French bring a slick operation to Seawork

Catamar

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Jumbo are high seas oil recovery vessels built by Ecoceane at Paimpol on the north coast of Brittany. Ecoceane works exclusively in research, development

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the building of ships designed for the collection of hydrocarbons

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solid waste at sea.

Ecoceane sees most oil spill response vessels as not primarily designed for clean-up operations. They are fitted with sweeping arms

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pumps connected to skimmers, sailing into an oil slick with their arms deployed to increase the oil thickness. Pumping the hydrocarbons with the skimmers induces emulsification between the water

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the hydrocarbons, with the emulsion containing up to 70% water. Such systems are limited to working in conditions below force 3. Use of the sweeping arms limits the speed of such ships to 1.5 knots in order to reduce the spreading effect of the bow wave. This limits intervention to calm sea states

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also reduces the ability of such ships to manoeuvre.

Ecoceane pollution control vessels do not have such limitations. A turbine pulls a stream of water through a tank equipped with a mesh to filter out solid waste. The stream is then separated into two. With the first stream, the turbine pumps away the clean water. In the second stream, surface water polluted with oil is channelled into a hydrocarbon separator where they are stored floating. Clean water within the separator joins the main stream

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is rejected through the turbine.

Catamar

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Jumbo can thus recover hydrocarbons from the sea at a rate of 100 m3 per hour. The vessels, which have a cruising speed of 15 knots, can work at 4 to 5 knots. Hyrocarbons are recovered

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stored without emulsion. Keel cooling allows the vessel to navigate safely in a hydrocarbon slick.