Citation:

Sorial, G. A., A D. Venosa*, K. M. Koran, E. Holder, AND D. W. King. OIL SPILL DISPERSANT EFFECTIVENESS PROTOCOL. II: PERFORMANCE OF THE REVISED PROTOCOL. R.A. Ferrara (ed.), JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING DIVISION, ASCE. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Reston, VA, 130(10):1085-1093, (2004).

Impact/Purpose:

The primary objective of this second part of the series was to evaluate the repeatability and reproducibility of the revised method (the BFT) compared to the EPA SFT using three different operators and 18 dispersant products.

Description:

The current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protocol for testing the effectiveness of dispersants for use in treating oil spills on the open water, the swirling flask test (SFT), has been found to give widely varying results in the hands of different testing laboratories. Part I addressed the sources of the ambiguities in the EPA SFT and the development of a new test referred to as the baffled flask test (BFT). In ths part of the series, further experiments were conducted for estimating the repeatability of three operators in determining the effectiveness of 18 dispersants by both the EPA SFT and the BFT methods. Overall statistical analysis of the results indicated that the coefficient of variation by the BFT was only 7.8% compared to 21.9% for the EPA SFT. The mean percent effectiveness of the EPA SFT was only 19.7% as compared to 64.6% for the BFT. Proposed selection criteria for screening of dispersants for listing on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule have been developed.

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