Evaluation of Propane as a Fuel for Testing Fire-Resistant Oil Spill Containment Booms.
Evaluation of Propane as a Fuel for Testing
Fire-Resistant Oil Spill Containment Booms.
(365 K)
Walton, W. D.; Twilley, W. H.; Mullin, J. V.
NIST SP 995; Volume 2; March 2003.
Environment Canada. Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program
(AMOP) Technical Seminar, 20th. Volume 2. Proceedings.
June 11-13, 1997, Alberta, Canada, Environment Canada,
Ottawa, Ontario, 755-767 pp, 1997.
Keywords:
crude oil; oil spills; propane; containment; evaluation;
in situ burning; experiments; instruments; heat flux;
JP-8 jet fuel; wind velocity; wind direction; tank fires
Abstract:
As the understanding of the capabilities and limitations
of in situ burning of oil spills increases, in situ
burning continues to gain acceptance as a potential oil
spill mitigation tool. Most plans for burns at sea call
for the use of a fire-resistant boom to contain the oil
during burning. Presently a standard method for
evaluating fire-resistant booms does not exist. Most of
the proposed test methods and experiments conducted to
evaluate fire-resistant booms utilize liquid hydrocarbon
fuels for the fire exposure. While these fuels can
generate realistic thermal exposures, the smoke emitted
from these fires presents environmental concerns and
limits the location and conditions under which tests can
be conducted. Propane bubbled through water is being
widely used to replace liquid hydrocarbon pool fires for
fire fighter training. A series of experiments has been
conducted to measure and compare the thermal exposure to
a fire-resistant boom from liquid hydrocarbon fuel and
propane fires. In addition, the thermal exposures from
propane fires have been measured with and without waves.
Although propane diffusion flames on water look like
liquid hydrocarbon fuel flames and produce very little
visible smoke, the heat flux at the boom location from
the propane fires is approximately 60% of that from
liquid hydrocarbon fuel fires.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899