double multiple deployment rig fitted on both sides of the vessel to allow for maximum area coverage.

Oil rigs could be supplied with Pods and in the event of a leakage it would present a perfect platform for easy deployment of the system as presented in (Fig 7).

Flexibility with regards to the design of the system allows specific situations and requirements to be targeted for example, with a chemical or oil leak combined with the ability to deploy near the center of the outflow, a large Pod with very deep side cheeks would be used. This would enable the maximum amount of containment to be achieved by each deployment e. g. A Pod with a diameter of ten meters with side cheeks of two meters will contain a volume of pollutant within the order of fifteen metric tons therefore a deployment of twenty of this size Pod would allow a saving of three hundred metric tons, contained in such a manner as to be retrieved when the time allows This approach allows all the effort in an emergency to be concentrated on the containment of the outflow at source. It also has an inducement to a company like in the case of oil, the more containment achieved the greater the return combining an overall reduction in cost. In addition to this by reducing the environmental damage they will reduce the cost of trying to clean up the coastal damage in the aftermath of such a disaster. As previously explained the amount of containment is based entirely on the overall size of the unit, because the principle is based on the fact that if an internal mass is equal to an external mass regardless of the size of mass no energy is required to keep the separation or division within the masses. In other words the sides of the Pods can be manufactured from very light materials, but can have the ability to contain many tons of pollution a great advantage for something like oil. But in the case of of fine less dense pollution like in the case of sewerage or algae that has become a problem around the coastal areas like in the Mediterranean Pods with small side cheeks can be deployed by relatively small craft and towed away, the small sides reduces the drag coefficient and makes this approach highly feasible.

The other advantage of the Pod design is all the mass of the pollutant is kept below the sea or water level and is covered, this is very important for a number of reasons.

(a) It keeps the pollutant contained (b) It provides a barrier against wind, thus avoiding wind carrying pollution (c) It also has an advantage in protecting wildlife, like birds (d) It can be made in bright colors for visual detection, and flow direction (e) Allows for the retrieval of any pollution to be carried out.

(f) It allows for surface buoyancy to be an integral part of the system (g) It allows flexibility and containment in wave motion Various methods can be deployed for recovering or the removing of any surface pollution providing the pollution is positively buoyant as is the case in most surface pollutants. It is the energy inherent within any positively buoyant medium that the Pod is designed to contain, this is why the side cheeks can be of any size and can contain any amount of mass.

The other advantage is it allows easy access for recovery so various techniques can be adopted, for instants sliding the whole Pod over a semi submerged recovery platform, or as in (Fig 8) a suction tube for extracting the pollution like oil directly back onto another vessel near to the source of contamination, thus reducing the effect of spread.

(Fig 9) demonstrates a typical hypothetical scenario, but it does encompass the various applications of the system.

An oil tanker has been holed and the tanks are ruptured, it is still afloat but it has been estimated that it will sink within 24 hrs. The tanker had on board its own supply of Pods and was able to deploy them immediately over the outflow (19). In the meantime emergency bodies have been informed of the situation, and they immediately send air born deployed systems to the scene. Within a couple of hours the recovery vessels have arrived, small fast vessels are collecting the Pods (20) and towing them to the main recovery ship (21). This vessel has a semi submerged recovery platform that allows the Pods to be towed directly over it discharging the oil into separate holding tanks. The Pods once discharged can be used over and over again.

This approach would be very quick and efficient and would help to recover and contain the bulk of the outflow. In the meantime some of the Pods that where deployed immediately from the stricken vessel have drifted away from the recovery area, but this is no problem because they safely retain there cargo and can be recovered later on, and besides because they are highly visible from the air they identify the drift from the surface currents so other means like detergents can be applied to the small amounts of pollution that may have escaped the containment system.

In conclusion the use of the containment Pod system is a cheap versatile reusable method that has many advantages over the existing methods that are being deployed at present.

Claims (1)

1. Claims (1) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod comprising of light weight water and chemical resistant materials in bright visible colours that can be visibly detected at a distance. And designed in such a manner as to provide an inverted volume that can be maintained below a water level.

   (2) As in claim (1) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that can be closed or folded into a small package for handling, storing, and ease of deployment that can be opened manually, or automatically to provide an inverted volume below a water level.

   (3) As in claim (1) and (2) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that can be Deployed by air, ship, oil rigs or land in rivers, lakes, estuaries, oceans Pools or any water environment for any form of surface pollution control.

   (4) As in claim (1), (2), and (3) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that is based on the principle that an inverted volume of any size below a water surface can be contained and controlled by a very light structure as long as the internal mass energy is equal to the external mass energy (5) As in claim (1), (2), (3), and (4) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that provides an internal membrane or cover that is an integral part of the system that can allow a provision for the unit to operate either way up, that encompasses a means to provide buoyancy, air release systems, operational opening facilities and carry high pressure air tanks when using an automatic pneumatic buoyancy and opening system.

   (6) As in claim (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5), A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that provides an internal membrane or cover that is an integral part of the system that provides a means to contain a submerged volume of positively buoyant liquid whilst creating a barrier to protect birds and wind from being in contact with the contaminant.

   (7) As in claim (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that provides a contained volume of mass either liquid or solid that can be anchored, moved or allowed to drift over any distance for any duration of time. Then provide a means to recover the contained mass (8) As in claim (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that incorporates negatively buoyant side cheeks attached to a cover or membrane in such a manner as to allow a volume of mass to be contained. These side cheeks can be folded to provide a small package as well as having a flap attached all around the perimeter top and bottom set at an angle from the vertical as to create a resistance from the vertical movement generated by wave action. In other words a sea anchor.

   (8) As in claim (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), and (8) A Surface Pollution Containment Pod that provides its own buoyancy as to allow the system to operate as well as providing flexibility within the structure that allows the system to follow wave motion in such away as to maintain containment of any internal mass within the structure (9) All the above claims are attributed to A Surface Pollution Containment Pod a system that incorporates all the said claims, and after the provision of these claims it can be cleaned, re packaged and re-used many times over, providing any damage that may be sustained during previous deployments is repaired Amended claims have been filed as follows (1) An inflatable surface pollution containment device comprising an inflatable tubular framework supporting a continuous vertical containment wall formed from a rigid sectional outer skirt and having an inner lightweight chemical and water resistant cover, wherein once deployed the containment device floats on the surface of the water and holds a volume of pollution within said containment wall.

   (2) An inflatable surface pollution containment device as claimed in claim (1) that can be closed or folded into a small package for handling.

   (3) An inflatable surface pollution containment device as claimed in claim (1) or claim (2) that can be deployed by air, ship, oil rigs, or land.

   (4) An inflatable surface pollution containment device as claimed in claim (1) that uses an active buoyancy design to suspend a negative buoyancy skirt (5) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (4) wherein the skirt uses a peripheral flap top and bottom as a sea anchor (6) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (4) and (5) wherein the skirt encapsulates semi rigid vertical slats designed to fold (7) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (4) (5) and (6) wherein the vertical skirt is attached and is part of the inner horizontal membrane.

   (8) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) that has an internal membrane or cover that incorporates an air evacuation valve.

   (9) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) and (8) that incorporates pneumatic tubing within the inner membrane (10) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) (8) and (9) that uses pneumatics to activate the opening of the system and retain pressure whilst operational providing buoyancy and rigidity.

   (10) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) that has an internal cover or membrane that contains and protects a pollutant from escapement, wind, and airborne wildlife (11) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) that has an integral triggered air supply regulated within tubes to provide rigidity with flexibility to ride wave motion (12) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) that can be activated manually electronically or by radio frequencies (13) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) wherein the inner membrane uses the mid point of the skirt attachment and maintains this mid point distance from the skirt to the inner buoyancy tube to allow the system to operate either way up (14) An inflatable surface pollution device as claimed in (1) wherein a given volume is contained and allowed to freely drift using natural surface currents and wind energy.

   (15) An inflatable surface current device as claimed in (1) wherein a given volume is contained that may be towed or anchored (16) An inflatable surface current device as claimed in (1) that allows for multiple deployments with variable contained volumes (17) An inflatable surface current device as claimed in (1) that provides a system that allows a given contained volume to be moved or recovered at will (18) An inflatable surface current device as claimed in (1) that provides a means for immediate response to the epicentres of any out flowing discharge (19) An inflatable surface current device substantially described herein with reference to figures 1-9 of the accompanying drawings