New Oil Skimmer Material Removes Floating Oil in Gulf Oil Spill
NEWS UPDATE: Abanaki's Fuzzy2™ material being used on a disk skimmer in
the Gulf picked up 56,000 gallons of oil in one day tripling the removal rate of
a standard disk without material.
CLEVELAND, Ohio—June 9, 2010—Abanaki Corporation said today that its patent-pending Fuzzy2™ material is proving highly effective at removing floating oil from the waters off the coast of Louisiana as part of the Gulf oil spill clean-up. The new material is being used on a disk oil skimmer and has triple the oil removal capacity of standard disk skimmer material.
Fuzzy2 material vs. plain drum
Abanaki's Fuzzy2 oil skimming material
at work in the Gulf oil spill
According to Abanaki president Tom Hobson, oil skimmers using the Fuzzy2 material are ideal for the core clean-up task in the Gulf, removing floating oil from water. Oil has been appearing that has tar-like qualities that make it more difficult to pick up in high quantities.
When oil is thick and sticky, he said, it tends to cause plugging problems with pumps and with skimmers. "Some oil skimmers are specifically designed to pick up that kind of oil, but the typical high volume oil skimmer at the spill site is not."
Unlike other oil skimmer disk materials, Fuzzy2 has a hairy surface that greatly increases its surface area, making it highly efficient at removing oil from the water's surface. It is a more durable version of Abanaki's original
Fuzzy Belt® material, which is used with belt oil skimmers to capture diesel,
gasoline and other light oils in waste water pits and groundwater monitoring
wells. However, the Fuzzy2 skimming material also dramatically increases pick up
rates of less viscous oil like the crude oil now threatening the Louisiana
coastline.
A disk skimmer uses a rotating disk to remove oil from water. Oleophilic (oil
attracting) material collects oil as the disk passes through the water, and
wiper blades scrape off the oil for collection. In this application, Abanaki's
Fuzzy2 material is attached to the surface of 56 30-inch diameter skimming
disks on a floating skimmer. Outfitted with Fuzzy2, the Disc Skimmer can remove up to 385 gallons of oil per
minute from the water's surface, more than three times its usual capacity.
Fuzzy2 material on a disk skimmer
on the water in Louisiana
Close up view of Fuzzy2 material
shows oil-grabbing hairs
Playing a role in the cleanup
of the Gulf oil spill disaster
The disk skimmer is under contract to a spill responder and is operated from
one of the scores of ships now deployed to skim oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The
leak is estimated to gush 5,000 barrels of oil each day following the explosion
and sinking of an oil rig that killed 11 workers April 21, 2010.
