| abstract |
An oil absorbing boom to be deployed across the effluent stream from a separator or settling basin on the downstream side of oil transfer operations at a seaport for the purposes of collecting and removing from the water thin films of oil such as those which sometimes escape from oil spill booms surrounding a tanker at a loading dock, and comprising an elongated flat tubular sleeve of polymer netting enclosing within itself a plurality of flat elongated slabs or bats of ''''picker-lap'''' fibrous polymer material such as blown polypropylene film arrayed end to end within the tubular sleeve and sufficiently spaced apart to permit accordion folding of the sleeve at fold lines between adjacent bats, with a tension-bearing rope or cable being positioned within the tubular sleeve alongside the successive plurality of absorbent bats to reinforce the structure for carrying its own weight or impact loads placing it in tension between its ends. Alternatively, a continuous, wide, flat sheet of extremely porous hydrophobic foam material such as fully reticulated polyurethane foam, suspended from overlying buoyant flotation material, is formed into a similar elongated boom deployed across a floating oil film or into a continuous endless belt repeatedly cycled through the floating oil. After trapping oil within the porosities or interstices of the boom or belt material, it is squeezed between pinch rolls to force out and recover the trapped oil, and the device is thus capable of successive repeated deployment cycles of oil recovery operation. |