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In terms of oil spill response, Þ re booms are a real specialty item and only three Þ rms sell them today. For its part, Elastec produces two types: a seawater cooled system and one other; a ceramic model. The former works well as sea water is pumped through the boom to protect the Þ re retardant fabric that covers the boom. Ceramic booms, while simpler to use, are not as robust. Not as much training is need- ed pre-deployment and the booms are less expensive. As one might expect in this type of business, however, they have about half the life expectancy of their water-cooled cousins.Elastec personnel and equipment more than proved their mettle dur- ing the recent Macondo Gulf oil spill. Donnie Wilson managed the con- trolled burning of oil for BP America with a team of employees and response contractors. The companyÕs Þ re boom systems were responsible for contain- ing and disposing of more oil than any other system during the burn opera-tion. In charge of all controlled burns, Wilson initially had three teams on site but that grew to 14 by the end of the crisis. In total, Elastec lit 411 Þ res and burned 300,000 barrels during continuous deployment of more than 80 days. WilsonÕs crew used ß oating booms to corral surface oil and burn it and the effort required 80 total sys- tems with 500 ft. booms; and 48,000 ft. of boom in total.Wilson explains the process of con- trolled burns by saying, ÒOil will not burn unless it is at least 1/8- ÅÓ in. thick. About one inch of oil burns every 10 minutes. We light the spills with hand-held igniters consisting of jelled fuel.ÓWhen it was all said and done, how- ever, watching all that petroleum go up in smoke inspired Wilson and his Þ rm to develop a high-volume drum skimmer that could collect more oil, rather than wasting it. Eventually, Elastec created a skim- mer that removes oil from the water with 90% efÞ ciency, a much higher rate than any other skimmer on the market. ThatÕs not surprising, since he and his team invented oil drum skim- mers, way back in 1989. In fact, the new skimmer collected an unheard of 4,670 gallons a minute. Elastec/ American Marine hopes to have units ready to deploy by the end of this year. Grooved Disc Skimmer: The Grooved Oil Disc Skimmer, so far only MN 35www.marinelink.com MN April2013 Layout 32-49.indd 35MN April2013 Layout 32-49.indd 354/3/2013 12:44:46 PM4/3/2013 12:44:46 PM
