Listed here are the three categories of mechanical tools used to contain and recover spilled oil.
Booms: It's easier to clean-up oil if it's all in one spot, so containment booms act like a fence to keep the oil from spreading or floating away. Booms float on the surface and have three parts: a 'freeboard' or part that rises above the water surface and contains the oil and prevents it from splashing over the top, a 'skirt' that rides below the surface and prevents the oil from being pushed under the booms and some kind of cable or chain that connects, strengthens, and stabilizes the boom. Connected sections of the boom are placed around the oil spill until it is totally surrounded and contained.
Marichem Oil Booms 1 & 2 (for calm sea & open sea)
Skimmers: Once the oil is contained, it needs to be removed from the water surface. Skimmers are machines that suck the oil up like a vacuum cleaner, blot the oil from the surface with oil-attracting materials, or physically separate the oil from the water so that it spills over a dam into a tank. A big quantity of the spilled oil can be recovered with skimmers. The recovered oil has to be stored somewhere though, so storage tanks or barges have to be brought to the spill to hold the collected oil. Skimmers get clogged easily and don't work well on large oil spills or when the water is rough.
Sorbents: These are materials that soak up liquids by either absorption or adsorption. Oil will coat some materials by forming a liquid layer on their surface (adsorption). This property makes removal of oil from water much easier. This is why hay is put on beaches near an oil spill or why materials like vermiculite are spread over spilled oil. One potential problem of following this method is that once the material is coated with oil, it may then be heavier than water. Then, the oil-coated material sinks to the bottom where it could harm animals living there. Absorbent materials, very much like paper towels are used to soak up oil from the water's surface or even from rocks and animal life on shore that becomes coated with oil.
When it's time to clean up or remove oil from land or water, Marichem Oil Spill Absorbents are the best alternative. Convenient, lightweight and cost-effective, Marichem Oil Spill Absorbents absorb up to 25 times their own weight in petroleum products. Additionally, Marichem Oil Spill Absorbents are equally effective in soaking up petroleum-based solvents and paints, vegetable oils and other non-water soluble chemicals. The deployment of the absorbents is easy and saves time, money and resources. Marichem Oil Spill Absorbents do not absorb water, they float indefinitely, are wringable, dustless, unaffected by temperature, flame resistant and impervious to both rot and mildew.
They are non-toxic for the environment.
Marichem Oil Spill Absorbents are approved for use according to EU regulations.
The different types of Marichem Oil Spill Absorbents are the following:
- Pads 100/Pads 200
These pads are hydrophobic, they float on water and are used for absorbing petroleum-based fluids. Can be used on land or water and they are recommended for use on oil spills. These oil absorbents are always easily placed and retrieved. Our pads come into:
- Pads 100 (100 pieces of pads together)
- Pads 200 (200 pieces of pads together)
- Boom 510
Boom 510 absorbents are plastic net tubes filled with sorbent material. The boom is flexible, so that it can be adapted to fit in waste water or holding ponds. Connectors at each end allow the linking together of several booms to provide a continuous chain of protection, permitting containment and absorption of a spill. This oil absorbent boom may be left deployed almost indefinitely.
It is the best product for emergency spills on water. It absorbs petroleum-based fluids. Our boom comes in the following size:
Boom 510 (5 inch diameter)
- Roll 30 It is a sorbent material that can be used for lying over and covers the contaminated area. Furthermore, it is ready to be cut to any configuration or be torn into the appropriate size for use around industrial equipment to protect floors from oil or chemical leakage. It is great for over sprays next to leaky equipment.
- Pillow 10P
These are sorbent materials packed into open weave poly-mesh bags that allow passage of oil for more complete saturation. They are ideal for use in bilge areas of ships and also for absorbing oil spills in seawaters. There is a clip attached for easy use and removal.
- Pom Pom
Pom poms were developed for the recovery (adsorption) of crude oil. They are operative even in subfreezing conditions and can recover from 20 - 60 times their own weight, depending on the viscosity of the oil. They are the best solution in order to fight heavy oil spilled on the water and shorelines. An excellent oil adsorbent solution for recovery of viscous oils on piers, bulkheads, marsh and rocky shoreline environments. They are especially designed for viscous oil clean up and are non-toxic, non-scattering, wringable and inert. They have applications in both small and large spills and are cost-effective adsorbents.
