Combustion of Floating, Water-In-Oil Emulsion Layers Subjected to External Heat Flux.
Combustion of Floating, Water-In-Oil Emulsion Layers
Subjected to External Heat Flux.
(797 K)
Walavalkar, A. Y.; Kulkarni, A. K.
Volume 2; NIST SP 995; Volume 2; March 2003.
Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program (AMOP) Technical
Seminar, 23rd. Environment Canada. Volume 2.
Proceedings. June 14-16, 2000, Alberta, Canada,
Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 847-856 pp, 2000.
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
Keywords:
in situ burning; oil spills; cleaning; heat flux;
combustion; emulsions; diesel fuels; crude oil
Abstract:
Prior studies have shown that emulsions with greater
than a certain amount of water do not bum, and thus
present a difficulty in applying in-situ combustion
techniques. It is also known that, when a normally
incombustible material is subjected to a certain minimum
heat flux, it can be ignited, and a sustained fire and
flame spread can be achieved. This principle is applied
to oil spill and emulsion combustion, so that, the
window of opportunity for the application of in-situ
burning as a primary response countermeasure for oil
spill cleanup can be widened, even in the difficult
situations like a spill confined by ice. In this paper
we present results obtained from several burn tests with
pools of water-in-oil emulsions for diesel and Milne
Point (MPU) crude floating on water. Some results are
also presented for emulsions of Alaska North Slope (ANS)
crude. The diesel emulsions ranged from 20 to 80% water
content, crude oil emulsions ranged from 0 to 40% water
content, and the external radiant heat flux ranged from
0 to 14 kW/m2. Measurements included the threshold
(minimum) heat flux needed to achieve sustained burning
of the emulsion, average burning rate, and residue
thickness. It was interesting to observe that emulsion
burning is very sensitive to the external radiation heat
flux. Below a certain threshold heat flux ignition is
impossible, but slightly above that flux, emulsions burn
very well, with reasonable removal efficiency.
