Final Report Summary - FORCE7 (High performance oil spill recovery system suitable to effectively operate in rough sea waters based on improved oleophilic/hydrophobic materials) Executive Summary:Accidental oil spills still occur in European and worldwide waters, causing huge disasters such as Haven and Exxon Valdez wreckages, or Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf Sea in 2010. In the last few years three of the largest spills in the world ever have occurred in Western Europe, letting alone the number of deliberate illegal “operational” discharges of oily waste from vessels happening daily which are responsible for the chronic oil pollution of our marine environment.The sea around us is by no means as heavily polluted as it was in the first half of the 20th century, while response activities to contain and recover spilled oil have not changed dramatically over the past 25 years.In line with current trends in offshore drilling, which are increasingly moving operations towards the arctic seas, FORCE7 aims to develop advanced new technologies for oil spill responding in extreme conditions, providing a sustainable and high-performing solution for oil pollution recovery in case of icy water and high swelling.FORCE7 approach is based on the development of advanced textile architectures in shapes of mops, exploiting the latest knowledge available from materials research and the full potential of CFD numerical modelling to provide cheaper, easier to deploy and more efficient oil slick recovery solutions.The new mops can be deployed astern from a tugboat and dragged to absorb the oil slick, or lifted and released vertically on confined spots. The mops are made by novel fibres with controlled oleo-phylic and water-phobic behaviour in order to absorb large quantities of oil and not water, put together with a special multilayer textile structure conceived to maximize collection of heavy oil in cold weather. Once the mops are saturated they are recovered onboard of the vessel and squeezed through a roller system. The oil collected is recovered and the mops are deployed again for another cycle. Compared to standard solutions, which are largely inefficient when sea conditions become severe, FORCE7 material solutions promise competitive advantages: having the possibility to increase the absorption characteristics, improving responding effectiveness and saving costs of equipment.The system has been tested in a confined tank to measure oil sorption performances, overcoming 92% oil recovery efficiency well above the initial objectives. The full-scale system has been verified with repeated dragging/retraction cycles confirming up to 66% decreasing of operational costs.Project Context and Objectives:Different technologies are already available for the removal of oil spilled in water after an accident, each with pros and cons and with applicability depending on the specific operation conditions (e.g. oil type, water conditions, etc.). Currently, there is no technology that can successfully recover spilled oil in dynamic ice typical of the Arctic and heavy seas, conditions often found in the extreme northern and southern regions of the globe where the exploitation of new oil fields is constantly increasing. Force 7 aims at developing an innovative oil spill recovery system for operation in rough sea conditions. The new system is based on the use of a system of interconnected mops to be deployed astern from a tugboat and dragged to absorb the oil slick. The mops are made by novel fibres with controlled oleo-phylic and water-phobic behaviour in order to absorb large quantities of oil and not water, put together with a special multilayer textile structure conceived to maximize collection of heavy oil in cold weather. Once the mops are saturated they are recovered onboard of the vessel, squeezed through a roller system; the oil collected is recovered and the mops are deployed again for another cycle. Traditional systems, in comparison, are characterised by lower performance in terms of oil recovery efficiency and cannot be used in harsh sea conditions, which are typically encountered in northern seas.S/T Objectives characterizing the project are:Fibrous materials:• To characterize the behaviour and performances of technical (PP based) and recycled natural fibres in terms of oleophilicity and hydrophobicity and resistance to harsh conditions (cold temperature, saltwater), including special surface treatments and different types of structures (nonwoven, net-like structures, rope-like structures, 3D structures); to develop effective production methodologies for PP-based modified fiber, including production of sub-micron fibers based on bicomponent technology and PO foam/fiber materials for oil recovery systems; Textile structures:• To develop advanced textile structures allowing optimized wettability, buoyancy and mechanical performance when operated ni water, allowing for increased efficiency in oil recovery and targeting increased reusability compared to conventional skimmers; to study production process scalability and sustainability up to industrial scale production in order to be able to produce the required quantities of materials requested to satisfy the demand generated by large oil spills;Oil recovery equipment:• To extend the State of the art and knowledge about behavior of oil recovery systems under extreme water conditions; to design and assembly of components in large scale oil recovery systems characterized, compared with conventional systems, by higher reusability, higher strength, higher absorbance, fastest working, higher economical sustainability and higher environmental friendliness; to achieve a significant increment of recovery efficiency and oil recovery rate for the full-scale equipment, thanks to the use of advance textile concepts, with target RE higher than 90% for al concepts and ORR which strongly depend from oil type and water conditions; to perform a field demonstration of full-scale oil recovery system for large water areas taking into account durability, regeneration, cost efficiency, easy deployment, extreme conditions; to achieve a cost saving of about 66% of operational and capital costs using the new mop system for oil recovery in heavy seas compared to recovery using containment booms.Project Results:Textile mop structure: The mop design has been developed in order to optimize use in cold seas where oils spilled behave as heavy oil grades: in particular, priority has been given to “mechanical” collection (high void net-like structure, which exploits high stickiness of heavy oil grades) instead of capillarity absorption (which becomes predominant with light oil grades).Each mop tail is composed of a four-layer 3D textile structure with specific design oriented to maximize the collection and release of heavy oils, thanks to a “multiple wing” configuration. Outer layers are made of a net-like crochet knitted structure, made of PE multifilament tape similar to synthetic grass grades tied with standard PP monofilament. This layer gives the required stiffness to the structure, avoiding folding while providing sufficient mobility and void grade. Inner layers are made of a net-like crochet knitted structure, where a special PP braid is tied with standard PP monofilament (red). The special PP grade filament section has been developed to provide high affinity with oil grades and high void grade, so that both heavy and light oils can be collected. The 4 layers stitched together with a high-strength tensioning belt providing sufficient mechanical resistance to be dragged on the water.The textile structure has been tested at small scale to evaluate performances in oil collection: as a result, it is worth of collecting 2 times its own weight when deployed on an oil slick, with oil recovery efficiency over 92%: this means about 92 litres of oil out of 100 litres of total liquid collected. Full-scale operability has been assessed via open sea trials, operating several dragging/retraction cycles with a set of interconnected mop skimmer tails. Also, advanced modeling tools has been applied to simulate buoyancy of the mop when dragged on the water: this activity made available a first model for deformable body simulation to be used with CFD software.Once fully upscaled at industrial level, the mop skimmer is likely to be composed of to a total amount of 4/5 interconnected textile tail, about 30 metres long and 0,3/0,4 metres wide, providing the same oil recovery efficiency. Target speed for dragging cycles is about 5 knots. Onboard equipment:The onboard equipment is composed of a rolling/squeezing unit, a telescopic arm to guide the mop tails offboard, and a collecting unit, from where the oil recovered can be pumped into a flexible tank offboard. The onboard equipment has been designed as compact as possible so that it can be installed at the side of the vessel and deploy a mop net behind it directly into the sea as per the conceptual image on the right. To keep the operation simple and versatile it was decided to build the prototype as an electrically powered unit. This means the machine can be controlled by a separate control station away from the machinery on the deck of the vessel. Whilst designing the equipment it was possible to integrate two design elements so that the prototype could be used for dual purpose in the market place: the solution was to incorporate a ‘Vertical Continuous Deployment’ (VCD) as well as the original concept ‘Horizontal non-Continuous Deployment’ (HnCD). The VCD is built in to the frame of the HnCD which can be removed and used separately if required. The advantages of the VCD can be summarised as follows: allows multipurpose functionality providing competitive advantage over competition in the market as a selling tool, can be used with an on board crane arm with a vessel of opportunity, reduces set up and deployment time for emergency spill response, uses looped mops for continuous skimming (potentially in conjunction with floating booms), provides smaller contact on the water surface so can be used in broken ice spots or closed small basins for static conditions. The final outcome of the Force7 project was the development and successful full-scale demonstration of a 15 metres long, 4 tails mop dragged on the sea in the Cardiff bay using a small fishing vessel, demonstrating as well the solution potential in terms of installation flexibility. Considering the trend in oil production, northern European seas will strongly benefit of this new technology: on the basis of the successful results of the original research project, the consortium is fully committed to a follow-up action one step further towards the market. It is estimated that proper prototype upscale and validation could bring Force7 system to be ready for service in 1 – 1,5 years.Numerical simulations:Numerical model has been developed capable of simulating the behaviour of the mop skimmer in water. The activities carried out were positioned at the very edge of actual state-of-art knowledge in CFD simulation, which is a robust methodology when considering interaction between one (or more) fluid and a rigid body but still lacks of reliable models for interaction with non-rigid bodies. To achieve a step forward in this respect, the work has been carried out in close collaboration with a CFD software provider, enabling the set-up of a promising model worth of further improvements. A wide set of simulation runs have been launched with an innovative approach based on the overset mesh technique, increasing system complexity gradually (increased number of mop elements): final results confirmed the capacity of predicting the mop behaviour in water, in particular buoyancy. Main step forward to improve the model developed should be mainly focused on the optimization of the use of computational resources solving unwanted complexities and refining the modelling technique adopted.Moreover, the description of the metocean conditions characterizing three reference spots in the ocean have been provided, representing key parameters describing the target operative conditions for the Force7 mop skimmer where actual technologies are largely unapplicable. To this extent, relevant spost have been selected thanks to the consortium expertise, and numerical models have been launched to characterize their main parameters along the whole year, as for example wave conditions, wind, currents, tidal data, bathimetry, ice conditions. The results can be used as boundary conditions in CFD simulations of the mop skimmer.Main foreground generated is summarized as follows:Result A: Oleophilic /hydrophobic synthetic fibers• Novel coextruded fibres topologies have been developed for the bulk incorporation of fillers in the fibre core in a way to provide long life and stable behaviour even in harsh environment and harsh service conditions. The focus concentrated on PP based polymers, developing suitable fibre grades and section geometries to enhance the oleophilic behaviourResult B: Recycled oleophilic /hydrophobic natural fibers• Several kinds of recycled natural fibres has been investigated at laboratory level characterizing oil sorption performances and mechanical properties. Despite these can be of interest due to the low environmental impact and some of them possess good sorption capacity, performances were not as good as those of the special PP fibres, therefore these were not developed to prototype scale.Result C: Nonwoven structures and mop construction for oil absorption• Different grades of PP-based nonwoven materials has been investigated at laboratory level characterizing oil sorption performances and mechanical properties. Surface chemical modification have been be also investigated. Despite nonwovens possess good sorption capacity, performances were not as good as those of the special PP fibres, considering also that structural integrity of the material suffers when stressed mechanically. Therefore nonwoven materials were not further developed to prototype scale.Result D: Force7 onboard equipment for oil spill responding• Dedicated equipment has been developed capable of releasing the mop tails in water astern of a boat, dragging them on the oil slick letting the fabric to absorb/collect oil, retracting the tails onboard and squeezing them to extract the oil collected. The equipment has been designed to fit different boat types, and is operated by a simple control unit that can be hosted in the driving cabin.Result E: Mop skimmer textile structure design based on rope-net multilayer fabric • Special textile structure has been developed for the mop skimmer, made of a four layer net-like fabric. This structure is capable of maximizing collection of heavy oils thanks to its net shape and tailored stiffness of the outer layers, while the inner layers provides sorption of lighter oil fractions (less viscous) thanks to a special rope-like structure made of special PP yarn with tailored filament section and treatment. It has been validated during full-scale demonstration session. Numerical model has been also developed capable of simulating its behaviour in water.Result F: Design of high-performance tensioning media for mop skimmer integration and operability• A special tensioner has been developed capable of withstanding the dragging forces during operations, acting as link between the mop skimmer and the onboard equipment. This element is key to ensure desired behaviour of the mop in water and The tensioner is made of special DYNEEMA grade fibres woven in strip form and stitched together with the four layers as described. It has been validated during full-scale demonstration session.Potential Impact:Main impacts:The development of deep sea resources exploitation is moving maritime operations to low temperature and harsh wave sea conditions typical of the polar and sub-polar regions, with many unknown factors and limited response capacity due to the fact that response activities to contain and recover spilled oil have not changed dramatically over the past 25 years. This represents a strategic impact for the project, and a profitable business potential for European SME industry, particularly technical textiles producers and SMEs in the business of the production of equipment for oil spill recovery as well, with an expected payback of about 3 years after the end of the project.Concerning oil spill responding capacity, the validation activities showed that the Force7 technology performances in terms of oil recovery efficiency are well beyond the actual reference technologies available on the marketplace. Infact, measured oil/water ratio during collection is over 92%, while oil boom technologies are generally classed as 20% efficient on the basis of several studies conducted over the years. It is worth noting that these figures are hard to compare exactly due to the completely different nature of oil spill response techniques. In general manufacturers of skimming systems will declare ‘name plate’ capacities which are the maximum possible oil recovery rate based on perfect conditions. These are only really possible in a controlled test environment such as the small scale test which was done for this project. When comparing figures other things must be taken into consideration such as comparing the technique and efficiency of the technique. For oil spill response this is defined as the ‘oil encounter rate’. To calculate this, a skimmer must be presented with the right oil layer thickness as much as possible during an oil spill. For static skimming devices which rely on booms to collect the oil this means that speed is difficult to attain due to the fact that booms will only be in operation at around 1 knot. The main advantage of Force 7 is that is works independent of oil booms. This means it can manoeuvre quickly at speeds up to 5 knots – 5 times faster than booms. Turning quicker and travelling faster up and down the oil slicks will ensure that oil encounter rate is maximised (actual estimation at 5 knots for the upscaled mop skimmer is about 10klitres/hour). The prototype for the full scale demonstration was only 15m long x 15cm width x 4 elements. The final upscaled version for commercial sales and operations can be up to 100m long x 0.5m wide x 5 elements. The below table outlines the performance calculations based on field test results and small scale tests. On the basis of the above figures, it is possible to confirm that impact on oil spill recovery operations costs is high, enabling reduction of up to 66% the operational costs. Considering 18h/356days operations, about 65 Mln litres of oil could be recovered every year by a single ship (17 Mln USA gallons, more than 410 k barrels), being worth to reprocess oil for a value of about 20Mln/Euro/year (average price of oil on April 2015 is about 50 Euro/barrel).Dissemination actions:Concerning the dissemination of results, targeted actions have been undertaken during the project; the website was constantly updated with news on the project-related key activities such as participation to fairs and conferences. A poster has been developed for the Force 7 project, to be used as communication material within fairs and public events. International events have been attended such as (detailed dissemination plan is included into Deliverable D7.5): • Oceanology International 2014 + Spillex, London (UK), 11-13 March 2014• IOSC 2014 (Internation Oil Spill Conference), Savannah (Georgia, USA) , 5-8 May 2014• Euratex TFE meetings , Brussels (BE), 19 June 2014 and 24 November 2014• SMAU Milano, Milan (ITA), 22-24 October 2014• Nanoitaltex 2014, Biella (ITA), 12 November 2014• UK Spill AGM, Donington Park (UK), 01 February 2015• Interspill 2015, Amsterdam (NL), 24-26 March 2015• Techtextil 2015, Frankfurt (DE), 04-07 May 2015A video story of the project has been recorder during the full-scale demonstration session with the support of the Euronews crew. The story shows the project achievements describing also how the objectives were reached.A public article appeared on the Horizon Magazine thanks to the participation of a journalist at the demonstration event.Exploitation of results:In line with the rules agreed, SME partners confirmed their commitment in pursuing actions oriented to protect their exploitable results, as listed below:• Result 1: Novel synthetic fibers with hydro-fobic oil-filic treatment/composition for oil absorption• Result 2: Recycled natural fibers with hydro-phobic oil-philic treatment for oil absorption + mop skimmer textile structure design based on rope-net multilayer fabric• Result 3: Nonwoven structures and mop construction for oil absorption + design of high-performance tensioning media for mop skimmer integration and operability • Result 4: Force7 onboard equipment for oil spill respondingIn particular, basic rules intend to grant access to a given result to other partners at fair and reasonable conditions (for example, for free for a given amount of time to be decided in separate agreements), so that the exploitation of each result is ensured and bottlenecks are avoided. Licensing to third parties is also foreseen, if a partner cannot ensure full market coverage with its own production capacity. Patenting will be evaluated by each partner if applicable.Actions will be undertaken after the end of the project by each single owner, also on the basis of the possible actions to be implemented in parallel towards product upscaling and market penetration. To this, dissemination events already planned after the end of the project like Interspill 2015 and Techtextil 2015 will play a major role.List of Websites:www.force7.euProject Coordinator contacts:Federico Meneghellofederico.meneghello@dappolonia.it+390251800562D’Appolonia S.p.A.Via Martiri di Cefalonia, 2, 20097 San Donato Milanese (Milan)Italy Related documents final1-force7-publishable-summary.pdf
