One of the most difficult oil spill situations! Film Beach Cleaning
The shoreline is covered with heavy oil. One common method is to use spades and buckets. That is time-consuming and oil is often trampled into the ground and can make even worse damage. Accidents can also happen when people are carrying buckets over slippery and rocky terrain. Instead, the oil can be sucked with the Salarollpump from the oil damaged area to a container at a safe place. Make sure there is a protection from placing the hand tight to the suction hose without an opening that will safeguard the hand from being damaged from the vacuum. The oil suction may look slow but the real capacity in the shown situation of pumping is approx. 1- 3 tons per hour. This is when oil is pumped from the spill area to a container without causing any further damage to the area in between. Often the logistics to handle the containers is a limiting factor. The pump and power pack can be transported by hand in rough terrain.
A practically full vacuum creates a strong suction and at the same time the speed can be adjusted for highest possible capacity. A low velocity prevents the high viscous oil from separating in front of the suction nozzle which disrupts the suction. Stones and other debris up to a size of 1 ½” can pass through the pump and the complete system without causing damage. In case of a blockage the pump can be reversed to clear the blockage. Disconnection of hoses with following cleaning process is therefore normally not needed. A high discharge pressure makes it possible to transport the oil sludge that is cleaned from the beach also long distances. To help transfer pumping some water can be fed into the suction nozzle and help reduce the friction that is caused by the contact between the sticky oil and the inside of the suction hose and the discharge hose. The pump does not mix the oil and the water and water is therefore immediately separated from oil and can be let out from a valve at the bottom of the container and taken back to the oil contaminated area. Another alternative is to reverse the pump and water can be pumped out from the container and disposed again at the spill area.
For the most heavy and sticky oil an accessory is available for injection of water into the suction nozzle. The water forms a film in between the oil and the inside of the hoses and reduces the friction up to approx. 75 % which increases the capacity, but above all it makes oil waste pumpable that would not at all be pumpable without the water injection. Only an amount of 3 – 5 % water is injected to the total volume of oil that is pumped.
Other situations where the Salarollpump system with its heavy suction and adjustable velocity can be used is different chemical spills, tank cleaning, both in oil industry and other chemical industry, skimmer offloading, sewage cleaning, pulp and paper industry, algae boom, submerged oil recovery, oil in ice, dredging of toxic sediments etc.
