JP2000072084A - Floating oil-recovering device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To recover the floating oil on the sea efficiently and quickly by setting the tilt angle lifting the floating oil moved according to sea surface air by a vacuum means forcefully sucking the air of the space in a primary oil fence covered by an awning toward the inside of a work barge, and shifting it to a secondary storage tank. SOLUTION: A work barge 10 is provided with a vacuum device 13 having a conveyor device and forcefully sucking the air in an independent space. A suction pipe 19 is connected to the ceiling panel of a case body 50, and the floating oil is smoothly lifted on a conveyor device and recovered. First and second storage tanks are provided on the constituting portions of a suction vertical section 71, a horizontal section 72 and a discharge vertical section 73. The lower end opening section of the suction vertical section 71 is located near the bottom face of the primary storage tank. The lower end opening section is located below the level of the oil recovered in the primary storage tank, and free air movement between the primary storage tank and the secondary storage tank is prevented. The oil in the primary storage tank is shifted to the secondary storage tank via a communication pipe by the decompression of the secondary storage tank by a low-pressure vacuum device 68.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for recovering oil floating on the sea caused by a tanker accident or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The problem of floating oil at sea caused by tanker accidents and the like has a particularly negative effect on fisheries and tourism resources, and concerns have been raised about the potential for health damage to nearby residents. Tend to increase.

[0003] Conventionally, as a means for collecting floating oil on the sea, there is known a method in which a so-called oil fence is used to prevent the diffusion of floating oil, and thereafter the oil is recovered by a suitable suction means. The suction means used in this case sucks oil together with seawater, and collects only highly viscous oil using a filter or the like.

FIG. 5 shows a device for recovering floating oil that has been proposed in the past (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-95928). In this apparatus, a suction device 3 is provided between left and right floating bodies 1 and 2, and the floating bodies 1 and 2 are freely controlled to collect oil on the sea. The floating bodies 1 and 2 are provided with a propulsion mechanism, and the floating bodies can be controlled by direct operation of crew members or by remote control from the land or the barge 4. The purpose of this device is to recover oil mixed vigorously with seawater especially in shallow water, and it has been proposed that oil can be recovered even in shallow water by using lightweight and small floating bodies 1 and 2. It is a thing.

[0005]

However, such a conventional apparatus is effective in a small-scale oil spill accident. However, it is not suitable for large-scale oil recovery processing due to a large-scale tanker accident. This is because the purpose is to recover the floating oil in the shallows, so that the structure of each of the floating bodies 1 and 2 is inevitably reduced, and the amount that can be recovered at one time is limited. Even if an oil fence that prevents the spread of floating oil is used, if the floating bodies 1 and 2 are small and a large amount of floating oil cannot be recovered quickly, the oil is rubbed by seawater and freed over the oil fence. And part of it is turned into high-viscosity gel-like solids that are launched on the coast. And most oils cannot be recovered as they diffuse into the seawater.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to quickly and efficiently recover oil floating on the sea when a large amount of oil spill accidents occur due to a ship accident or the like.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a floating oil recovery device according to the present invention is provided with a workboat for recovering oil floating on the sea, and a workboat on a side of the workboat. The left and right base ends are attached to the collected opening, and a primary oil fence that expands forward and a pair of secondary oil fences to which the left and right base ends are attached to the front end of the primary oil fence. A control boat for guiding the tip of the secondary oil fence, and the primary oil fence includes a pair of left and right floating bodies, and an awning at a predetermined height from the water surface at an upper position of the floating bodies. On the other hand, the workboat includes a take-up means for taking floating oil into the ship, and a collecting means for finally collecting the floating oil taken into the ship in a storage tank, wherein the take-in means comprises Vacuum means forcibly sucking air in the space inside the primary oil fence, which is continuous with the recovery opening and whose upper part is covered with tents, and floating oil that moves in accordance with sea surface air sucked by the vacuum means, is loaded into the workbench. It has a conveyor device for conveying, and the conveying surface of the conveyor device is set at an angle so as to incline upward from the sea surface toward the inside of the work platform ship, and has a plate-like projection projecting from the surface at a predetermined interval. On the other hand, the recovery means includes a primary storage tank for temporarily storing the floating oil carried by the conveyor device, and a secondary storage tank for finally storing the oil in the primary storage tank, The primary storage tank and the secondary storage tank are connected to each other by a connecting pipe, and transport means is provided for transferring oil in the primary storage tank to the secondary storage tank.

The transporting means constituting the collecting means may utilize negative pressure suction by a low-pressure vacuum device as described in claim 2, or may include a conveyor device such as a bucket conveyor.

[0009]

The floating oil recovery apparatus according to the present invention has a configuration of taking oil into a workbench and storing and storing the taken oil.

[0010] First, the oil is taken into the workboat by enclosing the oil on the sea surface widely with the secondary oil fence which can be freely expanded and releasing the air in the primary oil fence whose upper part is covered with the tent. A configuration is adopted in which forced suction is performed, the floating oil is lifted and moved by the flow of air, and the floating oil is placed on a conveyor device and collected. When floating oil is put on a conveyor, it is characterized by using the flow of suction air. In the conveyor device, a belt-like projection is provided on an endless transport path so that oil can be easily collected. In order to eliminate seawater, the conveyor system will be installed with an upward slope toward the interior of the barge.

[0011] On the other hand, in the storage of the oil taken in,
In the present invention, it is difficult to directly drop (store) the oil taken into the barge by the conveyor device into a large storage space. This is because if the large storage tank and the space in which the conveyor device is arranged are in direct spatial communication, it is not possible to create a forced airflow to be generated around the conveyor.

Therefore, a configuration is adopted in which the oil taken in by the conveyor device is once dropped into a small primary storage tank, and then transferred to a large secondary storage tank by negative pressure suction.
In this case, the primary storage tank that is in spatial communication with the conveyor device may have a small space structure, and therefore does not obstruct the airflow generated by the vacuum means on the barge, such as a decrease in the flow rate of the suctioned air.

[0013] The transfer of oil from the primary storage tank to the secondary storage tank is, in terms of structural simplification, as described in claim 2, by setting the secondary storage tank to a negative pressure and transferring the oil from the primary storage tank. It is desirable to perform forced suction.

[0014] However, when the primary storage tank and the secondary storage layer are connected through a continuous pipe, but are not in direct spatial communication (when the secondary storage tank is not open to the outside air on the conveyor device side). ), It is possible to arrange a bucket conveyor that circulates the primary storage tank, the connecting pipe, and the secondary storage tank in a simple reciprocating manner or endlessly, and the production cost increases, but their use is not particularly limited in the present invention.

[0015]

1 and 2 show an example of a floating oil recovery apparatus according to the present invention. First, the overall structure will be described. The floating oil recovery device includes a workboat 10 for collecting and storing oil, a primary oil fence 25 for surrounding floating oil, a secondary oil fence 35, and a control ship for guiding the tip of the secondary oil fence 35. 39 is provided.

The secondary oil fence 35 is constituted by a pair of left and right fence members which freely expand forward. 36 is a floating body constituting a secondary oil fence, 37
Is the floating body of the secondary boom and the control ship 39
It is a cord that connects with.

An awning 26 is provided above the primary oil fence 25 at a predetermined height from the sea surface M so as to create a certain clearance space S between the tent 26 and the sea surface M. 27 is
This is the opening of the first oil fence (oil recovery opening). The primary oil fence 25 may be configured such that the right and left expansion angles can be freely adjusted. However, since the left and right and upper portions need to be spatially partitioned, it is not always necessary to guarantee free expansion adjustment.

More specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG.
7 is provided with a plurality of pipe members and a float 29, and a reinforcing frame 80 for extending the awning 26 is provided. Reference numeral 81 denotes a sheet extending above the opening 27. Reference numeral 82 denotes a lower frame for extending the seat 81,
84 is a connecting member of the reinforcing frame 80. The float 29 moves the opening 27 up and down according to the movement of the crest,
It functions to keep the area of the oil recovery opening 27 constant.
The number of the floats 29 is not limited. In addition, only the front opening 27 is opened by, for example, extending the sheets to the left and right side surfaces of the primary oil fence 25. The frames 80 and 82 are connected by a joint member that can move vertically or horizontally. In FIG. 4, a portion indicated by a circle other than the float 29 floating on the sea surface wave front is the joint member.

On the other hand, a conveyor device 11 is provided in front of the work boat 10. 50 is a substantially box-shaped case body for arranging the conveyor device 11, 14 is an independent space inside the floating case body 50, and 15 is a primary storage tank for temporarily storing oil scraped up by the conveyor device 11. It is. In addition, 17 is a rotating drum that drives the conveyor conveyance path,
18 is a drum shaft.

The conveyor device 11 is disposed to be inclined upward from the recovery opening 27 toward the rear (toward the workbench main body).
A plurality of belt-shaped scraping protrusions 16 projecting in parallel are arranged on the transport path driven endlessly. The transport path is lowered downward to drain excess seawater during recovery. The reason why the scraping protrusion 16 is provided on the conveyance path of the conveyor device 11 is to prevent the highly viscous floating oil from catching on the protrusion (16), to prevent slipping, and to efficiently collect the oil.

The work boat 10 is provided with a vacuum device 13 for forcibly sucking the air in the independent space 14 in which the conveyor device 11 is disposed. Reference numeral 19 denotes a suction pipe for connecting the vacuum device 13 and the independent space 14 inside the case body 50. It is desirable that the suction pipe 19 be connected to a ceiling panel of the case body 50. This is for the purpose of forcibly raising and lifting the floating oil upward by the forced rectification action, and to smoothly collect the oil on the conveyor device 11 and recover it.

The work boat 10 has a large capacity secondary storage tank 6.
0 is provided. And the primary storage tank 15 and the secondary storage tank 6
0 is communicated by the connecting pipe 70. The connecting pipe 70
For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the side surface shape is an inverted U-shape, and has respective components of a suction upright portion 71, a horizontal portion 72, and a discharge upright portion 73. The lower end opening 75 of the suction upright portion 71 is located near the bottom surface (indicated by the symbol B) of the primary storage tank 15. Lower opening 7 than oil level recovered in primary storage tank 15
5, the primary storage tank 15 and the secondary storage tank 60
This is to prevent free movement of air between them. With this configuration, the primary storage tank 15 and the secondary storage tank 60 are spatially disconnected from each other, and the secondary storage layer 60 does not interfere with the suction operation even when the vacuum device 13 performs forced suction.

In order to reduce the internal pressure of the secondary reservoir 60, a low-pressure vacuum device 68 is provided on the work boat 10. The secondary reservoir 60 by the low-pressure vacuum device 68
As a result, the oil in the primary storage layer 15 is transferred to the secondary storage layer 60 through the communication pipe 70.

Therefore, according to this configuration, the oil floating on the sea is first surrounded by the secondary oil fence 35 by the movement of the control ship 39. The enclosed oil gradually enters the area defined by the primary oil fence 25 by the forced suction by the vacuum unit 13 of the barge, where it is subjected to rapid movement by the forced air flow and levitation by the lift of the ascending air flow, and the conveyer device. 11 raised protrusions 16
And is collected in the primary storage tank 15.

The oil that has entered the primary storage tank 15 is sucked and transferred to the secondary storage tank 60 through the connecting pipe 70 in accordance with the negative pressure suction action of the secondary storage tank 60 driven by the low-pressure vacuum device 68.

In this manner, a large amount of oil floating on the sea due to a tanker accident or the like can be quickly recovered and stored by taking in the control boat 39 and the secondary oil fence 35. It is difficult to make the bottom of the workboat 10 extremely shallow because it is necessary to recover a large amount of oil. However, the operation of the control boat 39 from the offshore to the shallow water can be performed to a considerable extent by the operation such as moving the control boat 39 to the shallow water. Recovery of the launched oil is also possible.

The awning 26 is made of, for example, a resin material or the like, so that the rectifying action when the air in the clearance space S is forcibly sucked is not hindered. Air permeability may be used, but if the air permeability is excessive such as a mesh net, the effect of moving and floating the floating oil by air suction is lost, so the air permeability of the awning 26 may be adjusted as appropriate. desirable. The primary oil fence needs to be covered on the left and right side surfaces and the upper surface in order to generate a suction airflow. Therefore, it is not always necessary to guarantee free adjustment of the spread angle, and a molded product having a substantially fan-shaped flat surface with a fixed spread angle may be used. In that case, the awning 26 may use a low-flexibility panel material (regardless of material such as resin, metal, and wood). When using a panel material, it is desirable to have some flexibility in consideration of the movement of the sea surface.

In the drawings, the tent 26 of the primary oil fence 25 is inclined downward toward the front, in order to reduce the front opening area of the fence. If the capacity of the vacuum device 13 is sufficiently large, it is not necessary to design the inclination.

Since the vacuum device 13 and the low-pressure vacuum device 68 perform the same operation as a device that performs an air suction operation, when a device having sufficiently high vacuum performance is used, the same device may be used in combination. I do not care.

The size of the work boat is not limited. The control boat that guides the secondary oil fence is not limited to a ship boat on which workers actually board, but may be a propulsion floating boat that can be remotely controlled by wireless.

[0031]

As described above, according to the recovery apparatus of the present invention, a large amount of floating oil on the sea can be recovered quickly and efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a floating oil recovery device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial sectional side view of the workbench according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a specific configuration example of a primary oil fence according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a conventional floating oil recovery device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Work boat 11 Conveyor apparatus 13 Vacuum apparatus 14 Independent space part 15 Primary storage tank 16 Raised protrusion 17 Rotary drum 18 Drum shaft 19 Suction pipe 25 Primary oil fence 26 Tent 27 Opening 35 Secondary oil fence 36 Floating body 37 Cable 39 Control boat 50 Case body 60 Secondary storage tank 70 Connecting pipe 71 Suction upright part 72 Horizontal part 73 Discharge upright part 75 Lower end opening M Sea level S Clearance space

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A workboat for collecting oil floating on the sea, and a left and right base end are attached to a recovery opening formed on a side portion of the workboat, and expands forward. A primary oil fence, a pair of secondary oil fences to which left and right base ends are attached at a distal end of the primary oil fence, and a control boat for guiding the distal end of the secondary oil fence, The oil fence includes a pair of left and right floating bodies and arranges an awning at a predetermined height from the water surface at an upper position of the floating bodies, while the work platform boat has a capturing means for capturing floating oil into the ship. A collecting means for finally collecting the floating oil taken in the ship into the storage tank, wherein the taking means is continuous with the collecting opening, and the space inside the primary oil fence, the upper part of which is covered with an awning, Vacuum means for forcibly sucking air, and a conveyor device for conveying floating oil moving according to sea surface air sucked by the vacuum means into the work platform ship, the conveying surface of the conveyor device is from the sea surface While the angle is set so as to rise and incline toward the inside of the work boat, the surface is provided with a plate-like projection protruding at a predetermined interval, while the collection means is configured to remove floating oil carried by the conveyor device. A primary storage tank for temporarily storing the oil, and a secondary storage tank for finally storing the oil in the primary storage tank. The primary storage tank and the secondary storage tank are connected by a connecting pipe, and the primary storage tank is connected. A floating oil recovery device comprising a transporting means for transferring internal oil to a secondary storage tank. 2. The collection means comprises: a primary storage tank for temporarily storing floating oil conveyed by a conveyor device; a secondary storage tank for finally storing the oil in the primary storage tank; A low-pressure vacuum device for forcibly reducing the pressure in the tank is provided, wherein the primary storage tank and the secondary storage tank are connected by a connecting pipe, and one end of the continuous pipe is located near the bottom of the primary storage layer. The floating oil recovery device according to claim 1, wherein