Qualification of Oil-spill Treatment Products: Protocol for efficacy testing

Abstract

<p>[Introduction]: "Oil spills from offshore oil and gas production as well as ship traffic can have disastrous effects on the marine environment (Pezeshki et al., 2000, Helle et al., 2016). Hazardous short-term effects include toxic effects from the oil itself, reduction of light in the water column and therefore reduction of primary production from algae, as well as choking of local fauna such as marine mammals (Albers, 2003, NRC 2003, Penela-Arenaz et al., 2009). </p> <p>The use of dispersants can help in the mitigation of these acute effects by dispersing the oil through the water column, thereby breaking oil layers that have formed on the surface of the water close to the spill side (Brakstad et al., 2015). This effect can potentially increase the biodegradation rate of the spilled oil, reduces the risk of animals choking on the oil or starving due to low primary production (Hazen et al., 2010, Silva et al., 2015). </p> <p>However, dispersants can be hazardous to the environment if they themselves have harmful </p> <p>ecotoxicological properties (Rahsepar et al., 2016). Furthermore, dispersants do not reduce the amount of oil entering the environment and can add to the toxic effects of the spill underwater since dispersants and dispersed oil under the surface can still be hazardous for marine life (Rahsepar et al., 2016). </p> <p>In the UK, the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (Great Britain- Parliament, 2009) requires any substance to be licensed before it can be discharged into UK waters. Therefore, no dispersant can be used in the UK unless it has been approved by the appropriate UK authority, the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government, or the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (DoE(NI)). To be </p> <p>approved, a dispersant has to meet criteria regarding its efficacy (effectiveness) as well as toxicity. </p> <p>The presented method for testing dispersant efficiency was adopted from the ‘Baffled Flask Test’ (BFT) </p> <p>method used by the US EPA for the determination of the efficiency of oil spill dispersants (Venosa et al., 2002, Holder et al., 2015)."</p>