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In Situ Oil Burns Fire Whirls
Citation:
Aurell, J. AND B. Gullett. In Situ Oil Burns Fire Whirls. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-23/307, 2024.
Impact/Purpose:
This report addresses a remediation technology for oil spills. The work examined the combustion efficiency improvements of burning spilled oil in a fire whirl geometry. If successful, the embodiment of this work would provide an improved technology for clean up of spilled oil. The results would be of interest to first responders and on-scene coordinators that have to make remediation technology decisions.
Description:
A fire whirl technique was tested for its ability to improve the combustion efficiency of in situ oil burns at sea. The oil burns on water tests were conducted at Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service’s (TEEX) Brayton Fire Training facility located in College Station, Texas. Emission measurements were taken with the Kolibri, a system of gas and particle sensors developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development, attached to an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The UAS was flown into the plume of the burns to measure gas and particle compositions. A total of eight burns were conducted using two different initial mass of oil per area 5 and 9 kg/m2 with oil thickness 15 and 40 mm, respectively. Two pool fires without the fire whirl construction were conducted for comparison. The Total Modified Combustion Efficiency (MCET) and 2.5 µm aerodynamic particle diameter (PM2.5) emissions ranged from 0.874 to 0.913 and 53.1 to 120.7 g/kg initial oil, respectively, where the PM2.5 emissions decreased with increased MCET. The PM2.5 emission factor from the pool fires where 40% higher than the emission factors from the fire whirl. The initial mass of oil per area of 9.0 kg/m2 burned more efficiently with a fire whirl (MCET = 0.905) than the pool fire (MCET = 0.891), although it consumed 20% less oil than the pool fires. The average PM2.5 emission factors from the fire whirls (69.6 g/kg oil) and the pool fires (120.7 g/kg oil) were similar to those found in a previous in situ burn tank study using a boom aspect ratio of 9:1 (78.7 g/kg oil) and 1:1 (124.9 g/kg oil) where both studies used an initial mass of oil per area of 9 kg/m2.