- Author
- Pelletier, E. | Brochu, C.
- Title
- Prototype, Mesoscale Simulator for the Study of Oil Weathering Under Severe Conditions. Environmental Studies Research Funds Report No. 086.
- Coporate
- Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Quebec, Canada
- Report
- Environmental Studies Research Funds 086, NOvember 1987, 62 p.
- Keywords
- weather effects | prototypes | environmental effects | sampling | temperature | crude oil | evaporation | biodegradability
- Identifiers
- weathering ratios; temperature variations and ice formaiton; microbial activity; resurfacing process; sedimentation
- Abstract
- As long-term, open-sea tests on oil weathering could be difficult and experiments in ice in the field even impossible to manage, we chose to develop a low-cost simulation tank with which to study the long-term fate and behavior of crude oil under severe weather conditions and also in the presence of ice cover. As a prototype, we constructed a protected, outdoor tank with the surface of the contained sea-water exposed to natural weather conditions but with the water column protected from extreme temperature variations. The design included such experimental features as a conical botton, sediment trap, deck and a small instrument room. This prototype represents a compromise between an indoor tank where physical parameters, such as air temperature and light exposure, can be fully controlled and an unprotected outdoor tank where climatic conditions are generally beyond control and with the possibility of sea-water overheating in summer or tank rupture because of freezing at low temperature. This report gives a full technical description of the prototype, mesoscale simulator and describes the results of three long-term weathering experiments conducted in 1986 and 1987 using chemically dispersed (Corexit 9527) crude oil. In the course of this work we also examined stability of oil dispersions at near- or sub-zero temperatures, and the relative role of evaporation and biodegradation in weathering of surface emulsions and water column oil.