DISPERSANTS AND DISPERSANT APPLICATION EQUIPMENT
Chapter 7
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Most contingency plans specify mechanical recovery as the primary means of oil spill response; however, even for calm water conditions, there may not be enough equipment available to deal with large spills that spread quickly over a wide area. Mechanical recovery techniques also have well-known limitations in terms of weather and sea conditions. As a result, chemical dispersants are an important option in responding to spill emergencies and should be considered along with other techniques in planning response strategies.
The most important biological benefit of using dispersants is to prevent oil from stranding on sensitive shorelines. This can greatly reduce damage to coastal habitats. Dispersants remove oil from the surface of water, distributing it as small droplets into the water column where it is rapidly diluted by oceanic mixing and converted to harmless products by natural biodegradation processes.
Much of the following text describing how chemical dispersants work has been condensed from descriptions completed by SL Ross over the past several years and reported elsewhere in more detail [1,2,3]. Additional dispersant references can also be found at www.slross.com.
(Twenty pages of text and references followed by ten pages of dispersant application data listings)
