f Controlled Burn Operations, Gulf of Mexico, Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon accident lived in USA at Gulf of Mexico is one of the biggest oil spill and cause huge amount of environmental pollution but this accident also create a big opportunity to test “In-Situ” burning application in real life. In-Situ burning which means burning of oil in place depends on many factors requires some special equipments and controls. Basics of Controlled Burning; In order to succeed a successful burning there are several factors that has to be taken in to consideration. These are Physical and chemical properties of oil, either the oil are already ignited or un-ignited, Nature & Magnitude of spill, Location, Wind and Sea conditions, Visibility, Vegetation and Debris. Tools and Tactics: Burning oil requires the right combination of conditions – oil type and sea conditions. When conditions are right burning can remove vast amounts of oil from the marine environment Fire boom booms contain the oil and keep it under control during burning. Ignition systems are of the essential tools used for igniting oil efficiently and safely. Besides these there must be good vessel and aircraft support in order to maximize the amount of oil destruction. Tank Tests, Field Trials & Actual Spill Burns Fire booms have been developed and tested over twenty years. During these tests many information’s obtained about performances of fire booms and environmental effects of in-situ burning but none of these small scale tests were not as experienced in Gulf of Mexico. Deepwater Horizon Blowout During DWH blowout mainly three types of fire booms used; these are Elastec American Marine production water cooled Hydro Fire boom, and Ceramic boom and Applied Fabrics production Pyro Boom. In these operations more than 400 burns were conducted, of which 376 were counted as successful burn, eliminating between 220.000 bbl and 310,000 bbl oil. Conclusion; Over the last twenty years many of the manufacturers have tried to produce fire resistant booms. As a result of these efforts it is understood that burning oil is definitively a proven response option. Many lessons learned about boom performances; rigid construction booms (first generation) exhibited a poorer wave response; this is due to their construction and lower buoyancy to weight ratios while second generation booms held oil better in wave conditions. Second generations booms are also easier to handle, less time spend deploying, recovering and repairing equals more oil burnt.