Leaking Tank Experiments With Orimulsion™ and Canola Oil

During oil spill incidents involving damaged tankers, the amount of product released may be uncertain. Many accidents occur under adverse conditions so that determining the volume lost by sounding the tanks may not be practical. Thus, in the first few hours, initial volume estimates are often based on visual observations of the resulting slick, a notoriously unreliable approach. This problem is further complicated by oils that have special characteristics, such as Group V oils and Orimulsion™, which could result in a surface slick. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed a leaking-tank module for its oil weathering software, ADIOS2. Because the present version of the model is not designed for heavy oils, NOAA is undertaking a series of model-scale tests using releases of Orimulsion and canola oil. These tests are part of a joint research program by NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center on the behavior of heavy oil products. This report describes these tests and their possible application to new spill release models.